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Perched high atop a mountain in Lansing, North Carolina, this home has spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The yard around it, consisting of a steep and rocky slope, immediately drops and experiences other unforgiving conditions, such as harsh sunlight, extreme winds and poor drainage. When the couple who lives here turned to garden designer Jay Sifford for help beautifying the hillside, he embraced the idea of meeting the site’s challenges.
“The biggest challenge was balance. I didn’t want the garden to compete with the mountains. But the garden needed to speak to the mountains and hold its own against them without overpowering them,” Sifford says. The tectonic plates that formed the mountains hundreds of millions of years ago inspired his design, which is composed of stunning mounds of plants, including grasses, shrubs, ground covers, evergreens and perennials.
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Przygoda-Montgomery also believes that a thoughtful layout and comfortable seating are essential for creating an inviting landscape, especially if the space will be used for entertaining. “If there’s not a comfortable place to sit or a surface to set down a drink, guests won’t linger long,” she says.
Przygoda-Montgomery, who designed the shaded patio in Oro Valley, Arizona, seen here, says that a way to assess whether your yard is guest-ready is to actually host something. “If people are left standing awkwardly or are unsure where to gather, it’s a sign that the space needs better flow and a better furniture arrangement,” she says.
How to Create an Inviting Outdoor Seating Area
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The layout of the kitchen revolves around an island measuring 8 by 3⅓ feet. “We placed seating on three sides of the island so that during gatherings people could have conversations across the island. Also, our clients like to eat breakfast together here,” Rachaman says. The island contains storage and a microwave drawer. The light fixture overhead adds a modern touch, and its barely-there silhouette preserves views of the garden.
One of the homeowners loves to cook and bake. The other’s interest in the culinary arts lies primarily in enjoying food. “The cook had a lot of specialty tools and gadgets he wanted to use,” Rachaman says. “He cooks Asian food a lot and wanted specific places to put things like the small bowls he likes to serve it in.” The designers planned storage to house items like this, as well as spices, mixing bowls, baking sheets and cutting boards. The homeowner also has a large cookbook collection, and the designers tailored the island to house them.
One quirky part of the renovation involved one of the homeowners’ cold morning swims in Lake Washington. “He hangs his wetsuit to dry in the coat closet,” Emhoff says. “He wanted the fridge to back up to this closet so the heat coming off it would help dry the wetsuit.” There’s a vented wall between the back of the fridge and the coat closet.
Cabinetry: Bellmont Cabinet; cabinet paint: Olympic Range, Sherwin-Williams; wall paint: Pink Ground, Farrow & Ball
Browse kitchen and dining furniture in the Houzz Shop
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7. Turn to Technology
Automate as many maintenance chores as you can. A good place to start is with your irrigation systems. You can add timers to in-ground systems, drip systems and soaker hoses. These systems allow for watering all parts of a garden without having to drag a hose from place to place. In-ground systems with a timer also reduce the possibility of tripping over a garden hose. You can set the timers for the times that are best for both you and your garden, such as during the night.
Take it a step further by adding other automated features, such as motion-activated lights that come on when you step out at night or lights that turn on and off on a regular schedule.
New smart and automated garden products and features are rapidly coming on the market as well. Look through gardening magazines and websites, and talk to the staff at nurseries and hardware stores about what automated features they would recommend.
Bonus: An automated watering system, particularly one with smart features, ensures that your garden will get the water it needs when it needs it, and often results in using less water.
Plus, automating both your irrigation and your lighting will allow you to go on vacation without scouring the neighborhood for someone to tend to your plants or, if it’s in a front yard, worrying that your home will look empty.
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Tile
If you live in an area with a warm-winter climate, you might want to consider a tile path.
Tiles can be less expensive than concrete, stone and brick while still delivering plenty of style. Options include terra-cotta and clay tiles as well as unglazed ceramic and porcelain tiles.
Glazed terra-cotta or clay tiles, with their rustic appeal, earth tones and natural variations, are a great choice for paths in the Southwest, but they also can feel at home in other warm-climate areas. These tiles can take day-to-day wear; between the two, terra-cotta tiles are less prone to cracking. You can set either on a concrete or sand-and-gravel base, although the former will provide more stability. Clay tile can be more slippery than terra-cotta tile when wet.
The porous nature of terra-cotta and clay tiles makes them more susceptible to stains, fading and surface damage. To keep them looking their best, clean up dirt and debris regularly and address any stains as soon as they appear. Applying a sealant can help protect against discoloration and wear, but keep in mind that resealing every few years would be necessary to maintain that protection.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Tile
If you live in an area with a warm-winter climate, you might want to consider a tile path.
Tiles can be less expensive than concrete, stone and brick while still delivering plenty of style. Options include terra-cotta and clay tiles as well as unglazed ceramic and porcelain tiles.
Glazed terra-cotta or clay tiles, with their rustic appeal, earth tones and natural variations, are a great choice for paths in the Southwest, but they also can feel at home in other warm-climate areas. These tiles can take day-to-day wear; between the two, terra-cotta tiles are less prone to cracking. You can set either on a concrete or sand-and-gravel base, although the former will provide more stability. Clay tile can be more slippery than terra-cotta tile when wet.
The porous nature of terra-cotta and clay tiles makes them more susceptible to stains, fading and surface damage. To keep them looking their best, clean up dirt and debris regularly and address any stains as soon as they appear. Applying a sealant can help protect against discoloration and wear, but keep in mind that resealing every few years would be necessary to maintain that protection.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
4. Wild Urban Spaces
Bringing some of the health benefits of the wilderness to busy urban lives was another trend seen across the show. The most striking example of this was the Fettercairn Wilderness Retreat balcony garden (pictured) by ssh scapes — Sonia Kamel, Sally Giles and Helier Bowling — and inspired by the wild landscape of the Scottish Cairngorms mountains.
This small urban space was designed for a busy professional couple “who love the outdoors and, in particular, the Cairngorms in Scotland, and want to recreate the environment for daily health benefits on their high-rise city balcony,” according to the RHS.
At the heart of the space was a copper bath perfect for a cold-water dip, which was surrounded by wild planting reminiscent of the grassy heaths, rocky outcrops and mossy glens typical of the area.
Shop for outdoor products
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Bringing reminders of loved ones into our living spaces is part of what makes our homes special. You can do the same in your garden by adding plants and features that symbolize those you have loved, honoring their lives and focusing on what they meant to you. While every memorial garden is unique and deeply personal, the ideas below offer inspiration to help you begin creating a heartfelt space in your own landscape.
As you plan your memorial garden, it’s important to think about the person your loved one was — “their quirks, their favorite things, their hobbies, their funny and inside jokes, their favorite words or sayings, their pets,” says Kristin Taunton, who worked with a design team on a memorial garden seen below. These personal touches can help shape a space that not only honors the person’s memory but also brings comfort and a lasting sense of connection.
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Jeff True, Hursthouse Landscape Architects and Contractors, Bolingbrook, Illinois
Chicago is known for its brutally cold winters and hot, dry summers. “Just a few hours north and south of here is a very different climate,” says Jeff True.
Turn to native hardwoods. True says that native hardwood trees can handle weather extremes and are often his starting points. These include several maples, such as red maple (Acer rubrum, zones 3 to 9), sugar maple (A. saccharum, zones 3 to 8; shown here), silver maple (A. saccharinum, zones 3 to 9) and Freeman’s maple (A. x. freemanii, zones 5 to 8).
Native white oak (Quercus alba, zones 3 to 9), which is the state tree of Illinois, is also a tried-and-true favorite, as are swamp white oak (Q. bicolor, zones 3 to 8), Chinquapin oak (Q. muehlenbergii, zones 5 to 7) and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata, zones 4 to 8). “I personally love Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus, zones 3 to 8) and hackberry (Celtis occidentalis, zones 2 to 9),” True says.
He adds that the new elm varieties resistant to Dutch elm disease, such as Triumph elm (Ulmus ‘Morton Glossy’, zones 4 to 7), are fast-growing, allowing them to fill in spaces quickly.
8 Reasons to Plant a Great Tree
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4. Pollinators Need More Than Just Flowers
Without foliage to eat, many youngsters and future butterflies, moths, flies and beetles would starve. The same can be said about pollen, which a lot of native bee species use to feed their young. Shallow flowers like asters (Symphyotrichum spp., zones 3 to 8, depending on sepcies) and sunflowers (Helianthus annuus, zones 2 to 11, depending on species) tend to attract a greater diversity of adult pollinators, but that doesn’t mean you should stick to that one form.
Additionally, try to use straight species where you can. These are native plants that have not been crossed or bred with others to produce new leaf colors or new flower colors and shapes. When plants are altered, the chemical makeup of their leaves may change and be unable to support as many caterpillars.