In the '90s, Jack Rice took a business trip to Kauai with his wife, Kathy. Almost as soon as their plane touched down, the couple fell wildly in love with the Islands. Over the next few years, the couple frequently returned to Hawaii with their sons, John and Matt, ultimately visiting all the major Islands. Kathy took up hula dancing; Jack fantasized about buying a place there. “I love plants, and envisioned dragging a hose around my garden in Hawaii, ” he says. But their sons (now grown) wanted to stay in California.
So Jack and Kathy decided to bring Hawaii to Orange County utilizing a number of landscaping ideas. At first, Jack simply replaced a few junipers bordering the front lawn with palms or cycads. But then the couple hired designer Brian Ackerman to turn the whole yard into a tropical oasis. The large swimming pool was redone (making it smaller and shapelier), and Ackerman added a thatched-roof pavilion that recalls a Hawaiian hale. Throughout the garden, they layered on more tropical plants.
Source: www.sunset.com
Landscaping Tips
Though your home is your castle, there is no necessity to surround it with a moat. Here are 5 tips that will help you to make your landscaping feel more warm, welcoming and cozy.
1. Put some flowers nearby your entrance. Flowers make any area look more welcoming and attractive, so greeting your guests with Petunia, Snapdragon, Lily-of-the-Nile or some other garden flowers is always a great thing to do. What is more, to add some space between your house and the entrance, you can consider adding a little white fence. It will create an illusion that your front yard is bigger than it actually is. What is more, adding fence will create a great space for planting flowers to add some color and coziness.
2. Add rambling vines to make your yard look absolutely lovely. You can not deny that rambling vines always create romantic and even magical atmosphere. So why not to use this tip while decorating your yard?
3. To hide the unattractive driveway, consider adding some color, texture, and height. You can easily do it by adding various sorts of flowers. To start, create an island of green lawn right in the hub of a drive. Then add a couple of low boxwood hedges with flowers toward the back of your island.
4. If you want your yard to blossom and flourish bust still do not have enough time to maintain it, consider planting low-fuss lilies. Such flowers look absolutely gorgeous and come in the variety of rainbow hues, so you can pick the one you love most. What is more, low-fuss lilies do not care about the sort of soil, they love the sun and welcome hot, they do not afraid of drought. In other words, Crinums is an ideal flower for all those who are looking for low-maintenance solutions.
5. The last tip also touches the low-maintenance aspect. To make your life easier, group plantings into beds and islands. This will help you to avoid mowing and trimming around each individual plant, save a lot of time and even money.