"before" yards, pictures, and ideas...
Springtime Yard Spruce-Up
Spring is just around the corner. How far around the corner depends on countless celestial and meteorological factors, plus, of course, whatever a certain furry resident of Punxsutawney, PA had to say about it this year. (Fun fact: Phil has predicted correctly only about 39% of the time since 1887. So you may not want to take him to the track and let him pick the ponies for you. Just sayin’.) Large rodent shadows notwithstanding, spring is, in fact, coming. I know you’re ready. But is your landscape?...
Don't Take Your Countertop for Granite
In many landscapes, the outdoor kitchen is the focal point, the centerpiece, the crowning touch of a painstakingly-designed and highly-anticipated entertainment space. And sometimes, it needs just that little extra something to make it really pop. More and more grilling stations and exterior bars are getting graced with granite as that final detail that puts it over the edge and takes it from so-so to sssssweeet! ...
The Thrill of the Grill
“Ah, spring. When a YardShare member’s fancy turns to thoughts of grilling.” (With sincere apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson.) Nothing stokes a case of spring fever like a column of fragrant smoke wafting over the fence from your neighbor’s BBQ. If this is the year you’re planning up to upgrade your grill, you’ve got plenty to think about....
Psst! Hey, Man...Got Any Weeds?
They are every landscaper's nemesis, every backyard gardener's mortal enemy. Their very existence, intrusive and even invasive, is one of the main motivators for any outdoor renovation. But no matter what you do, or how much time or money you spend, they always seem to rise from the dead and wreak havoc again, like some machete-wielding serial killer in a cheesy horror flick....
Killer Looks For Concrete
Concrete. It’s cold, it’s grey, it’s boring. Hold onto those suppositions for just a moment. It’s been calculated that concrete is the second-most-consumed substance on earth, behind only water. Or think about it this way: there is almost one ton of concrete produced for every single human on the planet… EVERY SINGLE YEAR....
Make the Most of Your Small Space
Letting your landscape creativity run wild is easy when you have a sprawling piece of property to work with: a big, blank canvas ready and waiting for whatever your imagination dreams up. But what about when space is at a real premium, as in: you don’t have any? If your “yard” is a high-rise balcony twenty stories off the ground, does that mean you’re simply out of luck when it comes to creating a garden to call your own? ...
How Cool Is Your Pool?
There may not be a landscape feature that allows for more wild creativity, extreme customization, and personal expression than a swimming pool. It used to be that the only pools you saw were either above-ground circles or in-ground rectangles. There might have been a diving board or a big plastic slide… or maybe both, if the pool owner had gotten really wacky....
Mow, Blow, and Go
Most of us have an established yardwork routine. This is especially true for mowing. We start in the same spot every week, take the same paths, cut the same rows in the same order, and end in the same spot every time. Then maybe if you're up for it, you break out the trimmer and take down those scraggly weeds around the fenceposts or trees. Then you blow it clean and call it a day....
Weekend Project: Teak Maintenance
One of the items on my pre-summer to do list is to sand and oil our teak patio furniture. We've had this set for 4 years now and this is the third time I've done it. For those thinking about purchasing outdoor teak furniture, let me lay out the pros and cons for you......
How to Put In a Flower Bed
A bed line not only separates the lawn from your flower beds, a well designed bed line gives form to the yard. It shows that thought was put into the beds and landscaping, and that the shrubs weren’t planted just anywhere. It's a great way to turn a bare corner of the yard into a beautiful flower bed....
