Home Improvement

Landscaping your home is no small task, but that is not to say that it can’t be fun and rewarding as well. Assuming you have done your homework, made a landscape plot, a sound budget, and an affordable shopping list, it is time for your last step before you get down to the fun work; it is time to get your landscape supplies.

You always need the right tool for the job, and that statement holds especially right when applied to landscaping work. But before you run out and buy a tool for every conceivable landscaping application, take the time to study your landscape plot to make sure you only buy items that you will really need. Further, if you utilized landscaping software to help you make your landscape design you may have a shopping list function that is part of the software package. If so then making your list of landscape supplies could be as simple as clicking a printer icon!

Different designs require different landscape supplies, but there are a few items that you are nearly certain to need. Landscape fabric is a breathable layer of sheeting that acts as a base for areas where you are not trying to grow plants, grass or flowers, such as mulch or stone covered areas. The landscape fabric acts as a barrier that allows water to drain through it, but also prevents weeds and other undesired plants from growing.

The tools of the landscaping trade can be as varied as the projects themselves, but no list of landscape supplies would be complete without a few of the most basic staple items. Shovels, pruners, hoes, rakes, wheelbarrows, and trowels are must have items for any landscape project.

Additional supplies that you will likely need are things like grass seed, fertilizer, sprinklers, mulch, stones, plants, flowers, and shrubs. Add to that your basic lawn care items, such as a lawnmower, weed trimmer, and edger, and you have the basic landscape supplies you need to tackle most basic projects and maintain your work after it is completed.

Ultimately, the list of landscape supplies that you will need will be defined by the project you are undertaking and the land on which you have to work. A rolling property with natural tiers can make your job quite a bit simpler, and your list of landscape supplies is sure to reflect that. But, a flat property with small in the way of defining characteristics will require much more work and materials to bring it to life. Naturally, if your landscape design includes things like lighting, water features, and pathways, the size of your landscape supply list can jump exponentially.

When it comes time to buy your landscape supplies there are several options you may wish to entertain. The obvious choice is to shop one of the large home improvement stores that dot the current retail landscape. Not only do these huge box stores have a wide selection and competitive prices, they also have helpful staff members who can answer your questions and get you off on the right foot.

Another option is to buy your supplies directly from a company that specializes in landscape supplies. Mulch, plants, stones, and pavers are just a few of the items that specialty dealers can provide, and they can often deliver those items to your doorstep at a competitive price as well. Lastly, your local landscape contractors may have excess supplies from their professional jobs, and they may be willing to part with those items at a deep discount. But no matter which direction you turn, remember that the best way to save money is to buy only what you need, so let your landscape plot dictate your list of landscape supplies; and then get to work and have fun!

There are many different ways you can make use of a landscape stone, they come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors and are also available in different price categories. So for every home owner there is a landscape stone that will fit his needs.

A car size landscape stone

Car size sounds a small bit to huge but when you have a large yard and you want to prevent unauthorized access by vehicles, one very large landscape stone can do the trick. You can also use a group of landscaping stones for the same job. You should be aware that it is posible that neighbours can have rights of way and if you place these kind of large stones in tghat spot it is possible that you have a problem so always question around before you place such a landscape stone.

Uncluttered landscaping

Using one landscape stone as a feature point in your yard gives a uncluttered look and a clean appearance. but you can also make a choice for the use of many landscape stones as stepping stones or as a separation between plants. Stepping stones are a wonderful way to have a natural appearance and it makes it easy to weed and do other maintenance jobs without getting your feet dirty. Landscape stones as a separation of different kind of plants also give a natural uncluttered feel to the yard.

Outline planting areas with landscape stones

To make isolated flower beds from the rest of the yard you can also use landscape stones. You can make beds by using ancient stones from a wall or new stones that you can buy in any garden store. when you use two layers you can divide an area of the yard and keep it isolated from the grass or the drive way. you need to find landscape stones that will fit your needs be because there is a landscape stone for every purpose in many different shapes and sizes there will be no problem.

Use a complementing or contrasting landscape stone

It depends on your taste, the shape and color of your outdoor living space, the size of your yard and the type of yard you want to have what kind of landscape stone you need to buy. Some people prefer it if their landscape stone stand out as a huge feature point with a contrasting color. Other people like it if the landscape stone they have chosen seems to disappear and naturally fits in when it is place in to place. They often choose a color that blends in the yard and complements the house.

In this natural way of landscaping fits also a walkway of landscape stones, you can fit them together like a huge puzzle and make a gorgeous natural walkway around and through your flower beds. It depends on the kind of landscape stones you choose if the surface will be rough or smooth, rough stones are much less slippery and this can be a better choice in areas where it rains a lot or if the path is near a pond.

As you can see there are many landscaping thoughts for the use of a landscape stone or stones.

Modernism, in the context of landscape design, is a result of forms and functions that reflect the need for outdoor living spaces that enhance contemporary lifestyles. As Garrett Eckbo, one of the central figures in modern landscape architecture, said, landscape design is the “arrangement of environments for people.”

Contemporary garden design tends to focus on scale as opposed to formal landscape designs that are based on axial relationships. It also foregoes the more classic landscape design forms and larger scale from Greek, Roman, and classical architecture traditions. This design motif became well loved in the 1950′s baby boom, particularly in California where weather and lifestyle was very conducive to this innovative style.

In modern landscape design, boundaries between areas of color, textures and shapes are undefined-or conversely, sharply defined. Color and composition make the emotional response. Combining freshness and flair, these designs use dramatic geometric shapes to make a point of view that is fluid and natural. Water and light are often used, as in artfully-lit outdoor water fountains, to enhance the sensual loveliness and liveliness. The designs are arresting, both close up and far away.

Form and Function in Modern Landscape Design

As the maxim says, form follows function. Modern landscape design is an aesthetic that shows only what is necessary while often leaving surfaces exposed. The simplicity of modern design reveals itself in that every form has a function, even when that function is merely to engage the senses.

It is possible, sometimes desirable, to use modern design techniques without making a high-tech look. That is, to make use of horizontal and vertical planes that manufacture a modern sculpture effect-and let colors and plantings evoke a warm, welcoming feel. It is that juxtaposition-hard and soft, linear and non-linear, energetic and restrained-that is the essence of modern landscape design. “Less is more” is the modern landscape design mantra. A huge plant palette is not necessary. Rather, it is how plants, materials, and textures are used and mass them together that make the contemporary effect.

The architecture of the house needs to be carefully considered when using a contemporary garden design. If the house is bold, the grounds need to be strong also.
The home and landscape can be tied together through selective use of plantings or the intelligent placement of a hardscape feature, such as an organic approach to the front door.

Using Today’s Technology in Your Modern Landscape

Naturally new technologies in building materials are a huge component of modern landscape design, which can mean a new approach using ancient materials or a new approach using new materials. Often, it is the contrast of material usage that suggests modernism.

Concrete, with its sturdiness and malleability, has won a firm place in contemporary garden design. Its cool, gray color alone establishes its credibility. Its uses run the gamut from flooring to columns to stark, amorphous benches. In addition to concrete, advances in steel and glass technologies, plus construction methods, can be even further exploited within the modern landscape design.

Often materials, such as stone, metal, plastics, steel and glass, are left in an exposed or raw state. Part of the beauty of these materials derives from their interplay with nature-the way steel rusts to a warm, burnt look, for instance.

The Spaces of Modern Landscape Design

Landscape themes such as English, Asian, Zen gardens, natural, Japanese or modern identify not only your property but also your tastes and style. Color, form, line, scale, and texture are your means of expressing those landscape design preferences.

Your choices can be demonstrated in the plants and hardscapes you choose. Beauty can be a maple imported from Japan. It can also be the wild grass native to the Texas coastal plains. You may have outdoor works of art to show in your landscape. Or you might use a stream that ends in a waterfall as an ever-changing sculpture of sound and movement. Landscape lighting is another crucial tool of contemporary garden design as it makes ambiance and lets you delight in your landscape night and day.

Other uses of space in contemporary designs include:

• Outdoor rooms for living. These living areas, in effect, make your home larger. They also serve to make transition areas that connect the indoor and outdoor spaces. In this regard, this style is similar to a Mediterranean landscape design with its underlying principle that the outdoor living area should be just as enjoyable and functional as the home’s interior.

• Outdoor kitchens. The center of outdoor entertainment, outdoor kitchens provide a natural gathering place. Their design should complement both the house and the landscape. Above all, their design should be functional.

• Luxury swimming pools. When designed from a modern viewpoint, luxury swimming pools are anything but a dull rectangle or kidney-shaped pool. They become sophisticated and exciting, eye-catching and mesmerizing. Often, you can combine them with an outdoor water fountain that eliminates some redundancies while adding vitality to your overall design.

Thoroughly Modern

Modern landscape design is even more appropriate today than it was 50 years ago. Jeff Halper with Exterior Worlds says, “Contemporary garden design has gotten only better with time. With today’s busy lifestyles, there is less time for gardening. Also, we need to use our gardens for multiple functions these days-sanctuary, entertainment, a place for children to play safely. Modern landscape design addresses all these wants and needs.”

Robert Irwin, the landscape architect of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, puts it this way: “…maybe the world is an art form [and] the gardening of our universe” reveals our participation in that work of art.

Landscape architecture speaks for itself. You can see it in professionally-designed residential properties, public parks and playgrounds, parkways and golf courses. The purpose of landscape architecture is to make spaces that are functional and gorgeous. Residential landscape architects plot the location of flowers, shrubs, and trees, and the arrangement of hardscape elements, such as outdoor water fountains, arbors and gazebos, and luxury swimming pools. They are also charged with designing and plotting landscapes that suit the natural environment and conditions.

Landscape Architects: Background

Who can deliver landscape design? To become a landscape architect usually requires a bachelor’s or master’s degree in landscape. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are two undergraduate professional degrees: a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) and a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture (BSLA). Typically, these degrees entail four or five years of study in design, construction techniques, art, history, and natural and social sciences.

For landscape architects seeking advanced degrees, there are two routes. Those who hold undergraduate degrees in landscape architecture can earn their Masters (MLA) in two years. If you hold an undergraduate degree in a field other than landscape architecture and want to go into landscape architecture, the MLA usually takes three years of full-time study.

In 2007, 61 U.S. colleges and universities offered 79 undergraduate and graduate programs in landscape architecture that were accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

The Steps

Working with home architects, surveyors, engineers and contractors, landscape architects help determine the best arrangement of the property’s elements. Landscape architects, in collaboration with these professionals, make detailed plans indicating new topography, vegetation, walkways, and other landscaping details, such as outdoor kitchens, gate placement and other decorative features.

In the preliminary stages, landscape architects first study the project as a whole. They consider the wants and needs of the homeowner and the available budget. They analyze the natural elements of the site, such as the climate, soil, slope of the land, drainage, and vegetation; observe where sunlight falls on the site at different times of the day and different times of the year; and assess the effect of the existing neighborhood, roads, walkways, and utilities.

The next step in the process is the conceptual design phase that develops out of the meeting notes, site analysis, program of uses, and the architect’s experience. At this conceptual level, a landscape architect conveys the overall design intent, such as the general use areas and their sizes, material choices, irrigation systems, drainage systems, lawn areas, and plantings. An overall cost study is developed from the conceptual landscaping design as well.

Once you have agreed on the overall design intent, sizes of use areas, general material selections and their applications, you are ready to start the landscaping design development and construction phase. The documentation for this phase includes landscaping design drawings for permitting, drawings to convey final design intent, and construction documents, which include specifications for materials and their installation.

These drawings may be accompanied by a full package of additional drawings to include an existing site survey, elevation plot, a plot for tree disposition and tree preservation, landscape planting plot, landscape lighting plot, and construction details for the above plans.

1. Why landscaping picture?

Most often we would have a picture in our mind telling us how exquisite and different we want our landscaping to be done when compared to our neighbors. But, it would not be as easy to clarify it to another person; why not a professional landscaper himself? When you go through various landscaping pictures, you get that clear-cut defining ability and you can elaborate as to what exactly you are looking for. Even if you have no notion about how the landscaping needs to be done, these pictures would give fantastic inspirations to proceed further. Seldom do people have practical and suitable thought of landscaping when they are doing it new. So when you are choosing to renovate your landscaping activity next, ensure that you look for various pictures suiting what you have in mind.

2. Professional landscaper and landscaping pictures

Always ascertain that, but specialized is the landscaper you have chosen, at the very outset, he would show you different landscaping pictures. This would help you in knowing how the landscaper has an thought for the look of your house once the activity is completed. Such pictures would help you in choosing the apt landscaper for having your job done as the picture they manifest would give you more information about them, such as their imagination and what work they plot to do. Consequently, always make the choice for your landscaper only after you have seen some fascinating landscaping pictures.

3. Flip through the pictures

You should never forget to question your landscaper about the different pictures of landscaping which he has done in the past. These are usually completed projects and they would give you an thought about your landscaper’s proficiency at work. Experienced and the best of landscapers usually have more than one picture of their completed projects. They would also imply that you flip through their pictures portfolio and leave your chose choice up to them. Would this not give you abundant options to choose the right professional group?

4. Make the right choice

Landscaping would bestow upon that fabulous look of your house. Therefore, you would certainly want people passing by, to mention those affirmative statements as they observe your certified landscaping. A charming garden would give you not just what you are expecting, but more! Hence choose the right landscaper for your job deciding upon his pictures and lead the sport of perfect landscaping.