Picture Perfect Patio

We do a lot of work on Clear Lake the furthest eastern edge of our county another beautiful location, rolling hills, big old oaks and maples, lots of homes with glacial stone walls and features. I had my first look at this project a couple of years ago when I was called out to access the condition of a slate covered porch. The slate was installed on top of concrete, mortared but had begun to crack and separate making it unsightly and unsafe. Three years later it was clear extensive renovation was needed and I met with the home owner and general contractor to discuss the possibilities. Landscaping is a subjective art form, there are as many opinions about what to do with a job as there are designers. As I have previously said my job is to listen, make suggestions and try to help the client reach their dreams.

This home was completely renovated several years ago with the exception of the basement doors, windows and exterior facade. The original configuration of the porch, steps and sidewalk was not satisfactory, the outside door did not line up with the steps or the sidewalk, there was cavernous darkness, mud and poor usage of space. We could repair what they had or start over with a design that that optimized the space, matched the past renovation and brought a contemporary edge to the home. That meant complete demolition of all the existing concrete and sidewalk, new doors and windows, shifting the walk and door and steps.

The home is a walkout basement on the lakeside and limited access required we build a road in the narrow space between our client and his neighbor, we rebuilt the neighbors property to his specifications as we worked our way out of the job. Coming down the hill on our big John Deere was a precarious task requiring full concentration, there were a thousand trips up and down between the tear out and completion. A snap cut stone staircase belonging to our client had to have several step removed to make room for equipment, to keep our road protected we covered it nightly, if the hill got to greasy we were out of business for the day.

An excavator did the tear out while a concrete contractor poured a new foundation for us to install pavers. Generally we put pavers on top of a compacted limestone base but concrete is the cadillac of bases especially when you are on a built up porch or have steps to pave. The layout was very meticulous to ensure limited cutting for the pavers. Our photos begin with the job after the concrete was installed.

New Construction Landscaping, Allen Block Walls, What To Do With That Old Canoe

Designing, selling and installing landscaping for a newly constructed house is a huge undertaking, one that is full of challenges, stress, uncertainty and huge rewards. The process begins with a handshake and often ends with hugs. Imagine you meet someone who has just been through one of most stressful events of their lives, building a home. In our case often their dream lake home, and that home is perfect on the inside now they are on this beautiful lot over looking a lake and their yard is dirt, a dust bowl in the summer, a quagmire in the spring, no grass and the shade trees were removed to make room for the house, in addition to this the house was over budget and they are financially drained. Now comes the landscaper telling the them to expect between 5 and 15% of their total project cost be a ballpark of landscaping expense. That is for your everyday job, but people now want hot tubs, outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, big screen TVs, gazebos, arbors and exotic plants, oh and by the way all these things should be maintenance free.

For me this is a huge responsibility one that I take very serious. I am making decisions that will effect homeowners forever. Lets face it, changing the landscaping ain't moving furniture and painting walls, it is expensive, labor intensive and often out of the comfort zone of many homeowners. Listening is the key for me; trying to get to know people, their style, outdoor habits, needs, wants and don't wants, maintenance requirements, future plans and desires. Many customers have a difficult time articulating their needs because they are not familiar with plants and have trouble conceptualizing hardscape design or blueprints. Frankly, many times they have been exhausted by the building process and just want to see something "green."

Some designers like to impress their customers with fancy talk and 2D cad drawings, using botanical names and forcing styles that suite their current inventory. I do not operate that way, I like to meet on the site, get inside their house to see what they like, talk about pets, children, grandchildren, entertainment requirements, what they liked or did not like about their previous gardens. Proportion, transition, unity, balance, form, texture and rhythm are achieved more easily with a good understanding of your client and what they want. I like feeling in sync with my customers and exceed their expectations.

If I am lucky enough to be asked to do a drawing for someone I generally go to the site several times, take photos of all sides, do my first drawing a scaled site plan usually on 1/8 or 1/4" scale, note all existing objects (e.g. TV tower, driveway, existing trees), rough in my concept and get back to the shop and start to fine tune my concepts. I bring the customer to our shop and display gardens to pick out material and get a better feeling of their style. We look at various hardscape materials as needed and put it all together for a final presentation.

If all goes well and we get the job the fun just begins. We do our absolute best to stay on schedule but landscaping is weather sensitive, material dependent, labor intensive and about as darn hard as building a house, especially on some of the bigger projects. A big job may take several weeks and hundreds of labor hours. It is very personal and makes a lasting impression.

The job in these photos features Allen Block segmented retaining walls, snap cut staircase, glacial stone seawall, EZ block retaining walls, a great color pallet of plant material and the first canoe we ever planted. It was a challenging job with a 14' drop from the house to the lake in 70', we needed to get the steps in but try to squeeze in some landings (flat ground). The pictures are in process and I will post completed photos at a later