Landscape, Plants, Hardscape & Decks
As much as I love cold weather, I have to concede that we experienced way too much of a good thing this past winter. Long periods of extremely cold weather are the norm in many other parts of the country, and plants survive. Here, however, our local plants may be accustomed to surviving the isolated sub-freezing night, but sustained, frosty temperatures lasting nearly a week are something they weren't meant to handle. I'm sure you've seen the results of our cold snap in the news: Much of the state's citrus population - yes, coincidentally, the wonderful treats I wrote about in last month's column - has sustained long-term damage and the trees in many cases will take two years and more to recover. And that doesn't just affect us here: The rippling effects will be felt in
As much as I love cold weather, I have to concede that we experienced way too much of a good thing this past winter. Long periods of extremely cold weather are the norm in many other parts of the country, and plants survive. Here, however, our local plants may be accustomed to surviving the isolated sub-freezing night, but sustained, frosty temperatures lasting nearly a week are something they weren't meant to handle. I'm sure you've seen the results of our cold snap in the news: Much of the state's citrus population - yes, coincidentally, the wonderful treats I wrote about in last month's column - has sustained long-term damage and the trees in many cases will take two years and more to recover. And that doesn't just affect us here: The rippling effects will be felt in
For years, I refused to eat tangerines and oranges because I hated the seeds. It was too much work to peel off the rind and then sift through the sections and pull out the seeds before finally getting to the juicy, delicious part of the fruit. I opted instead to get my Vitamin C from other sources. One winter several years ago, my attitude changed after I was handed a Satsuma tangerine. Surprised at how easy it was to peel and even more stunned by the absence of seeds, I savored the fruit's sweetness and enjoyed a more natural form of vitamin intake. In fact, I found myself devouring
For years, I refused to eat tangerines and oranges because I hated the seeds. It was too much work to peel off the rind and then sift through the sections and pull out the seeds before finally getting to the juicy, delicious part of the fruit. I opted instead to get my Vitamin C from other sources. One winter several years ago, my attitude changed after I was handed a Satsuma tangerine. Surprised at how easy it was to peel and even more stunned by the absence of seeds, I savored the fruit's sweetness and enjoyed a more natural form of vitamin intake. In fact, I found myself devouring
Many watershapers have a single-minded focus, doing all they can to deliver quality shells and surrounding decks to their clients. Quite often, however, that narrow focus means that inadequate space is left for planting - a problem I face quite often as a landshaper. It's clear in many cases that no thought at all was given to the landscape - and certain that no design professional was consulted before laying out and installing the hardscape. The result all too often is that there simply isn't enough room to allow for good-size planter beds. I often find myself rolling my eyes and lamenting the missed opportunities to
Many watershapers have a single-minded focus, doing all they can to deliver quality shells and surrounding decks to their clients. Quite often, however, that narrow focus means that inadequate space is left for planting - a problem I face quite often as a landshaper. It's clear in many cases that no thought at all was given to the landscape - and certain that no design professional was consulted before laying out and installing the hardscape. The result all too often is that there simply isn't enough room to allow for good-size planter beds. I often find myself rolling my eyes and lamenting the missed opportunities to
The fact that the vast majority of our landscapes exist on the ground floor has posed a challenge as city dwelling has become more popular: Relatively few urbanites are lucky enough to have ground-floor garden spaces to work with, but that in no way diminishes their desire to include garden spaces as components of their upper-floor environments. Even without land for plants, people still want to come home to attractive gardens at day's end. Although the first roof gardens date back to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, city dwellers with only rooftop and balcony spaces at their disposal have been forced to get innovative, developing creative and sometimes highly unusual solutions. Hence the emergence of "roof gardens," which often combine spectacular distant views and dramatic cityscapes with creative hardscape and planting treatments - works of art that expand livable space as well as the
If you've been involved in major construction projects - initial work or renovations - chances are good that you've come across the need for retaining walls. In many cases, even the simple leveling of a site will require some type of retaining structure to hold back the soil - whether you're cutting fill out and need to support the slope that remains or filling an area and need to keep the new material from washing away. No matter what site we're talking about, retaining walls have one purpose: to hold something back. Whether you need to terrace a sloped yard, hold up a parking lot or
It's a plain fact: Few designers weigh maintenance as heavily as other elements of a design when creating gardens for their clients. Most will routinely ask whether the client wants a low-maintenance environment or one that requires a little more work and may yield a greater abundance of flowers or other desirable features, but the consideration typically ends there. And this is so despite the fact that by leaving maintenance out at the design level, landshapers often doom themselves to
Lots of us landshapers hear voices. The longer we're around, the clearer those voices become and the more we trust them. "Don't take this job," they'll say. "You can't make this look good. Do you really want to be known for this project?" For the most part, these internal voices perform a valuable service in keeping us out of harm's way. Every once in a while, however, I find myself
