Garden Design Blog Post Coming March 1, 2010

Coming soon, right after the new year begins, we will post some great garden and landscape design tips for you. By using these ideas in your gardens you will have full, colorful gardens that are easily designed, easy to create, and easy to maintain. Plus...they will save you time, money, and be "green"...environmentally friendly. If fact, by using these ideas that I have learned in 20 years in the landscaping business your gardens will practically design themselves. Really! And, be the envy of your neighborhood.

Before we start, perhaps you should gather together a few things: First, a copy of your plat-of-survey of your property. Next, some snapshots looking both in toward your home and out toward your perimeter. Finally, an architect's scale and/or an engineer's scale and maybe a landscape design template. We'll say more about later about where you can acquire these.

So far so good? Email me any questions you have: dpearl1@hotmail.com

Look for the first installment early in March 2010.

 

A Quick Stone Patio

Here is an easy stone patio that can be finished in half a day. All you need are 25 to 30 large, flat stepping stones approximately 18" by 24" each, give or take. You can buy these at many suppliers of landscaping materials. Just dig out any grass that you have and loosen the soil beneath.

You do not need to add any sand or gravel for leveling the stones. Large stones like these are stable enough on their own. After setting stones and leveling them with the loosened soil beneath you can fill in between with mulch or add more soil and ground cover plantings.

It is a good idea to enclose a space like this with some plantings behind. A mix of evergreens and some some flowering shrubs or perennials will finish it nicely.

Keep in mind that you need not locate a patio like this immediately off the back of your home. This patio and garden is placed at the back corner of a relatively small back yard. This "outdoor room" was created at the same home described in the post showing the front greeting pad at a home in Naperville, Illinois.

Front Entry "Outdoor Room"

Sometimes we neglect the concept of creating outdoor rooms in the front yard. But in reality, this is an important element of design. Too often the front porches of homes are small and not very inviting. You can transform your entry by adding a garden enclosed "greeting pad." This is space for welcoming guests, entertaining small groups, or simply a place to relax and wave across your street to the neighbors.

Pictured here is a front entry garden we created for home in Naperville, Illinois a few years ago. The original entry was simply a 3 ft. wide concrete walk that led from the drive to the front stoop. The homeowners disliked this and desired a more spacious and lush entry.

We removed the old concrete walk and replaced it with brick pavers. To its right (as you walk toward the entry) we created a large greeting pad with more pavers.

The space was enclosed with a "seating wall" made of concrete block wall stones from the same company that makes the pavers. This L-shaped wall stands about 24 inches tall and each leg is perhaps 15 or 20 feet long. No mortar is used. You simply affix the top two courses, coping included, with a suitable adhesive. These kinds of walls can be completed rapidly and with little effort.

Even though I generally discourage the use of concrete retaining wall stones, their use in seating walls is a good way to use them.

Brick Front Entry

Here is a photo of a simple and easy brick entry at my daughter's home. The same style and color of brick that was used for the back patio is shown here.

The upper left photo shows the the old concrete walk that we broke up with a sledge hammer and used shovels to dig out about 8 inches of soil to allow for the gravel base for the new pavers. That work was done by two people and only took an hour or so. The same landscape contractor we hired to bring in his Bobcat tractor for the back patio hauled away the old concrete walk and diggings from the front entry area.

Like the back patio...we designed and installed these pavers with the idea of not needing to cut a single brick. This is an easy project that two people can finish in a day. With time to spare!

If you want to know the specific brand, style, and color of brick pavers just send me an email to dpearl1@hotmail.com

Outdoor Rooms - A Back Patio

Bear in mind that there are many kinds of "outdoor rooms." We will present others in future posts. This patio was designed by me and I helped install it at my daughter's home in Joliet. Along with me and my daughter, we had the help of her two sisters and two friends. The entire project was finished in a single weekend.

It is important to note that we hired a landscape contractor with his Bobcat tractor to excavate the site. He removed the old grass and 8 to 10 inches of soil. This allowed room for the gravel base for the brick pavers. We used his tractor to bring the gravel from the street where it had been dumped to the patio site. I strongly recommend that you not attempt this back breaking work yourself with a shovel and wheel barrow!


During the first day the excavation was finished, the gravel leveled and compacted with a rented compactor. That made the second day's work relatively easy. We merely had to set the bricks on a 1" layer of coarse sand. The sandstone retaining wall was set in place after the pavers were finished.

Future posts will talk about some ideas for how your patio should look...its shape, size, and brick style. But our patio was able to be completed so quickly due to the fact that not one single brick had to be cut. We purposely designed it that way. Brick cutting is time consuming, messy, and you have to rent a loud and expensive diamond saw. We will show you how to design your own patio to avoid any brick cutting.

You can see from the pictures that the patios consists of rows of concentric circles. Several manufacturers of brick pavers produce these in a number of colors and styles. There are four or five different brick shapes on the same pallet and the manufacturer will give you a "cheat sheet" that show which shapes and how many are needed for each circle as you work out from the center.

Complete details in future posts.

Colors of Autumn

In the Chicago area we are enjoying spectacular fall colors. Here are two photos of some plantings that illustrate some nice groupings. While I had no hand in the design or planting of this driveway entry for this home in Naperville I believe these deserve to be pointed out. Many of my own clients are unaware of the autumn splashes that many plant species make for us.

Near the back of the first photo we find a service berry (amelanchier) with its red-orange hues. This same plant appears in the second photo. Note the cluster of ornamental grasses in the foreground. This entry has been further embellished with cornstalks, pumpkins, and chrysanthemums set on bales of hay.

The second photo shows a burning bush (euonymus alatus) in prime fall color. To its left is a grouping of Montgomery spruce. Behind are viburnums and a service berry (amelanchier).

Garden Design...Five Key Concepts

Here are five key concepts I have learned, and preached, after 20 years in the creative business of garden design, landscape contracting, and lawn and garden products:

1) Have a plan...have a theme. Create 'outdoor rooms.'

2) Planted beds are everything. Large beds are good. Large lawns are not so good!

3) Three things to never use: plastic lawn edging, gaudy colored stone, and forced concrete block retaining walls.

4) Hardscapes will make or break your garden.

5) The finishing touches...objet d'art, objet trouve.

In the weeks ahead be sure to click back in for the full story on each of the above 5 Key Concepts. You will clearly see how your gardens will benefit. You can quite easily create lush and colorful gardens that are easy to maintain, will save you lots of money, and be environmentally sound. And hopefully, be the envy of your neighborhood!