Landscape, Plants, Hardscape & Decks
Very often when I'm selecting a plant palette with a client, I'll hear the words, "I hate ferns." I'm not sure what it is about these botanical beauties that evokes such a visceral reaction from people - except maybe that they were overused in floral arrangements during the 1970s and 1980s? I'm not sure what's going on here, and if any of you know a soild reason for this dismissal, please educate me! For my purposes, ferns are one of the most versatile plants available. They typically prefer
Last month, we discussed ornamental grasses and their place as the most natural of all companions for watershapes. Now it's time to look at a few of your grass options, including something for just about every need and taste. Ornamental grasses come in such a wide range of sizes, climate preferences and colors that there really is at least one choice that will work in any client's yard. With so many choices, I'll have to narrow the list down to my personal favorites here. I'll also be suggesting some plants that aren't traditionally considered to be ornamental grasses; these are some "grass-like" plants I use as required to meet a particular design's needs. As always, I recommend
Images of waterways almost anywhere in the world are filled with gentle sweeps of free-flowing grasses swaying in the breezes or simply lazing by the water's edge. From a watershaper's perspective, these grasses are arguably the most versatile of all plant materials. In one form or another, they exist and thrive in almost every environment in the world. They can be used by themselves to lend a natural feeling to a stream or pond, next to a contemporary watershape to make a bold statement or nestled among almost any other plants in any landscape style to soften and add texture. One of the best things about grasses (particularly the taller ones) is how gracefully they wave in the wind, adding an element of
If you're a watershaper of any kind, odds are that you build concrete slabs. You build them to create decks, set up equipment pads, establish sub-bases for finish materials - and for a variety of other essential construction purposes. No matter the application, it's important to build these slabs to last, which invariably means building them correctly. This isn't something that's important just for mega-buck projects: No matter whether you're working on $20,000 cookie-cutter pools or on custom projects at the very highest level, knowing how to
When you think of palms, it's easy to conjure visions of Hawaii or some other tropical paradise. These graceful plants evoke a sense of serenity and thoughts of calm tropical breezes - and maybe even memories of a cool mai tai in your hand. Unfortunately for lots of us, palms thrive only in warmer climates. In the United States, for example, they generally do not grow north of the 33rd parallel, which stretches roughly from Northern California on the West Coast to South Carolina on the East Coast. This geographic factor is the main reason I haven't discussed palms before in this column. After three years, however, I figure I'm
I purchased a home in the late 1980s that backs up to a wooded area inhabited by deer, coyotes, rabbits, rattlesnakes, squirrels and various and sundry other rodents. I didn't believe that any of them would come into my yard, so I boldly left the gate at the top of my slope open to test my theory. I awoke the next morning to the sight of a family of three deer feasting on my azaleas and other delectables. Although they did a fabulous job of pruning the azaleas into perfect rounded mounds, I recognized then and there that they wouldn't coexist with a nicely landscaped garden. I figured that my fence would never be enough to keep the wildlife at bay forever, so I delved into
Last month, we dug into the use of containers and accessories in garden designs and discussed ways in which they add interest, depth and dimension to almost any setting. This time, we'll get more specific and look at ways in which the same containers and accessories can be adapted to fit a particular environment and used with various design styles. To do so, let's start with long, rectangular pools (15 by 40 feet), place them in the yards of clients with different desires and see how we can blend planters into several popular styles: [ ] Contemporary: If you have a very contemporary setting with no planting beds, containers can be used to
Whether you choose to replicate old stone structures or borrow ideas and transplant them into contemporary designs, there is certainly a treasure trove of design concepts to be found in the masterworks of those who've gone before us. Indeed, stone has been the raw material of choice for many of the world's greatest architects, landscapers and watershapers, each of whom has relied on stone and its timelessness in fashioning works of beauty. In the first two articles in this series, we toured
We've spent a lot of time in these columns talking about ways of adding dimension and interest to gardens by using different planting styles and arrangements and by varying color, texture, size, quantity and other planted features of the design. As yet, however, we haven't spent any time at all on one of the easiest and potentially most interesting ways of giving a design a unique character - one that virtually forces visitors to remember your garden. It's all about containers and accessories. As simple as it seems, adding containers and other accessories - anything from simple terra cotta pots or stone benches to elaborately custom-built planter boxes or beautifully detailed garden statuary - can add marks of
Imagine your clients in this scene: It's a warm, summer evening, dinner for two on the patio is almost ready, the waterfall is on, and candlelight is reflecting on the surface of the pond. But the salad isn't quite complete, so this evening's chef steps into the yard, clips some chives from a clump near the water's edge and adds a finishing touch to the composition. Later, they pick a few plums and apricots for dessert, relaxed and about as happy as they could be in their backyard. Though the setting is delightful, it's the edible plants that complete the experience. And as was mentioned last time, with more and more people wanting
