I was doing some online research the other day and came across an article highlighting the expected landscape design trends for 2013.

Not that I’m not already somewhat tuned in as to what people are looking for in their yards, but I figured it was a good opportunity to see what’s being pushed for the coming year.  So I clicked over to see what is being pushed.

The article highlighted a couple popular themes and design concepts – romanticism, interplanting, low maintenance designs, and sustainability to name a few.

I greeted this news with a yawn.

Not because I’m against some of these ideas.  Au contraire.  Actually I’m quite on board with pushing sustainability.  Interplanting adds constant interest in nearly every corner of a garden.  And who doesn’t want that elusive “low maintenance” design.

No, my ambivalence towards embracing these “trends” has more to do with defining these principles as trends vs. basic keystone principles of good design.

Trends come and go.  Think back to what some of the popular trends of the past have left us.  Remember the octagonal paver stone design from just a few years back?  10 or 15 years ago it seemed nearly every paver stone job I installed was this popular trendy design.  In fact the term “paver stone” was nearly synonymous with this pattern.  As manufacturers began offering more and more options from which to choose, this shape slowly fell out of favor.  In the last few years I’ve met with quite a few clients who now want to remove this “dated” design.

Exposed aggregate finishes in concrete.  This was a popular trend a few years earlier.  And one quite honestly that is still used on occasion today.  But its also one that has led many homeowners to want to “update” their “70’s” feeling yards.

Wood inlays in concrete.  Another popular “trend” that I’m sure many people felt looked sleek back in the day. But today the wood has rotted out, the slabs have heaved, and what’s left is the remnants of a once-popular trend.

Junipers as a front lawn.  Hey I’m all for reducing lawn areas if possible, but if I had a nickel for every client who wanted to me to rip out those trash-collecting catch-alls … (Actually I probably do have at least a nickel for every juniper we’ve ripped out based on some of the buried treasure we’ve found tangled amongst the branches…)

Think back to some other popular trends.  If I name the trend I’ll bet you can ID the era.  Excessive railroad tie walls.  Topiary shrubs.  Plastic flamingoes.  Stone mulch (Your choice of colors!).  Fiberglass “rocks” (Think Anaheim Angels outfield walls -- Hello Disney!).  Solar landscape lights.  Gazing balls. “Astroturf” carpeting.

Even design principles have changed over time.  Think back to your grandmother’s house with the white picket fence around the yard, the rose beds up against the fence, and the uniform linear beds surrounding the perimeter of the house.

And my personal favorite is when a home is built on a relatively square, level lot, yet the “trendy” features are forced into the yard by building up mounds of imported soil.

That’s not to say that some of these “trends” don’t have their place.

I’ve actually seen some absolutely awesome yards that are going for a theme and make good use of lawn gnomes and plastic flamingoes.

Everyone has different taste.  And everyone has different uses for their yards.  And I’m a firm believer that every design should be custom tailored for the taste and lifestyle of the client.

But good design principles are timeless.  Attempting to incorporate today’s trends into a design simply to be on board with what’s hot today is asking for a dated look in the not-so-distant future.

And certainly some of today’s “trends” aren’t necessarily bad ideas. Built-in outdoor kitchens, for example, probably aren’t going away any time soon.

But when planning an outdoor design, it’s important to focus on what’s really important, namely how YOU want to utilize your yard and what will work for your lifestyle.  Don’t get hung up on what the current trends are, but rather what you want to live with for the foreseeable future.

Because today’s octagonal pavers and juniper yards are most likely tomorrow’s vinyl fencing and tumbled concrete block walls – relics from another era destined to be replaced.

Can you think of any other trends from bygone eras that effectively timestamp a yard?

For a few timeless design ideas, give us a call.

Well, we did it.  Another successful year under the belt.  And as we prepare for some much needed (and well-deserved) down time, I thought I’d take this opportunity to summarize and wrap up our 2012 season.

Thanks to an incredibly mild winter last year, we were able to kick off the season about 3 weeks earlier than our typical seasonal start-up.  We started in about mid-February with a sidewalk replacement project and never looked back.  Our early-season included a number of exterior landscape carpentry projects, including several fences and a number of deck projects including both new decks and extensions and a number of wood step projects. 

By the end of April we were full into hardscaping mode, including a few paver stone walkways, several stone step projects and a few more sidewalk replacements.

And once Memorial Day hit we were fortunate enough to work on a couple of really nice, large (700 sf+) flagstone patio projects to complement some grand residences.
 
The large patio projects carried us straight through the bulk of the summer, with some more large patio projects coming together as the kids went back to school.  We sprinkled in a few more walkways, fence projects, a nice modular block wall project, and finished the year off strongly with a stone veneer wall project and flagstone walkway project, which we were just able to squeeze in before the Holiday break, wrapping things up earlier this week.

On the business side of things, the company has continued to grow, maintaining three full-time workers for the bulk of the season.
 
And so, as we wrap things up for the year I’d be remiss if I didn’t share a few pictures of a sampling of our projects from the year, and offer a few quick “thank you”s to everybody who helped make the year a success.

First I’d like to thank my crew of Josh, Nick and Russ for working hard to turn the designs and concepts into reality.  It was your manpower that made it all happen.  I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish Josh farewell and best of
luck as he prepares for the next chapter of his life when he reports to Ft. Benning GA in March to enlist in the US Army and begin Basic Training. Josh has been with me nearly three years and has been a key player in all of our projects during that time.  I know he’ll do just fine as long as he can still keep up with his beloved Flyers (if the NHL lockout ever ends).  Stay safe my man. (continued below)

I’d also like to thank my valued suppliers, most notably the crew at Galantino Supply Company.  I’m not sure just how much business I did directly with Galantino’s this year – I’ll tally the numbers come January -- but it was a sizeable amount and Carl, Anthony, Vince and the rest of the crew over there have always been a sincere pleasure to work with.

And most importantly, I’d like to offer a HUGE thank you to each and every one of my clients for the year.  Whether your project was a small sidewalk replacement or an enormous patio install, I can’t thank you enough for your business.  Without your business, none of this would be possible.  I’ve enjoyed getting to know each of you during the course of all of our projects, and I look forward to continuing seeing you around town, at the Co-op, the pool, school events, little league, and all the other opportunities we have to see each other here in and around Swarthmore.

So again, thank you to all who helped make 2012 a success.  I’ll be taking a week off next week from my blogging duties as I spend some downtime with family and friends, but I look forward to returning in January with more weekly blog posts and beginning to gear up for the 2013 season.  

Happy Holidays to everyone, and best wishes for a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous new year!!!

The Holiday season is upon us!  And while my crew and I are feverishly working to complete our 2012 projects before winter settles in for good, I thought this might be a good time to address all of you who may be thinking about moving forward on a landscape construction project for 2013.

Having run a business for more than 12 years now, I’ve seen new leads and clients of all types.  Some people have a firm idea of what they want.  Maybe they’ve even already had a plan drawn up by an outside landscape designer or architect.

Others have a rough idea of what they’re looking for.  “We want a new patio to expand our outdoor living space,” they begin, “but we’re really not sure of where it should go or how big it should be.”

Others still have no idea where to begin.  “We need to do something with this mess of a yard, but what?”

For the folks that already have a plan in place, great.  Kudos to you for having gotten this far.  But for the second two groups, I’d like to offer a few ideas to help get your project off the ground.

These are questions that I always like to ask and get clients to consider during the planning phases. Remember, your yard is a personal retreat, and everybody’s needs and desires are going to be different.  But each of these ideas is at least something that needs to be considered before moving forward.
 
With no further ado, 10 things to think about when planning your new yard:

1.  How do you use your yard?  What about your current yard works for you?  What doesn't?

2.  Do you have kids?  Do your kids play in the yard or are they more apt to play at the neighbors' or the neighborhood park?

3.  Do you have pets?  Do your pets need a contained space for them to play freely?

4.  Do you entertain?  If so, are we talking small family or neighborly get-togethers, or larger blowout parties?
 
5.  Do you like to garden?  Have you considered a vegetable garden?  Are you a hobby gardener who likes to get dirty and work with plants, or would you just prefer you had something low-maintenance and pretty to look at?

6.  Is privacy important?  Do you want to keep the outside world out, or would you prefer your yard blended seamlessly with the surrounding neighborhood?
 
 7.  Do you have a good sense of the sun/shade patterns of your yard?  Many new homeowners in particular are eager to get that new yard in, but what's sunny in February may be in full shade come August.  It's a good idea to get a full sense of the seasonal patterns of sun/shade before planning that dream yard.
 
 8.  Does the term "high-maintenance" scare you?  Do you mind getting dirty and pulling some weeds from that new walkway, or would you rather be hands-off and not have to deal with maintenance issues.
 
 9.  What is your ballpark budget?  It's unfortunate, but sometimes budget can get in the way of your ultimate objectives.  Be clear as to what you're willing to spend, and don't be afraid to make some revisions if it means a more realistic project.
 
 10.  Would you be opposed to breaking the project into phases?  Maybe you'll never be able to have that $50,000 landscape installed, but if you have an ultimate long-term goal, at least you can work towards your goals without having to rip things out as you move forward.  A small patio that can be expanded down the road is certainly better than nothing at all.

Just a few things to think about as you start to brainstorm.  Happy planning!

“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!