client needs
With increasing frequency, I've been getting involved in creating total, comprehensive backyard designs for my clients. From the pool and spa to shade structures and pool houses, from planting plans to entertainment areas and outdoor kitchens, if they want it, I'm at the ready to meet all of their needs. I love this trend, partly because it enables me to
'Gardens truly are for people. While that's manifestly an obvious statement,' wrote Bruce Zaretsky at the top of his On the Level column in May 2011, 'it seems to be a concept that insufficient numbers of today's watershape and landscape designers fully grasp.' 'That's nothing new. More than half a century ago, in fact, [Thomas] Church was motivated to
If there’s one thing that almost all parties in homes have in common, it’s that people tend to congregate around food and drink in the kitchen. Almost invariably, that’s where the action is. As more and more homeowners are taking their indoor lifestyles outdoors into their backyards and landscapes, the “action” is moving outside as well, with al fresco kitchens becoming the new hub at social gatherings. This is why outdoor kitchens have grown so much in popularity in recent years, moving past being simple counters adjacent to charcoal barbecues to become, according to the American Institute of Architects, the number-one growth category in home improvement. In plying my trade in a sunny, particularly warm part of southern California, I’ve had a front-row seat in watching this trend develop – and I’ve now been designing and building these amenities for more than a quarter century. It’s reached a point where my company, The Green Scene (Northridge, Calif.), builds at least 25 outdoor kitchens every year across a range of styles and levels of complexity. Experience has taught us that the
