Archive for July 18th, 2010
You’ve spent the entire spring season toiling away in your garden, and now that things are in full bloom you want to enjoy the fruit of your labor. No problem, with a large variety of outdoor garden furniture that will allow you to while away the lazy, hazy days of summer in style and comfort. But did you know that you can also find furniture pieces for your yard that are as “green” as that row of basil? Read on for tips to purchasing outdoor garden furniture that is beautiful and environmentally friendly.
Choosing Wood Furniture Wisely
There are ways to enjoy traditional wood in your outdoor garden furniture without worrying about whether obtaining those materials brought harm to the environment in any way. Some companies will offer pieces that are crafted of FSC certified sustainable forestry wood. FSC stands for the Forest Stewardship Council, and this organization will certify certain landowners who are committed to environmentally sound practices in managing their forests. Some of the woods that you can find with this certification include teak, eucalyptus and cedar.
You can also find outdoor garden furniture that is crafted of recycled wood, like old barns and pallets. When put together just right, these recycled products can create beautiful new pieces that can add to the beauty of your garden landscape. To maintain your recycled wood furniture, you can even find environmentally friendly products like cleansers and sealers. By purchasing FSC certified sustainable forestry wood or recycle wood products, you can rest assured that you are doing your part to make our world a healthier and safer place.
Go for Plastic
We are not talking about the basic resin stacking chairs, but beautiful designs and bold colors that look very much like their wooden counterparts. You can find comfy Adirondack chairs, chaise lounges and tables crafted of recycled plastic that looks like wood but is more environmentally friendly and much easier to care for.
One popular material that is used for this purpose is called poly-wood, and it is made from recycled milk jugs. Outdoor garden furniture that is crafted from poly-wood is durable enough to leave outdoors all year long and needs very little maintenance aside from a cleaning with soap and water once or twice a year.
Your green garden deserves to be enjoyed from the comfort of “green” outdoor garden furniture. With a bit of research and shopping savvy, you can find beautiful, comfortable furniture pieces and help protect the environment at the same time.
Most homeowners already have one or more Most homeowners already have one or more landscaping design ideas fixed firmly in their mind when they contact Exterior Worlds. They may have seen visited our landscaping design portfolio and seen the work we have done for other homeowners in neighborhoods like West University, Bellaire, River Oaks, and Tanglewood. They may have seen photographs of properties in a reputable publication that inspired certain landscape design ideas based on several motifs that caught their eye, or they may be have had a passion for a certain cultural style such as French, Italian, or Japanese that they have always wanted to develop on their own personal homestead.
Regardless of the origin of such inspiration, it is important that you work with a Houston Landscaping Service that can help you more fully develop your landscaping design ideas in a manner that compliments the appearance of your home and helps extend its living space outdoors in a way that fully expresses the core values and subjective sentiments of your own personal lifestyle.
Make your landscape a virtual, organic extension of your home’s structure and aesthetic.
When you meet with your landscaping architect for the first time, try to develop landscaping design ideas that will compliment the architecture of your house. No matter how small or large your home actually is, it represents the most dominant feature of your landscape, and as such, cannot be ignored. Any outdoor structures such as an arbor, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, patio fireplace, or special walkway needs to reflect the basic design principles that distinguish your house from surrounding structures.
The swimming pool in particular is something you should pay very close attention to. Most swimming pool construction that is done independently from a landscaping plan tends to focus only on making the pool itself functional and aesthetically pleasing. We see this all the time when we work on older homes that were build in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The pool looks fantastic in and of itself, but it clashes severely with surrounding terrain and home architectural features. We commonly have to remodel swimming pools significantly, or rebuild them all together, to harmonize the poll with the surrounding landscape.
Garden design is another area that you should really rely upon professional expertise to help develop. While you may already have dozens of landscaping design ideas in mind about what types of flowers, shrubs, and trees will look best in your yard, please keep in mind that vegetation groupings constitute forms in and of themselves that either work with or against the appearance of your house. A good example would be some of the contemporary landscapes we have done in our landscaping portfolio section which required us to plant some very unique vegetation patterns to truly do justice to the unique elements that constituted a particular home’s appearance.
Think form follows function when developing a landscaping plan.
The best landscaping design ideas will develop forms around practical use of open areas. After all, the more beautiful your landscape, the more you are going to want to go outside and experience it firsthand. Activities will naturally follow, so coming up with a clear picture of what you intend to ultimately do when you are outdoors will help you more fully develop a plan for development of key areas of your yard. If your ultimate goal is to create entertainment space, then outdoor structures and special environments will need to be built that support the many activities that you and your guests particularly enjoy. If you have children, and you are looking to create special play areas and sports facilities, Houston professional landscapers can help you by subcontracting specialists who can design these facilities (such as courts and practice fields) safely and effectively while still remaining ultimately true to the overall landscaping design idea envisioned in the master plan.
Ornament the landscape to create special space in addition to simply decorating it.
Even something that normally conveys a purely artistic sentiment can play a functional role in the development of your landscaping design idea. Your Houston landscaping company can help develop special patio and seating areas that are aside just for you. Here, you can reflect, meditate, read the paper, and enjoy the morning over conversation and coffee. Fountains and sculptures, though typically categorized as purely decorative, can take on a new, more subtle role as boundary markers between public space, children space, and special, private space. Landscape lighting can then be installed around these areas to maintain these boundaries during the night as well as the day. In this sense, one single landscape can be turned into many smaller landscapes; each represented by its own unique features, forms, purposes, and carefully designed ideas.
fixed firmly in their mind when they contact Exterior Worlds. They may have seen visited our landscaping design portfolio and seen the work we have done for other homeowners in neighborhoods like West University, Bellaire, River Oaks, and Tanglewood. They may have seen photographs of properties in a reputable publication that inspired certain landscape design ideas based on several motifs that caught their eye, or they may be have had a passion for a certain cultural style such as French, Italian, or Japanese that they have always wanted to develop on their own personal homestead.
Regardless of the origin of such inspiration, it is important that you work with a Houston Landscaping Service that can help you more fully develop your landscaping design ideas in a manner that compliments the appearance of your home and helps extend its living space outdoors in a way that fully expresses the core values and subjective sentiments of your own personal lifestyle.
Make your landscape a virtual, organic extension of your home’s structure and aesthetic.
When you meet with your landscaping architect for the first time, try to develop landscaping design ideas that will compliment the architecture of your house. No matter how small or large your home actually is, it represents the most dominant feature of your landscape, and as such, cannot be ignored. Any outdoor structures such as an arbor, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, patio fireplace, or special walkway needs to reflect the basic design principles that distinguish your house from surrounding structures.
The swimming pool in particular is something you should pay very close attention to. Most swimming pool construction that is done independently from a landscaping plan tends to focus only on making the pool itself functional and aesthetically pleasing. We see this all the time when we work on older homes that were build in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The pool looks fantastic in and of itself, but it clashes severely with surrounding terrain and home architectural features. We commonly have to remodel swimming pools significantly, or rebuild them all together, to harmonize the poll with the surrounding landscape.
Garden design is another area that you should really rely upon professional expertise to help develop. While you may already have dozens of landscaping design ideas in mind about what types of flowers, shrubs, and trees will look best in your yard, please keep in mind that vegetation groupings constitute forms in and of themselves that either work with or against the appearance of your house. A good example would be some of the contemporary landscapes we have done in our landscaping portfolio section which required us to plant some very unique vegetation patterns to truly do justice to the unique elements that constituted a particular home’s appearance.
Think form follows function when developing a landscaping plan.
The best landscaping design ideas will develop forms around practical use of open areas. After all, the more beautiful your landscape, the more you are going to want to go outside and experience it firsthand. Activities will naturally follow, so coming up with a clear picture of what you intend to ultimately do when you are outdoors will help you more fully develop a plan for development of key areas of your yard. If your ultimate goal is to create entertainment space, then outdoor structures and special environments will need to be built that support the many activities that you and your guests particularly enjoy. If you have children, and you are looking to create special play areas and sports facilities, Houston professional landscapers can help you by subcontracting specialists who can design these facilities (such as courts and practice fields) safely and effectively while still remaining ultimately true to the overall landscaping design idea envisioned in the master plan.
Ornament the landscape to create special space in addition to simply decorating it.
Even something that normally conveys a purely artistic sentiment can play a functional role in the development of your landscaping design idea. Your Houston landscaping company can help develop special patio and seating areas that are aside just for you. Here, you can reflect, meditate, read the paper, and enjoy the morning over conversation and coffee. Fountains and sculptures, though typically categorized as purely decorative, can take on a new, more subtle role as boundary markers between public space, children space, and special, private space. Landscape lighting can then be installed around these areas to maintain these boundaries during the night as well as the day. In this sense, one single landscape can be turned into many smaller landscapes; each represented by its own unique features, forms, purposes, and carefully designed ideas.
Gardening is a good hobby that has attracted a lot of people, not just because it is a relaxing activity, but also because it gives one the satisfaction of nurturing something and seeing it grow. People who are fond of gardening usually enjoy the quiet moments they spend tending to their flowers or plants. It also gives them the extra produce which makes gardening a rewarding activity.
If you are just starting to engage in gardening and quite unsure how to get your hobby started, try these few gardening tips:
Try Tomatoes
There are about 25,000 different varieties of tomatoes and they are the most common planted vegetables because they are quite easy to take care of. Make sure to buy partially grown tomato plants, if you are just now starting your tomato garden.
Choose the variety that you know will grow well in your area and select the ideal place for your tomato plants, where they will get plenty of sun. Check if you have enough soil to cover the plants. Now dig holes for your plants and transfer the tomato plants which you bought into your garden. You would just have to water them regularly, more so when the days are hotter, just to make sure they are properly hydrated.
You Can Also Plant Flower Bulbs
As a newbie gardener, you would want to plant those that are easy to manage and fast to grow. Flower bulbs are not that difficult to plant and take care of.
Choose a good location in your garden, with enough soil. Prepare the planting bed by using a little fertilizer, dig holes and then plant the flower bulbs in them. It’s easy, yes, but the real challenge is making your flower bed grow through regular care.
Gardening can be quite an interesting hobby, and one that will allow you some time to think or meditate. It may even be therapeutic for some people who are going through pain or trauma. Young children will also benefit from gardening, because it is one way of learning the process of growth and learning how to appreciate and take care of living things. Not sure if you have a green thumb? Check the many gardening tips online to find out more information and ask for some tips from fellow gardeners who have seen success in their vegetable or flower plants.