Saturday, February 25, 2012

Garden Design

Garden Design

Garden Design

Garden design should always be done to scale by a professional with a sound understanding of geometry and experience in hardscape plans. This is because so many plantings are installed around horizontal surfaces areas such as patios and pools, and because vegetation in general seems to go hand in hand with the decorative aspects of custom fountains and outdoor buildings. A good working knowledge of plant science helps as well—although a formal degree in botany is not required. What is required is an understanding on the part of the residential landscaper that true garden design calls for a great deal more than colorful flowers to add experience and value to Houston outdoor living.

Water Fountains

Water Fountains





Water Fountains

The Murmur of Water
Outdoor water fountains can transform you and your environment

The mesmerizing sound. The transparent movement. The cool, fresh sensation. Outdoor water feature are a treat for the senses—auditory, visual and tactile. For millennia, we had placed moving water around our homes because water works some kind of magic on us, soothing us to our very essence.

Outdoor fountains make a graceful statement about a home by creating a pleasing and welcoming ambiance. They can be used to enhance the architectural style of a house. Outdoor fountains are especially beneficial in these technological times, serving as camouflage for traffic noise, humming air-conditioning units and thrashing lawn mowers. They can be designed to be played in, thus providing cool relief on a hot day—perfect for Houston.

Types of Outdoor Water Fountains
Outdoor fountains come in a multitude of shapes, sizes and styles. They can invoke Roman classicism, a Hill Country natural pool,
modern garden or a Charleston garden. Fountains can be placed in a quiet corner of the yard or serve as the centerpiece along a curving front drive. Additional features can be added, such as a cascading waterfall or a contemporary wall fountain.

Houston Swimming Pools


Houston Swimming Pools
Swimming Pools


Custom Swimming Pools

Swimming pools complete and enhance a great landscape design
Within a
landscape design plan, the biggest, and often the most impressive, hardscape is a luxury swimming pool. Equal parts lifestyle, enjoyment and elegance, a luxury swimming pool is the choice of a homeowner whose goal is to maximize leisure time and to create a backyard retreat or family center. Luxury swimming pools are technically and artistically sophisticated, conceptually exciting and one of a kind—thus helping to further distinguish the overall property from all others.

Why Have a Luxury Swimming Pool?
A luxury swimming pool is a necessity for any upscale home. It finishes off the design of the house because it is a natural extension of your indoor living space. When it comes time to sell your home, it is an expected amenity. Additionally, luxury swimming pools and high end landscaping are great for entertaining, formal or informal, adults or children. They provide healthful exercise; swimming has long been recognized as one of the kinder activities on joints and ligaments. In the Houston landscape, they provide a natural place to cool off during our long summer season. In other words—good for your home, good for you and good for fun.

Patios and Outdoors

Patios and Outdoors
Patios and Outdoors




Hardscape surfaces bring structure and interest to your garden landscape

Hardscapes—the non-plant material of your landscape design—play a critical part of any garden landscape project. When combined with green, growing plants, they create an outdoor living environment that invites you, your family and friends to come in, to sit and enjoy, to meander and explore.

Types of Hardscapes
Pool decking. This hardscape runs from the
swimming pool to the house, connecting these two major areas. Popular choices are flagstone, brick or wood. Special attention needs to be paid to using non-slippery surfaces since it is part of a wet area.

Outdoor Fireplace. Both functional and aesthetic, fireplaces provide warmth in the fall and winter, as well as add ambiance to the garden. The look of this particular hardscape can range from a grand to simple.

Wooden decks and arbors. Although most people attach them to the house, decks can also be freestanding. Other popular hardscape structures made of wood include arbors, pergolas, loggias and gazebos that create a decorative entrance or frame a focal point. They are attractive ways to make a strong statement or point to a sense of something happening on the other side of a fence.

Luxury Landscaping

Luxury Landscaping
Luxury Landscaping




Luxury Landscaping

A luxury landscaping includes everything people typically associate with an upscale home. Both organic and inorganic elements work together to create a sense of refinement, and functionality is designed with maximum creature comforts in mind. Home entertainment and private events also play a major role in luxury landscaping, because most clients who invest the large sums of money required for this high-end service are looking to share the experience of their homes with honored guests and close family members that they invite to their estate for special events, removed from the busy crowds and jostle of the nightlife abroad.

Custom Swimming Pool Design
Virtually every luxury landscape has a custom swimming pool that has been specifically designed to support multiple aesthetic elements and scaled proportionally to its surroundings. The shape and size of the pool should complement the geometry and symmetry of custom home architecture, and it should also aesthetically blend with surrounding outdoor structures and work in harmony with any organic elements that surround it.

Houston Landscaping

Houston Landscaping
Landscaping




The Green Scene:
Planning and Planting Your Houston Landscaping

Just as the right frame showcases your favorite work of art, a well-designed landscape shows off your house to its best effect.

The green, growing garden surrounding your home—sets the tone, creates an ambiance, invokes certain emotions. Its purpose is to provide continual pleasure for you, your family and your guests. To get to this point, the best landscapes begin with an overall plan that addresses your wants and desires, your financial outlay and the required ongoing maintenance.

Houston Landscaping - In the Beginning
Like the architect for your house, a Houston landscaping
designer or architect develops an encompassing plan. They will design for and around natural features such as surface terrain and drainage systems
, types of soil, and the amount of sunlight and shade your yard receives. They’ll take advantage of your view—and if you don’t have one, they can help create points of interest. All of which means you maximize your enjoyment, avoid long-term problems and minimize any naturally-occurring disadvantages.

Houston Landscape Maintenance Texas

Houston Landscape Maintenance Texas

Home » Landscape Maintenance




Landscape Maintenance

Alive and Thriving
A regular, well-thought-out landscape maintenance plan is the best way to protect your outdoor investment

A beautiful yard says something about the homeowners. Whether subtle or dramatic, a well-kept, well-loved yard sends a special message. Just as important—from the street, a lovely landscape can make a house stand out, which is important when it comes time to sell it.

After spending a lot of money on your residential landscape installation, it only makes sense to protect it and make sure it develops as designed. And that’s where a landscape maintenance program comes in.

Landscape Designers in Houston

Landscape Designers in Houston
Home » Landscape Designers in Houston




Landscape Designers in Houston

There are many landscape designers in Houston. Some specialize in basic lawn and tree services. Others offer basic softscape design such as gardens, flower beds, and decorative hedgerows. As essential as these basics are, we feel it is important to offer a much more comprehensive range of Houston landscaping services. Only by treating the yard as an outdoor living environment equal in comfort and diversity to home interiors can we truly ensure lasting curb appeal and maximum return on investment for the money our clients invest in our work.

We take a personal approach to each client. Since the entire property is ultimately destined to become a place where people can literally live outdoors, we must base each Houston landscaping master plan on the lifestyle of the individual client. This involves a blend of listening and professional guidance. We sit down and listen closely to what each client desires to ultimately see take shape in his or her yard. Throughout this process, we offer professional insights into how to make these desires take concrete form.

Houston Landscape Design

Houston Landscape Design
Have you cut out and collected pictures of great landscaping ideas, but now wonder how to actually put them onto your own property? Have you wanted to capture the vision of a stately French mansion on your property in Houston, Texas? Would you like to know whether the plants you’ve admired in European and New England countryside estates will grow on the Texas coastal plains?

If so, you need the services of an experienced residential
landscape professional. A competent
landscape designer or landscape architect takes you through the entire design development process, which includes: consultation and program development, analysis of the existing site, conceptual landscaping planning, construction documentation and permitting. And then on towards turning the vision in your mind from virtual reality to actual reality.

Houston Landscaping « exteriorworlds

Houston Landscaping « exteriorworlds