"color" yards, pictures, and ideas...
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? ...
Everything Zen - A Look at Japanese Zen Gardens
Searching for unique ideas on what to do with that small, secluded corner of your yard? Look to the East. Asian-themed gardens are prized for their simplicity, their meditative peacefulness, their effortless flow, and their exquisite balance of traditional elements. While designing a true Japanese Zen garden can take years of study and a lifetime to execute to perfection, borrowing a few key elements to put in your own landscape will almost certainly make a dramatic statement....
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....
A Thousand (or slightly fewer) Points of Light
Unfortunately, many of us don't think about "lighting" in our landscapes except for the month of December, when we drape a few measly strings of half-twinkling bulbs over our evergreens or, at the other extreme, fire up an animatronic-reindeer display that would put Clark Griswold to shame. But your landscape doesn’t just stop when the sun goes down....
Your Own Wild Kingdom
A lot of us look at our gorgeously-planted and perfectly-manicured yards and think, I could just about live out here.; Well, for many wild animals, your landscape really is their home. And inviting the local wildlife to hang out and share our outdoor spaces is just another way to get a lot of enjoyment out of a beautiful yard....
Foundation Fundamentals
When was the last time you stood on the street and took a good long look back at your house? The front yard is the statement you make to the rest of the world; is it saying what you want it to?...
Go On, Be a Pot-Head
So you finally created that perfect little spot in the backyard, just in time for summer. Maybe it is a big flagstone patio for parties, maybe it is a brand new deck, or maybe a cozy little terrace made from tumbled pavers. Looks great. Lots of room. Nice seating. Can’t wait to use it. But isn’t something missing?...
Plant Selection For Your Yard
There are two sides to this equation that need to work together for your landscape to work. One, will it grow in my yard? Two, will it look good with my overall landscaping plan?...
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......
Caring For Your Deck
Imagine having guests over for a bbq in your perfectly manicured backyard, but they glance down to find your deck splintering and turning grey. Realistically, your deck probably doesn’t look that bad, but I wanted to provide a few general tips to help make sure that doesn’t happen....
