Landscaping requires lots of irrigation, which hurts wallets and the environment. Grass lawns require as much as 10 gallons per square foot per year! A small lawn at 30 feet by ten feet, 300 square feet, would consume 3,000 gallons of water a year. That’s a lot of water!
Xeriscape flowers. Image via Quadell on Wikimedia Commons
Fortunately there’s a way to show good taste in plant selection and landscape design, while still saving money on monthly water bills. Xeriscape landscape designs reduce water consumption by utilizing low water use plants. These low-water plants look beautiful and resist drought, so the landscaping looks great year round, even in the summer. Continue reading “Water-less Gardening: Saving Money with Xeriscape”
Image via Juni, from Kyoto Japan on Wikimedia Commons.
Rain purifies the air, and cleanses the ground. It can be polite, or a terrible force of nature to be feared. New hardscape designs always include a drainage plan, and installers meticulously carry out those plans.
On a driveway, rain combined with improper drainage leads to erosion and possibly even wash outs. These unacceptable safety hazards drive the meticulous nature of designers and installers when it comes to drainage plans. I consider this to be a reactive behavior in construction. Continue reading “Rainwater Collection Systems for Driveways”
On a recent trip to Ojai, CA with family I noted something beautiful: desert landscaping in a raised planter bed lined with local boulders. The shopping center on West Ojai Ave., Hwy 150, incorporated the local horticulture as a design theme throughout the shopping center. It really worked for me.
Agave Attenuatta flowers. Also known as “Foxtail Agave”. Photo via Xemenendura on commons.wikimedia.org.
The crisp green Agave plants arranged in a harmony outside the store, and a subtle winter rain brought out the scent of maple from the deciduous trees overhead. The sharp yellow leaves speckled the ground and I noticed inlaid cast-metal leaves in the pavers, to remind guests and residents of this most regal autumn season’s dressings. The drizzle of rain didn’t detract from the dessert plants as one might expect, as the darkened soil enhanced the Agave’s color. Continue reading “Xeriscape: Water-Defying Landscaping”
As a design and installation company, Genesis sees a lot of driveways. We recently just hit our 10,000th job! Most of those hardscape projects incorporate manufactured concrete pavers, but every once in a while we meet a customer who wants something different, natural stone paving.
Man-made concrete paving stones offer thousands of color combinations, 8000 psi pressure ratings, and nearly a dozen local manufacturers. However, natural stone can offer a different aesthetic than man-made stone, to dramatically change the feel of a property.
Here are several factors to consider when choosing natural stone for outdoor use:
Load Strength
Depending on the type of traffic in the paved area, different kinds of base must be used to protect the stone from cracking in the future. High load areas, such as a front driveway where cars are frequently parked, should be installed with a concrete slab under the natural stone. This slab protects the brittle natural stone from pressure by vehicle tires. Light load areas like a back walkway can be sand-set. The time saved in sand-setting shows up in the final cost of the project. Continue reading “Natural Stone Patios and Driveways: Thoughts on Design and Installation for Homeowners”
We searched our image database to bring you some of the most interesting patio designs that incorporate natural stone designs. Natural stone, while very beautiful, can also be more expensive than manufactured stone. To provide the best service to our customers, we often suggest natural appearing stone or using natural stone as an accent to concrete pavers.
Take a look at these photos and let us know what you think in the comments section below. Hope you enjoy!
Patio #2, river stone wall-bench combo with grey bull-nose wall cap.Patio #1, incorporates natural stone in garden retaining wall.Patio #4, rustic pavers framed by natural field stone and green shrubs. A stack stone water fall finishes the ensemble.Patio #3, this flagstone patio looks warm and inviting, makes a great evening getaway!Patio #5, neutral hue pavers accented with split face fire-pit. The stone cap of the fire-pit adds a sharp finish!
Genesis is a home remodeling specialist serving Southern California since 1993. For a free in-home consultation call us at 888.389.5533, or visit our free estimate page.
According to archaeological evidence, the first farmers began to “landscape design” about 12,000 years ago. Yep, agriculture is a form of landscape design, and so is gardening. The first men and women who walked the earth were part of a complex ecosystem, one that required enhancement to supply human needs: food, shelter, and comfort. This farming lifestyle shaped culture, defined history, and produced today’s diverse world of unique peoples.
Today the art and science of landscape design bears slight resemblance to it’s humble beginnings, surpassing our ancestors’ wildest predictions. A variety of outdoor spaces are now designed for human needs; homes, public spaces, and vast parks are all designed and engineered for human pleasure. These spaces are created not for food or shelter, but for enjoyment and to preserve the cultures and traditions of the past. Integral to these landscape designs are the plants and materials chosen to define these spaces.
Michael Pollan, world renown author and food journalist, explores the human psychology of plant selection in his book Botany of Desire (2007). His four categories of plant selection are:
1. Sweetness (apples)
2. Beauty (such as a rose garden)
3. Pleasure
4. Control (Pollan uses the potato and other agricultural crops for this example)
These desires drive designers and home owners to select the “best” plants to put in outdoor spaces. Sometimes these plants are invasive species, such as apples. Other times plants are selected for their unique abilities, such as climbing vines. In a perfect world each home owner would select plants that are the most colorful, bear the sweetest fruit, and adapt to the environment they are placed in. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in.
Landscape Design by Jens Jensen via AnotomicallyCorrect.org
Booming populations and drought concerns introduce conflict to the landscape design industry. Los Angeles and Las Vegas are two cities at risk of water shortages. Las Vegas is slowly sinking because of strain on the water table below the city. Los Angeles, demand having already exceeded it’s natural water resources, currently pipes water from hundreds of miles away and even submitted plans to pipe water from the Great Lakes. Statewide water concerns led California to introduce the Save our Water initiative. The state of water usage for these cities in five years is difficult to judge. One thing is for sure, landscape design is no longer a “bed of roses”.
Individuals seeking a soothing backyard retreat face a conflict: waste water on a lush creation, or endure scorching temperatures and prickly plants?
For the resolution let’s turn to a father of native plant selection. Jens Jensen, making a name for himself in the early 1900s, studied landscape architecture and pioneered the use of native plants and materials for outdoor designs. He created gardens and parks that communicated meaning about the structures, open spaces, and swimming pools his work surrounded. His secret? A philosophical outlook and an understanding of natural beauty. In his own words:
A true expression of native talent is not found in the pompous gardens of large estates. For true expression you must look in the simple gardens of the common folk. Here is found a true art that has grown out of the soil and out of the heart of those people. They belong! They fit! They tell the true story of the loving hands which created them.
Genesis maintains a list of native-friendly and complimentary plants for use in landscape design. These plants are beautiful, conserve water, and many are drought resistant. Here are a couple luscious examples of native Southern California plants proving that water savings and beauty can exist in the same backyard. For a free in-home consultation call us at 800.287.5400, visit our contact page at genesisstoneworks.com/contact, or email us at info@genesisstoneworks.com.
African Sumac, drought resistant once established.Dietes bicolor (Moraea bicolor), useful in rock gardens, fire resistant.
