Dallas One-Story landscape design pictures front of house plan

Form: Plants large and small have various forms, each offering something different to the landscape. They can be weeping, round, pyramidal, spreading, oval, vase or columnar. Look at trees for example. In addition to a tree's form during the growing season, consider how much shade it will provide and where the shade will be during the spring and summer. If it's a deciduous tree, imagine how it will look without leaves in fall and winter. Line: Whether curved or straight, lines are used to draw your eye towards a focal point or to separate areas of the garden. Establishing bed lines is one of the first things to do when designing a landscape. Texture: Leaves, flowers, stems all have texture. Finding plants and features that contrast or complement is basic to a good garden design. Foliage that is lacy in appearance would highlight a plant with more rounded leaves. Consider the year-round appearance of your prospective plants. Color: Color is the most obvious aspect of the landscape and may be the least understood. A well-designed landscape can look good without any color (other than green). Color used wisely will accent your garden, while too much color can appear harsh or grating. When deciding which plants to use, keep color in mind just as you would when painting your home. The house is almost always the dominant feature of your landscape. The color of your plantings should complement your home's color. When choosing flowers, for example, consider the almost infinite combinations of color, the flower and foliage shapes, the timing of blooms and their duration, and the height of the plants. Decide whether you prefer the instant gratification of annuals versus the long-term investment of perennials, or a combination of both.

Garden Vegetable Garden Raised Garden Garden Design Flower Garden

Everyone knows that you don’t want to place a water plant in a desert garden. That’s a recipe for plant-icide. But the same is true for many other types of plants — many prairie plants won’t thrive in waterlogged soil, and many rock garden plants keel over if they’re tucked into rich, loamy garden beds. How do you know if a plant will thrive in your landscape? It all boils down to right plant, right place. This modern gardening philosophy plays matchmaker in the landscape, placing plants in a spot where they’ll naturally thrive — with minimal input from the gardener. The result is a landscape design that’s a breeze to maintain. When you put the right plant in the right place, giving it nearly ideal growing conditions, several things happen: The biggest investment you’ll make when you tackle right plant, right place gardening occurs before you stick trowel into soil. Planning is the key to success with this concept. By investing more time before planting, you’ll invest less time maintaining plantings. You’ll be gardening smarter and greener — and saving money, too. The USDA Hardiness Zone reveals if plants will survive winters in your region. Many gardeners push the envelope on hardiness zone and grow plants from one zone warmer. They tuck these questionable survivors into a sheltered backyard or maybe in a planting bed near a southern wall of their home, where temperatures don’t fall quite as far in winter. For sure success, though, fill a landscape design using plants that are hardy to your zone. Not sure what your zone is? Learn here. Some plants need full sun to thrive; others require shade. You’ll get the best gardening results when you know what kind of light your yard offers. To figure this out, on a day when you’re home, watch the sun as it hits your landscape areas. Ideally, check it every hour — and make notes. That way, when a plant tag says “partial shade, ” you’ll know if your yard serves those conditions. Pictured below: Light makes all the difference in a plant’s success. Traditional bleeding-heart, Dicentra spectabilis, grows best in part to full shade. Plants need specific soil types to grow their best. The great thing about soil is that you can change it by adding amendments. For instance, you can make clay soil, which is slow-draining, more porous and faster-draining by adding organic matter, like compost. Or you can create a completely different soil type in your landscape by building and filling raised beds, which also add some nifty hardscaping to the scene. When you place the wrong plant in the wrong kind of soil, you’ll get mixed results. Worst-case scenario, the plant dies. Best case, it survives, but with lackluster results. Each soil type accommodates a different palette of plants. Before you embark on creating wholesale change in soil, research the kinds of plants that grow in the soil you have. You might find you can design an eye-catching landscape. Pictured below: Butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa (left), is a native wildflower that’s a favorite among bees and butterflies. It grows well in either dry, rocky soil or soils with medium moisture. Red hot poker, Kniphofia uvaria (right), demands well-drained soil. This plant is growing on heavy clay soil that doesn’t drain — and isn’t doing well. Plant tags state how large plants grow under ideal circumstances. Plan for this contingency and site plants accordingly, giving them ample elbow room for spreading and plenty of headspace for upward mobility. In the right place, tall plants can form a privacy screen or stage a striking backdrop for other plantings. In the wrong place, they’re an eyesore. Conversely, plants that are too small can be dwarfed by surrounding plantings or hardscaping and disappear from view. Pictured below: Choose plants carefully for edging walking paths. A short, fountainous grass like blue fescue, Festuca glauca (left), is just right for edging a path without becoming a tripping hazard or blocking the view. A mature hollyhock, Alcea rosea (right), grows too tall for placing at the front of a flower bed. Its imposing stature dwarfs shorter front-of-the-border plantings. As you select plants, consider leaf and flower color, and how it will blend or clash with existing landscape and hardscaping. An easy way to succeed with color is to design with hues from the same color family. This works especially well in front yard gardens, where you want to make a great first impression on guests and passersby. Another goof-proof method is scattering clumps of the same color throughout planting areas, creating what’s called a color echo. Don’t forget to study bloom time and plan for color throughout the gardening season. Add in contrasting leaf and plant textures to stir some drama in the landscape. Pictured below: Create an eye-pleasing planting by using a color echo in plants and hardscaping. Here, burgundy repeats in barberry shrubs and a back door. Most gardeners grapple with some kind of critter issue. Whether it’s tunneling voles, hopping rabbits or strolling deer, wildlife can make short work of any landscape design, transforming gardening efforts into stems and stubs. While you may not be able to win every battle, you can outsmart the animals. Installing hardscaping, like a fence, provides a physical barrier that can limit wildlife’s access to gardening areas. But in formal front yards or excessively large backyards, a fence isn’t always practical or affordable. You can also outwit critters by choosing plants they dislike. If rabbits devour your coralbells (even though they’re not supposed to eat those), ditch the coralbells for something local bunnies find less palatable. In the long run, you’ll save yourself hours of aggravation and likely a wad of cash that you would have spent on replacement plants. Pictured below: Give deer the brushoff by using plants they find distasteful, like cheery daffodils and variegated ‘Jack Frost’ Brunnera, B. macrophylla.

771 Andersen Dr San Rafael, CA 94901 (415) 456-2169 We took so long to decide to get artificial grass. If i had only known it would go this smoothly after making the decision i would have done this so long ago. German came and gave us an estimate a year ago. He was so patient. The crew came this morning (6-3-2013) I had not watered the grass in 6 weeks. It looked rugged. At the end of the day our "grass" looks and feels amazing. They even moved a medium sized citrus tree to another location. I thought it was gonna be lost. We planted that citrus tree when we moved in with our daughter. These guys are special. The main reason for all this grass is we are getting a Service dog for our autistic son. This will give me more time with my family and the dogs wont ruin the grass. So all that said, I highly recommend Better Than Real Artificial Grass. Plus it looks and feels better than our friends grass done by a competitor. (sorry Greg) Thank You. We will definitely get our front lawn done soon The guys who installed the artificial grass I bought elsewhere did a very good job. No complaints about that. I had not bought quite enough product to complete the project so the workers had to return to finish up on another day. I was told that I would be charged $50 per worker for the time they would be on the job which was fine by me. Unfortunately the arrived very early on a Saturday morning and this had not been scheduled or OK'd with me. Gabriel in the main office did not know they were at the house either when I called. I told them to just finish up even though it disturbed all the neighbors. They worked about 1.5 hrs and left everything finished beautifully. Later I received a bill for $400. I called and said that I would pay the bill but I did not understand the total. Then I learned that they charge for 1/2 days minimum with travel time. I suggested that I should have been told this initially since I could have finished the minimal amount of work left myself and not have bothered the neighbors to boot. I was basically just shined on by being told "the owner" insisted it be this way ie good cop (Gabriel) versus the unknown bad cop owner. Not at all professional. Left a very bad taste in my mouth. This entire process and the end result are very superior. The installers worked hard, the result is perfect, and I love the product! My dog loves it too! Highly recommend BTRAG. BTW, the product is luxurious, made in USA, and lead and metal free. Jorge came out on a Wednesday to our place in San Francisco. Jorge and his crew started on Friday. We have had a ton of contractors do work on our houses over the years, and they were top notch. Always on time, highly communicative, very professional when they showed up (all in uniforms). As they worked throughout the day, they were efficient and fast and did all of the little stuff right. Offered to throw away extra trash, cleaned the yard outside of the area they were workingon, and when they were finished made sure everything was spick and span. HIGHLY recommended from a self-proclaimed pain in the butt customer. Thanks Better Than Real Artificial Grass I'm more than pleased with my decision to use Better Than Real Artificial Grass. I have dogs that will never ruin my new turf and it stands up well to the pee and poop test. A quick rinse of 30 seconds eliminates any order that may follow. Installation was flawless and the attention to detail was amazing. I'm saving time and money, this product will pay for itself and use less resources. It's green in more ways than one. If you're on the fence on why you would use this product, ping me and I'll tell you why their product is superior and their service is unsurpassed. We've had our BTG lawn for about a year now and it is fantastic. It has held up well to 2 small boys; a dog and various wildlife (Deer, coyotes) that frequent our lawn. Jorge and his team are extremely responsive; they completed the work on schedule and did not leave a mess behind. It is wonderful in the winter since the boys can play on the lawn in the rain with no mud!! Can't say enough about Jorge and his crew. Stan came out to give me an estimate on a Saturday and he was there exactly when he said he would be, he was professional, knowledgeable, and his estimate was lower than all other turf companies I had received estimates from. On the day they were to install the artificial grass they showed up at exactly 8 AM when they said they would arrive. Stan had a crew of 6 or 7 with two large trucks. Their estimate was to finish in 2 days and they were done in 1 day with a lot of extra touches that were not in the estimate and that they did not charge for. I'm not sure why anyone would go to any other turf company seeing the quality product and installation done by Jorge, Stan, and their crew. A totally professional organization. Made an appt for them to come give an estimate, so I came home early from work. About a half hour after he said he would be here I had to call him and leave a message, than an hour after he was supposed to be here he left a message to say he was late and would be here in 2 hours (around 7:30)! When I called him to let him know that wouldn't work he didn't even apologize or try to reschedule. I will be taking my business elsewhere. A crew of 4 plus a supervisor who estimated the job arrived before 8AM. They worked nonstop until after 5PM on our 30 by 20Ft back yard. Took out the old sod and removed many difficult tree roots, added their gravel, sand, edging, grass product, more sand, etc. It was perfect. I stare at it constantly. It sets off our back space beautifully and no more watering, mowing, fertilizing. So happy with the whole process. Jorge and his crew came and installed artificial grass in our back yard last summer. First, their price was almost half the cost of their major competitor. The grass has held up well through the winter thus far. Jorge was very professional from the first day of the estimate til the end of the project. The impressive thing is that they even let you have samples to keep to determine which type of artificial grass you want installed. On the day of the install, Jorge's crew showed up on time an did a great job. The only thing I'd recommend is for their crew is to sweep up the excess base crumbed rubber used instead of just air blowing it away. My dog and my kids love the grass. It has definitely made life more enjoyable!! No more mowing and spending all that money on fertilizer and watering!!! Yay! Our sundeck in lower pac heights is complete, and looking like a lush palm springs oasis thanks to these guys at Better Than Real Artificial Grass. Jorge and his staff were very professional, friendly, and always called back or emailed when they said they would. We were able to select a great "realistic" grass with many natural grass blade colors in it so at first glance you'd never know. We have pups who love it and have not pee'd on it yet but if they did its no biggie you just hose it off. Everyone who's come by is so impressed and can't believe the difference and is surprised how realistic the grass is. I would recommend them and will def return if we need more grass done. Thanks guys! Trish They are AMAZING! We could not be happier with the quality of work that was done in our backyard...we are thinking of having the front done now also. The quality of product they use is great...and dog resistant which was important for us because our dogs had dug huge holes in the grass (which was why we went for the artificial instead). Almost all of our neighbors have come over to look at the work that was done and not only were they all impressed, many asked for the contact information so they can have artificial grass put in at their homes as well. Jorge and Gabriel are so helpful and professional, as are the guys who do the installation. I would recommend Better Than Real Artifical Grass to anyone.

Your driveway is an important part of your landscaping because it gives guests and neighbors a first impression of your home. It is also likely that your driveway will be driven on every day. That means in addition to looking good, it needs to be durable and functional. A well-designed driveway will take into account the surrounding landscape as well as your home's architectural style. Additionally, the width and layout of your driveway will impact how accessible your home is. There are a variety of layout options for residential driveways you can choose from to accommodate your needs. Your next decision is to choose the best material to use to pave your driveway, considering your budget and design goals. The material you select for your driveway also must durable enough to resist tire marks, oil drips and deicing chemicals. You will also want to consider accessories that make your driveway safer and more appealing, such as gates and lighting. Get these tips In this section, you'll find tips from landscaping professionals driveway installers on: The four main factors to consider when determining the best driveway layout. A comparison of the three most common driveway layouts - straight, circular and curved - and the best applications for each. The four main considerations when determining the placement of your driveway: safety, access, drainage and aesthetics. Recommended widths for single- and double-car driveways to ensure easy accessibility. How to determine the best length for your driveway, based on your property's layout. The pros and cons of the most popular material options for paving a driveway, including concrete, gravel, pavers and asphalt. The average per-square-foot installation costs for the various driveway materials. Additional factors that may increase the cost of a driveway, including complex designs, drainage and grading needs, and incorporating slopes or curves. How the look you are going for will influence what materials you select for your driveway. Design ideas for gravel driveways, including the use of multiple gravel colors to create a pattern and decorative edging to keep the gravel in place. The various options for asphalt driveways, included recycled asphalt, tar-and-chip driveways, and stamped and colored asphalt. The many decorative options for concrete driveways, including stains, integral colors and pattern stamping. Ideas for accenting a driveway with decorative borders, bands and aprons made of flagstone, pavers, or brick. Important considerations when selecting landscape plants for bordering a driveway, including pedestrian and vehicle access, overhang, and climate. The best heat-resistant shrubs for planting alongside a driveway. Options for lighting your driveway at night, along with suggestions for positioning light fixtures to optimize safety. Popular gate styles and materials for residential driveways. A driveway is a great way to welcome guests and direct people's focus to your home, putting it on display. The design can range from simple and functional to one that incorporates sweeping curves that add interest to the overall look of your home and front yard.

Landscaping Ideas For Front Of HouseIdeas and Ideas | Ideas and Ideas

Garden Design For Small Gardens Ideas - Best Garden Reference

Small Front Garden Ideas Pictures - Best Garden Reference

1 of 5 You’re finally ready to invite friends and neighbors into your new house, but before you send out invitations, take a few minutes to plan out how to make your party special. The best housewarming parties encourage old friends to visit your new digs and help foster new friendships with your neighbors! 1. Include a Handwritten Note Printed invitations are a worthy and budget-friendly time saver, but don’t be afraid to add a quick note to entice new neighbors to attend. A simple “Hope to see you there!” will increase your chances of a higher turn-out and shows that you are truly excited to host your guests. 2. Include Directions In the age of GPS navigation systems, it might be easy to forgo step-by-step directions. By including a simple map, hand-drawn or pulled from the internet, it’ll show your guests that you’ve taken the extra step to help them feel welcome. Plus, it will probably decrease the chances of anyone getting lost on the way to your new place! 3. Welcome Friends of Friends Etiquette may frown on people bringing uninvited guests, but meeting friends of friends is a great way to expand your social circle. Therefore, encourage coworkers and new neighbors to bring friends if they’d like.