“Inspiration, move me brightly. Light the song with sense and color;
Hold away despair, more than this I will not ask.”

 -- Grateful Dead Lyrics, Terrapin Station

Funny thing about inspiration.  If you’re actively looking for it, you’re probably not apt to find it.

This time of year, nearly everybody is looking to get inspired with ideas for their landscaping. Maybe it’s some ideas for new plantings. Or designs for a deck.  Or patio layout.  Maybe it’s a matter of selecting the materials that will go best with your existing architecture.  Whatever the subject, we all need a little inspiration from time to time.

And that inspiration could come from a book, or television show, or a walk around a landscape supply yard.  Magazines, museums, the internet, public architecture and gardens, local neighborhoods – the sources are endless.

My wife and I were watching a show on PBS a few months back.  It was a documentary about the making of Simon and Garfinkel’s landmark album “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”  The show included a clip from the Dick Cavett Show circa 1970.  Paul Simon was the interview guest, and Dick Cavett asked him where the inspiration came from to write the album’s flagship song, “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

After stumbling over his response for a moment or two and giving some boilerplate answer about listening to a lot of gospel music, Simon finally just stopped himself and basically admitted that one night he just picked up his guitar and penned the song in about an hour’s time.  

Wow!

An instant classic to say the least.  One moment the song didn’t exist, and the next moment it was out there.

And that’s just the point.  Inspiration doesn’t have to be a laborious process.  The best and freshest ideas often just come to us in moments of clarity.

Clients and prospects often ask me for ideas for their projects.  To be fair, I always have a couple of ideas up my sleeve, a by-product of having been at this job for more than a dozen years.  But I don’t have all the answers.  After
all, what may appeal to me may not to the client, and they’re the ones who are going to be living with and using the yard on a daily basis (I hope so, at least).

Here in the Philadelphia area, we are blessed with a number of public parks and gardens.  Winterthur, Longwood Gardens, Tyler Arboretum, Scott Arboretum, Ridley Creek State Park, Fairmount Park, to name a few.  And we are also blessed with an amazing stock of 100-year-old, even 200-year-old public buildings and private residences.

Rid yourself of pre-conceptions and take a drive around.  Or even a walk around your neighborhood.  Hike a trail.  Ride a bike.  See anything you like?  
 
Don’t look for specific things you THINK you may want included in your yard.  If you’re looking for that perfect set of steps to match your existing ideas, you probably won’t find exactly what you’re looking for.

But if you erase your mind and take in the beauty around you, I’m sure you’ll see a few things you like.

Some of my best ideas come from right in my own backyard.  Literally.  Spend some time in your yard and look around.  Soak in what you see.  Kick back and relax.  Have a drink. Read a book or the newspaper. Listen to the birds.  Listen to the wind in the trees.  Look at the yard and the surrounding neighborhood.  Imagine what it must have looked like before the houses and fences were there.  Look at the slopes and the berms, imagine how the water flows when it rains.  Where do you typically walk through the yard?  Is there a beaten path through the grass that gets walked on frequently?  How would (or do) deer travel through the yard?  The ideas will come.  Trust me.

Here’s to hoping you find your inspiration, for whatever projects you may be considering.

When most people approach me and ask about increasing their outdoor living space, they typically have a rough idea of what they’re looking for.  “We’d like a new paver stone patio,” the call usually goes, or “We’d like a new deck off our rear kitchen door.”  Sometimes people even have their layout envisioned, and its really just a matter of me giving them installation costs for their ideas.

But there are other times when people know they want to increase their outdoor living space, but really have no idea of what direction they want to pursue.  Maybe the husband wants a deck and the wife wants a patio.  Or neither really has any idea what to take into consideration.

So what should you consider when planning your outdoor living space?  Here are five basic things that hopefully will make your decision a bit easier.

1.  Grades and Elevation. 
Often times this is the one factor that may make your decision for you.  What is the elevation of your back door?  If it’s almost directly at grade, in otherwords there is just a single step out the door to the yard, then there may not be enough room to construct the deck and leave room for the necessary framing and supports.  In this case a patio would be the way to go.

Conversely, if your yard has a significant slope that doesn’t provide a large level area, then a deck is the way to go. 
Decks also allow you to build over tree roots, providing the opportunity to build around trees without harming the trees.

2.  Maintenance. 
Nearly everybody will tell you that decks typically require more maintenance, and for the most part this is true.  Of course a lot of this depends on the type of materials used to build the deck and the environment where the deck is built.  But in general most wood decks require some annual maintenance in the form of water sealing at the very least.  And while composite materials are marketed as being maintenance-free, they are still prone to moss and mildew growth and most likely will need to get pressure-washed on an annual basis as well.

Patios typically require less maintenance, but to say they are maintenenace-free would also be a stretch.  Mortared flagstone surfaces will need to be repointed at some point, paver stones are prone to some minor weed growth and most likely will need to be re-swept with sand every few years.  And while sealing a hardscaping surface isn’t always entirely necessary, if you do choose to seal the patio it will need resealing every few years to maintain the sealed appearance.

3.  Other Features. 
Considering a firepit?  If so, a wood deck might not be the way to go, for somewhat obvious reasons.  Or a hot tub?  While decks can be built to hold the weight of a filled hot tub, it certainly requires a lot more framing to accommodate the extra load.  Most patio surfaces, if installed correctly with the adequate base preparation can handle the weight of a typically sized hot tub.

4.  Design Preferences and Personal Taste. 
Basic deck construction tends to be more linear in its make-up, while it is much easier to incorporate curves in a grade-level patio.  That’s not to say curves can’t be incorporated into a deck, but it certainly requires a bit more engineering and added costs.  

And while this may seem like a basic idea, if you’re a person who likes the look and feel of wood, then a deck may make more sense for you.  If you’re a person who likes the look and feel of stone, then a patio is probably the way to go.

5.  And the million-dollar category – Cost. 
Not that either is going to cost you a million dollars (that’d be one huge living space!).  To be honest, the costs are pretty similar, with a range depending on materials. I’ve seen a fair amount of information resources that tend to say decks are a bit more expensive than patios. But in reading further you’ll see that these articles are usually comparing a deck to a plain concrete patio. Once you compare a flagstone or paver stone patio to a deck, the costs become much more in line with one another.

Decks tend to have a much wider range in costs – a 16x20 deck on one site may cost nearly twice as much as the same size deck on another site, based on how high above grade the structure is built, the engineering necessary for the deck to carry the load, and the slope on which the deck is being built.

Unless an excessive amount of excavation is needed, or an excessive amount of re-grading is required to form a level space, patios tend to be much more consistently priced from one site to the next.

When it comes to composite decking, the prices typically start to become more expensive than their patio counterparts.  Not only are composites roughly about twice the price of wood, they also require much more framing due to the flexible nature of the materials.

In addition to these five items, local building codes may also come into play as to what is or isn’t allowed.  Most deck construction will require a permit, and with environmental concerns really starting to become a factor, many municipalities are also requiring stormwater management plans in conjunction with hardscaping installation.

These are just a few of the things to take into consideration when planning your project.  Ultimately every project, and every site is different and unique. Perhaps some of these considerations may apply to your site and not others.  Or maybe there are additional things that haven’t been brought up in this article.

For a free consultation on how to best increase your outdoor space, please feel free to give us a call.  We’d love
to help!