01/23/12

New Landscapes for 2009

2009 was a strange year for me. During the winter there was nothing but pessimism and all the experts had agreed that the Great Depression had started. Although strangely at Christmas all of the stores were full and there were no sales that I could see. So anyway, I hired only one person for the summer and settled into the idea of weeding my yard and enjoying my first summer off in 23 years. April and May were serene, I did quite a few designs, and then Summer hit. All of a sudden everybody wanted their landscape done. All the landscapers were running around trying to find employees in the middle of summer and we worked through one of the coldest summers in 16 years. For the most part I did mostly designs and fairly large Commercial properties this year but I do want to show case some of the work that my clients did this year. As a sidebar, I was in a commercial called "Curb appeal" for the Realtor's Association, where I commented on getting your house ready for sale. I think it was pretty good but Hollywood is definitely not one of my choices in life.

Renovation

I met these clients two maybe even three years ago and they were knee deep into renovating their house. I drove up to a crazy pink house with no interior walls and met two highly artistic people kind of lost in the middle. But they knew more or less what they wanted and proceeded to create the most luxurious house I have ever been in. I drew up a fairly ambitious plan that recreated the designs of the 1920's but used more modern plants. And the Mrs. took a week off from work and put in the front yard. I loved how she wrote back that it was a little harder  to do than she had thought. When you look at the pictures, although there is a couple bricks angled wrong, you couldn't tell that she wasn't a professional.

Reno 1 Who knew styrofoam was so pink	Reno 2 Complete Can you believe this is the same house. From the start they wanted to recreate the original 1920's house so the design sticks fairly close to an art deco theme, with curves, contrasting colours, and more traditional prairie hedges	Reno 3 close up Once the hedge has filled in it will be a constant foil to the perennials through out the summer. Should look stunning.	Reno 4 side view These two are unbelievably great designers, and they did a suberb job.

Creating a side yard

Eventually you just get tired of looking at a wasted space. In this side yard we just fixed up a dead area where the grass was continually dieing and made it useful.

Side Area 1 With the side of the house your absolute concern must always be drainage. Water must drain away from the house and then either to the front or the back	Side Area 2 Even with a small area I truly believe that you should create a plan. It will save you from leaving a giant pile of dirt or sod on the driveway with a sign saying "Free for the taking".	Side Area 3 5 oz landscape fabric should only be used where no plants are going. Otherwise you should be using thinner 3 0z or less fabrics.	Side Area 4 An interesting effect of using limestone is that it cooled the area down. In large areas I like to use a couple of different sizes. It makes for a more interesting looking result.

A Summer Backyard Project

I count these two as one of the nicest people I have ever met. They hired me in spring to create an interesting design that they could build over the summer. So I created a visual garden complete with a small get-a-way patio and waterfall. And in the front a shared garden design with the neighbour. I was to put in the waterfall and they were going to do the rest. I made sure that I left an extra week open for them though but they blew me out of the water with again an amazingly perfect professional job.

Summer Project 1 In some of the newer sub divisions the front yards are often quite small. By having a shared design your yard looks quite nice as you drive up to it and looks more put together	Summer Project 2 A newer design concept coming through this year is planting in layers. It is a design style that works well with smaller yards because it allows for diversity yet still gives structure to the yard	Summer Project 4 Both of them did an awsome job on their brick work and retaining walls. Each block was perfectly level and the drainage of the patio was an exact 2 degree slope.	Summer Project 5 I was quite proud of my little waterfall and 20' stream. It took some time to get it just right. A problem is that a lot of the common stones used in waterfalls are no longer available so you have to be a little creative now.	Summer Project 6 What I liked about this one was that I made a path across the stream. Much more difficult than you would think.

 

Front yard Changes

This was a typical home. Over the years a new little section is added, a new patio, a different coloured retaining wall, an added  flower bed, and after all of that work it doesn't come together like you had imagined that it would. In this front yard we brought together all of the different elements and tied everything together into a cohesive whole.

Front Yard Changes 1 When visiting once you park your car it would be nice to have a sidewalk to the door	Front Yard Changes 2 The front door looks unused and has a patio that is a different shape and colour to anything else in the yard.	Front Yard Changes 3 The new design guides you and your eye to the door and unites the three different flower beds together	Front Yard Changes 4 The new patio is now surrounded with flowers and shrubs that will be very nice to sit out during the summer. The bark chip now unites all of the different colours and materials into a cohesive look.