You pull up in the driveway of the magnificent waterfront home, eager to join the others by the lake across the yard. But to get there, you have to follow a worn, muddy trail past the garage and HVAC compressor. Then, once you get there, you happen to catch the view from across the manicured..
When it comes to groundcovers, there’s a lot of ground to cover. Shady, shallow-root areas under tree crowns, where nothing else wants to grow. Steep hillsides and banks, where erosion washes away anything trying to grow, along with the soil and nutrients. No-longer-wanted expanses of lawn, where mowing, thatching, fertilizing and watering don’t make for..
Sometimes, function follows form. And there are instances in which outright defiance of fundamental architectural principles leads to the most extraordinary of homes. The gracious home of one of our clients in White County, shown below, is a case in point. Here, the front door—actually a set of French doors—is not the focal point of..
My dentist was keeping me in the dark. It wasn’t his dental practice, per se. It was his gardening practices. He had allowed the garden in front of his office to become so unruly and overgrown that the bushes and trees completely blocked the windows—and virtually all the natural light. I offered him a deal: ..
Learn. Grow. Do. Teach. There were plenty of reasons not to do it. I could have easily talked myself out of it. I’m too busy. I haven’t done anything like this in years. It might be too hard. What if I fail? But ultimately, my love of learning and growing in my profession won out,..
It’s not unusual for a client to engage us to help with a particular goal, challenge or space and then expand the scope of the project when it becomes apparent that a related project could make the property more enjoyable or functional. This happened with a client I posted about recently, who initially wanted to..
Edgy isn’t always where you want to be. You can feel mighty edgy after catching the red-eye from LaGuardia seated next to an unhappy infant. You might not want to wear that edgy outfit at a funeral. But when it comes to lawns and gardens, edgy is almost always a good thing. Edging garden beds..
I read in an article the other day that composting is going high-end. Yep, in some of the more avant-garde regions of the country, composting is becoming so fashionable that it’s being designed right into kitchen décor. Circular insets are being precision-cut right into Carrara marble countertops, through which food scraps are discretely dropped into..
This year, as shiny wrapping papers are being ripped off of boxes, and bows and ribbons are flying through the air, you should think about giving yourself a special gift, one of those gifts that really does keep on giving: a low-maintenance garden. If you play your spades right, a low-maintenance garden will give you..
Whether your winter celebrations are sacred, religious, cultural, pagan, pure retail or astronomical (Winter Solstice is December 22nd), I’ll bet you’d love to add some color and cheer to your surroundings during this coldest of seasons. Have you thought about sourcing your gardens and yard for decorations? You might be surprised at the variety of..
Art of Stone is an award winning landscape design service recognized by the Urban Ag Council of Georgia.
Stonemason Jason Brosche is a recipient of the Master Craftsmen Award.
Best of Houzz landscaping service companies.
