Dallas Water Feature
More and more homeowners are choosing to add water features to their landscapes. Water gardens can add interest to an otherwise unremarkable yard, form an appealing border for a patio or deck, or provide soothing sounds to drown out the noise of a surrounding neighborhood or nearby street. Just look at how the pond and waterfall we installed for a Dallas-Fort Worth area homeowner adds to the appeal of this backyard!
Water gardens are fairly simple structures. Most begin with a pond of some sort, and ponds are built by digging a hold in the ground, laying down a liner, and placing rocks or other hardscape around the edge. But no pond is complete without plants, both in the water and in the area surrounding the pond.
Adding plants to the water itself is the key to avoiding algae problems. It’s important to cover at least 60 percent of the water’s surface with plants such as water lilies, water hyacinths and oxygenating plants, which actually filter the water to help keep it clean.
In addition to placing plants in the water, you should add plants in the area immediately surrounding your pond to mask the pond liner and soften the look of the rocks or hardscaping that forms the border.
Which plants should you choose?
- If you want to create a Japanese feel, try dwarf conifers (such as Alberta Spruce) with minimum color or alpine plants.
- To add height, you can use conifers, crimson fountain grass (Pennisetum rubrum) and Siberian iris (a bog-loving plant).
- Other good plants to use around ponds, especially those with a lot of rock, include some of the sedums and hen-and-chicks. They add a variety of color. Some are tight and low growing, while others are more leggy. They do great in full sun and help soften the rocks by growing right around them.
When all of the plants are in place, the next step is to add mulch to help prevent the soil from eroding away. It protects the plants and provides a finished look for your water feature, but also helps retain moisture and keeps the weeds away. Be sure to water all of your plants regularly to get them up and growing.
In the current economic climate, people are increasingly looking at low budget options when it comes to home improvement and landscaping. Believe it or not, there are plenty of landscaping projects you can do that will have a big impact on a small budget.
When it comes to maintaining a landscape, the four factors that incur continual costs are trimming, mulching, weeding, and watering. By minimizing these, you will not only reduce the amount of maintenance (and work!) needed to maintain your garden – you will also save money!
Dallas Arbors, Fencing
Listed below are some landscape design tips that will help reduce the cost of maintaining your landscaped garden:
- Replace mulch with gravel: Using gravel in place of mulch can help reduce weeds and also aids in soil retention. And unlike mulch, gravel seldom needs replacement.
- Choose plants wisely: Avoid insect- and disease-prone plants (such as Azaleas), as well as plants that need continual pruning (such as dwarf yaupons and boxwood).
- Develop various points of focus in your garden: Consider the use of things other than plants to serve as points of focus. Adding pathways to your landscape design can be a great way to allow access to various parts within the space, and can be quite pleasing to the eye.
- Invest in landscape lighting: Lighting can help you showcase the most beautiful parts of your landscape, while masking those that are less desirable. Good lighting also provides security, and is a great economical way to increase your home’s value.
- Add a water feature: Outdoor fountains are appealing to the eye and a great way to de-stress, and not all water fountains are expensive.
Not all landscaping projects require big budgets, and sometimes small changes can make a big difference in the look of your yard as well as your enjoyment of your outdoor space. Check out the beautiful pathways we installed around a Dallas-Fort Worth area home!
With some careful planning and wise investing, you can improve the look of your landscape without breaking the bank.
Dallas Patios and Landscape Lighting
Landscape lighting is a great way of enhancing the look of your home and yard after dark, making your yard more pleasant to relax in at night, and an attractive place for evening entertaining. If you’ve put the effort into making your yard attractive, landscape lighting will ensure that your hard work doesn’t go to waste once the sun goes down.
Homeowners install landscape lighting for a variety of reasons. Lighting can be used to illuminate steps and pathways for added safety, to highlight specific architectural details of your home, or to create a particular mood (from subdued or relaxed, to dramatic or formal) in your yard.
If you are thinking of installing landscape lighting as part of your overall landscape design, here are five ways you can use lighting to beautify your home and improve your landscape:
- Pathway lights blaze a clear, bright walking path through your landscape while ensuring the safety of residents and visitors alike in the evening hours.
- Patio lighting invites cheerful gatherings by adding practical light without sacrificing the evening atmosphere.
- Uplighting carefully placed behind foundation shrubbery illuminates not only the shrubbery and your home’s façade, but also provides pathway lighting to increase safety and present a more welcoming appearance for evening visitors.
- Poolside lighting yields a soft effect for your pool area, enabling safe evening use of the pool and unobtrusive visibility from the house. Take a look at the work we did for one Dallas-Fort Worth area homeowner – the new landscape lighting adds warm atmosphere to the pool area and enhances the safety of the deck and pool at night.
- Recessed outdoor lights can be used to direct the eye to the movement of water in a fountain, waterfall, or other water feature.
Think of outdoor lighting as jewelry. Landscape lights can really make a home pop at night, but getting your lighting plan right can be tough.
A good landscape lighting contractor will approach each home as a blank canvas, considering the architectural details, landscape highlights and open spaces before crafting a lighting design that draws attention to the best aspects of all of these things. The results should leave your home’s outdoor areas more beautiful at night, safer for your family and more inviting for lingering and lounging outdoors into the evening and through the night.
