Tag Archives: landscaping

More Info About Landscape Design

Landscape design in Prescott isn’t just about what flowers to plant in fall,  or how much to water.  Sometimes, it is also about ingenuity as well.

Landscape Design Tip:  Convert Your Yard To Desert Landscaping

Landscape Design to Fit Your Taste | (928) 356-8167
Landscape Design to Fit Your Taste | (928) 356-8167

Some people may wonder why anyone would want to convert a yard to desert landscaping would be a good idea in a place as hot as Arizona.  Well, while lawns are beautiful green spaces, they are also fairly labor intensive as well as cost intensive.  If you have a lawn, for example, you can expect to pay up to 10% higher water bills per month from having to water your lawn.   Hiring a service saves you labor, but doesn’t necessarily save you money.  With people having to make cutbacks, one solution involves changing their yard over to something more economical.

yard conversions have started to rise.  Most housing tracts and commercial centers are already starting to incorporate desert landscaping.   It’s merely a matter of removing lawn,  laying down gravel, putting a few boulders around, and planting a cactus or two or some desert plants.  However, it isn’t just desert landscaping that you can convert a yard to.

Yard Conversions: More Landscape Tips

Maybe you don’t want to go desert on your landscaping.  Well, did you know that you can turn your yard into a tropical oasis of landscape design.  Whatever, you decide, make sure you do it right.

Having a lawn isn’t for everyone.  If you want to cut back on your water bill, and are no tired of mowing your lawnl, don’t make it a crater, make it into something else.  Convert your lawn to an area that has landscaping instead.

Green ServPro LLC
600 W. Ray Rd. Suite B2
Prescott AZ 85225
(928) 356-8167
http://www.greenservpro.com

Landscape Design in Prescott: The Features You Want

Landscape Design in Prescott, AZ
Landscape Design in Prescott, AZ | Call Us Today | (928) 356-8167

Landscape design is all about features.  Well, at least good design is.  If you get a water feature for example, but don’t want to take care of it, pretty soon you’re going to have a rather odd flowerbed.  Inversely, if you get a desert plot of land, and would like a bit of water to break up all the brown, you’re doing yourself another disservice.  You want to work with a professional company that helps you to find the best compromise.

Principles of Prescott Landscape Design

Blessed by warm weather nearly year round as well as a fairly relaxed lifestyle, Prescott, Arizona is an oasis in the desert.  If you live in or near Prescott, you want your landscape design to take the climate into consideration.  What do we mean?  Well, from April until sometimes as late as October, Arizona gets HOT.  Not just warm, not just balmy, HOT with capital letters.

Prescott Landscape Design: Simple Truths

Elaborate landscape design requires elaborate care.  Simple landscaping doesn’t.  Sounds pretty straightforward, but the definition between simple and elaborate is also based on your abilities as well as time constraints.  During the summer in Arizona, there are only two times you can comfortably work outside: very early morning and early evening.  The rest of the time, the heat is a bit too much for most people to deal with.

That’s where we can help you.  If you have a vision for your landscape design, from an elaborate flower garden to a Japanese garden, we are professionals, and we even know how to work around the heat.

Green Servpro is a landscape design service in Prescott, AZ.  Call us today, and let us take your vision from dream to beautiful reality.

Green ServPro LLC
600 W. Ray Rd. Suite B2
Prescott AZ 85225
(928) 356-8167
http://www.greenservpro.com

Landscape Design in Arizona: Work With Nature Not Against It

Good Landscape Design is About What Works


If you live in Arizona, landscape design can be a challenge.  Try to use native plants whenever possible.  If it grows here, it will likely do well in your yard.

Don’t Use Invasive Plants in Your Landscape Design

Your neighbors will thank you.  Your city will thank you, and your landscape design company will also thank you.  If you don’t believe that planting the wrong plant can be disastrous, look at the kudzu.  It grows a foot a day and has pretty much eaten the South.

Think About Water Use in Your Landscape Design

Don’t plant a rosebush, which needs a lot of water in an area designed for desert plants, and don’t put a cactus in a rose garden, plant complementary plants together, when planning your landscape design.

When in doubt, call in a professional landscape design service

Green ServPro offers landscape design, lawn care, and sprinkler repair among many other services. Call us today and let us show you what we can do for you, or arrange a consultation.

Green ServPro LLC
600 W. Ray Rd. Suite B2
Prescott AZ 85225
(928) 356-8167
http://www.greenservpro.com

Landscape Design Part 3: Rock Gardens

In Part 3 of our series, we will explore another type of landscape design: a rock garden.  Rock gardens come in many forms.  One of the most popular is a classic Japanese rock garden.  According to this Wikipedia article:

The Rock Garden and Landscape Design

Rock Garden
Rock Garden

The Japanese rock garden (枯山水 karesansui?) or “dry landscape” garden, often called a zen garden, creates a miniature stylized landscape through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes, and uses gravel or sand that is raked to represent ripples in water.[1] A zen garden is usually relatively small, surrounded by a wall, and is usually meant to be seen while seated from a single viewpoint outside the garden, such as the porch of the hojo, the residence of the chief monk of the temple or monastery. Classical zen gardens were created at temples of Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan during the Muromachi Period. They were intended to imitate the intimate essence of nature, not its actual appearance, and to serve an aid to meditation about the true meaning of life.[2]

Ancient Landscape Designs

Rock gardens existed in Japan at least since the Heian Period (784-1185). These early gardens were described in the first manual of Japanese gardens, Sakuteiki, or Records of Garden Keeping, written at the end of the 11th century by Tachibana no Toshitsuna (1028–1094). They were largely copied from the Chinese gardens of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), where groups of rocks symbolized Mount Penglai, the legendary mountain-island home of the Eight Immortals in Chinese mythology, known in Japanese as Horai.

To read more of this article, click here.

Rock gardens are only one method of landscape design.  Part 1 of our series explored desert landscaping and Part 2 explored tropical plants.

Whether you want to go for the desert, or turn your home into a paradise, the right landscape design company can help you.

Green ServPro is a landscape design company based in Prescott, AZ.

Green ServPro LLC
600 W. Ray Rd. Suite B2
Prescott AZ 85225
(928) 356-8167
http://www.greenservpro.com

Read:

Landscape Design Part 1: Desert Landscaping
Landscape Design Part 2: Tropical and Sub-Tropical Landscaping
Landscape Design Part 3: Rock Gardens

Landscape Design Part 1: Desert Landscaping

Landscape design is something that can be tailored to particular areas and climates, like the desert Southwest.  This article from About.COM lists some plants that do very well in Arizona.

Desert Plants and Landscape Design

landscape design
Bougainvillea

These desert plants are great choices for people who don’t want to spend lots of time working in the yard, but want a nice, colorful look in their desert garden.Keep in mind that all of these plants will thrive in the Phoenix area, but not in other parts of Arizona, where we have everything from low desert to high desert and even sub-alpine conditions.

Bougainvillea (at left)
Oleander
Texas Sage / Purple Sage
Lantana
Pampas Grass
Fairy Duster

To read more about using desert plants in your landscape design, please visit http://phoenix.about.com/od/desertplantsandflowers/a/desertplants.htm

Landscape Design in Arizona

Arizona is a diverse environment for landscape design.  The plants that grow here reflect this bio-diversity.  A bougainvillea would do well down here, but not as well in the White Mountains or the northern end of the state.  Another thing to consider is placement with a bougainvillea.  They do well where they can get a lot of sunshine.  They are also very drought tolerant, but will grow quickly when watered.  While there are several varieties of bougainvillea , the variety with the magenta colored leaves does the best as it is incredibly hardy.  In addition to their hardiness, they are also surprisingly versatile.  You can let them grow into a bush, let them be vines, or even be ground cover to keep weeds out.  Be warned however, that if you let them grow wild, you will need to trim them.

Principles of Landscape Design

Landscaping design operates under various principles, and one of them is how adaptable a plant is to a desert environment.  A professional company would be capable of guiding you on plant selection, placement and many other tips to improve your home’s yard.

Green ServPro is a landscape design company based in Arizona.

Landscape Design Part 1: Desert Landscaping
Landscape Design Part 2: Tropical and Sub-Tropical Landscaping
Landscape Design Part 3: Rock Gardens

Green ServPro LLC
600 W. Ray Rd. Suite B2
Prescott AZ 85225
(928) 356-8167
http://www.greenservpro.com

 

Who Hires a Landscape Designer

Hire a Landscape Designer | (928) 356-8167
Hire a Landscape Designer | (928) 356-8167

A landscape designer is a specialist in curb appeal, or the appearance of your home. Beautiful landscaping in any area serves as a reminder of nature, even in the middle of a bustling city, as this article about the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park shows.

The Japanese Friendship Garden, also known as San Kei En is a Japanese Garden within Balboa Park, San Diego. It is an expression of friendship between San Diego and its sister city Yokohama that binds the two cultures to create a unique experience for visitors from all over the world. Representing a new concept in the development of a Japanese garden outside of Japan, the Japanese Friendship Garden is designed to present an atmosphere of elegant simplicity (shibui) and quiet beauty. The design is guided by the original principles of the Japanese garden while incorporating elements of the regional landscape and climate.

A garden is always in a state of change but the basic elements of trees, shrubs, rocks and water designed in natural balance create a peaceful, harmonious, and transcendental environment conducive to contemplation and meditation.

To read more about the Japanese Friendship garden and the elements of landscape design it uses, please click here.

An underlying theme like a Zen garden, or a tropical oasis is a good thing in landscape design, and is fairly customizable. Some themes can even be mixed and matched.  Be warned however, that you want to make sure that you aren’t mixing things that will overpower each other.

As to who would would hire a landscape design professional, there are some clear demographics.  Women are more likely to than men, upper middle class families and small businesses are more likely to hire than lower income families and corporations.

A beautiful landscape helps us to reset from the stress of life.  And one of the best first steps to take is to hire a professional with landscape design

Green Servpro is a landscape design company based in Prescott, AZ, and serving the entire Greater Phoenix area.

Green ServPro LLC
600 W. Ray Rd. Suite B2
Prescott AZ 85225
(928) 356-8167
http://www.greenservpro.com

 

Landscape Design

Get Landscape Design in Prescott, AZ | (928) 356-8167
Get Landscape Design in Prescott, AZ | (928) 356-8167

Sound landscape design is composed of many different elements, as this article from Colorado State shows:

Elements of Sound Landscape Design

The principles of landscape design include the elements of unity, scale, balance, simplicity, variety, emphasis, and sequence as they apply to line, form, texture, and color.  These elements are interconnected.

Landscape design is a process of developing practical and pleasing outdoor living space.

Unity attracts and holds attention. It organizes view into orderly groups with emphasis.

Form is determined by the line, direction, and arrangement of branches and twigs. The resulting mass influences the scale. For unity, repeat the topography form in plant forms.

Horizontal and spreading forms emphasis the lateral extent and breath of space.  They are comfortable because it corresponds with the natural direction of eye movement.

Rounded forms are most common in plant materials.  They allow for easy eye movement and create a pleasant undulation that leads itself to plant groupings.

Vase-shaped trees define a comfortable “people space” beneath the canopy.

Lines are a powerful design element that define rooms and connect people to the landscape.For a professional touch, use sweeping bold lines and curves rather than small zigzags and small wavy curves.

To read more of this article, please click here.

Landscape Design:  Location, Location, Location!

Incorporating line,  unity and form are just some of the elements that a good landscape designer will employ.  There is also the use of color and how much upkeep is necessary.  Planting a jacaranda or a cottonwood tree near a pool looks lovely, for example, until you get tired of constantly cleaning out your pool and filter.

Also, mixing plants that need different watering levels is another thing.  A desert environment doesn’t need as much water as a tropical flower/plant bed.  Roses look lovely, but if you plant them too close together, you can end up with an out of control thicket.  Landscape design is also about the right type of plants to put in the ground.

A good landscape design company will know to avoid invasive plants like Bermuda grass.

As you see, it’s not just about digging a hole, and putting a plant or some seeds in the ground.  You have to do a bit of homework, or contact a landscape design professional.

Green ServPro is a Prescott landscape design company.

Green ServPro LLC
600 W. Ray Rd. Suite B2
Prescott AZ 85225
(928) 356-8167
http://www.greenservpro.com