by: Chris Robertson
Your enjoyment of your home increases exponentially when you have a beautifully landscaped yard. Whether you've nurtured your home's landscaping with your own hands or hired a landscaper to create your slice of paradise, you no doubt experience pride and pleasure when you see dappled sunlight peeking through the trees or the riot of colors your perennials lend to your garden in the morning light.
Increasingly, homeowners are going to the next level with landscaping, and are investing time and money in outdoor lighting. Outdoor lighting enhances both the appearance of your home and your landscaping, as well as the enjoyment you and your guests experience when you entertain outdoors.
Typically, outdoor lighting focuses on focal points in the yard, though it can also be used as security lighting. Bill Locklin, owner of Nightscaping, the preeminent outdoor lighting company, suggests using 12-volt outdoor lighting to bring out the features of large trees, specimen plants, architecture, and water features. His suggestions include the following:
Large Trees: If the tree has open growth, let the light spill down through the leaves and branches, creating interesting shapes and contrasts in highlight and shadow. If the tree has full foliage, like some pines, try cross lighting or using a grazing light. If your focal point tree has an interesting bark texture, try grazing it to accent this feature and add a greater element of visual interest.
Specimen Plants: Consider hanging plants as well as ground plantings for focal point lighting. Try to throw shadows of smaller plants on walls and other surfaces for added effect. Bonsai plants are very effective when silhouetted to accent their unique shapes.
Architecture: Look at decorative construction techniques in masonry and wood facades. For example, place fixtures at the bottom of the gables and project the light up from each side so that it meets at the tip of the peak, or place two fixtures under the peak and aim them down to the lower edges. A home's door can be a focal point, as in the case of hand-carved wood, raised wood panels, pr artistic metal designs. Draw attention to the door from overhead, being careful not to cast glare in the eyes of those entering and exiting the building. Likewise, objects in the atrium, such as columns, arches, breezeways, ledges, shutters, cupolas, weather vanes, and seasonal and holiday flags can all be architectural focal points that can have attention drawn by professionally designed outdoor lighting.
Water Features: Fountains, fishponds, and moving streams all lend themselves to the introduction of landscape outdoor lighting. Filtered, crystal clean water can be lighted either from within or from above. Dirty water is usually best lighted from above or used as a reflecting surface to accent surrounding features. Designer fountain lighting can add drama to a yard's fountain.
Outdoor path lighting is also important, both for aesthetic and safety reasons. You, your family, and your guests should be able to safely move around your property after dark. Walkways should always be lighted both as a directional guide and prevent people from tripping on obstacles.
Outdoor lighting - whether it is path lighting, designer fountain lighting, or security lighting - gives your home another dimension, one to be enjoyed for years to come.
About The Author
Chris Robertson is a published author of Majon International. Majon International is one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing and internet advertising companies on the web. Visit their main business resource web site at: http://www.majon.com
To learn more about subjects like Outdoor Lighting please visit the web site at: http://nightscaping.com
For more information and informative related articles and links about this subject matter and content, please visit Majon's Home and Garden directory: http://www.majon.com/directory/Home_and_Garden
more about landscaping design
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Do Your Own Landscaping Design
by: Carmel Baird
Know what I love about getting the garden all cleaned up, it stays that way for much longer than when you get your home all cleaned up.
More and more people are turning to landscaping their gardens, not just planting a tree here and a shrub there but looking at their garden as they would look at the inside of their home. More thought as to the overall look and appeal and how plants can compliment each other.
The results are very rewarding. There is so much help too if you are not confident in the planning, your nursery, wonderful landscaping books, TV and radio shows and the Internet are all there waiting to guide you.
Be careful with books, make sure the book is for your area and the plants suggested for a design are suitable for your part of the world.
It's fun to get a graph pad and do your own design, give it a try and you could surprise yourself.
One word of advice, if you purchase plants from the big chain stores and they have been in air- conditioning or inside a building even with the shade cloth inside/outside style of shop, never take the plant home and put it in the garden straight away.
Take about three weeks acclimatizing the plant. Keep the plant inside or on an enclosed patio and gradually over the three week period, increase the outside time and decrease the inside time. Doing it this way you have a better chance of the plant surviving and growing into a beautiful specimen for you.
You can quite often pick up some bargains in the plant department, doing the acclimatizing can save you money.
Gardens like everything else has trends. These trends usually follow the interior decor trends. This is a good thing as the outside and the inside will compliment each other.
If your home is cottage style, then a garden along the cottage lines would look great and you would have the flowers to decorate your home to add to the look. A modern minimilistic interior then a minimal no fuss landscaped garden.
Landsscaping and gardening can improve your stress levels too. Feeling a bit stressed about something, take yourself out into your garden and potter, tip prune, pull out a few weeds, water a few plants, separate a few clumping plants and pot up for later Give yourself at least a half hour and feel the stress go.
Works for me, hope it does for you too.
Landscaping and gardening, wonderful!!!!
Carmel Baird
CTBaird Copyright © 2006
Copyright © 2006 by CTBaird All Rights Reserved
You have free distribution rights to this article but you may not alter it in any way.
http://www.ctbmarketing-australia.com/landscapingebooks.htm
About The Author
This article was written by CTBaird of ctbmarketing-australia Internet Marketing and Online Home Business Opportunities reviewed for you. http://www.ctbmarketing-australia.com.
landscaping information
Know what I love about getting the garden all cleaned up, it stays that way for much longer than when you get your home all cleaned up.
More and more people are turning to landscaping their gardens, not just planting a tree here and a shrub there but looking at their garden as they would look at the inside of their home. More thought as to the overall look and appeal and how plants can compliment each other.
The results are very rewarding. There is so much help too if you are not confident in the planning, your nursery, wonderful landscaping books, TV and radio shows and the Internet are all there waiting to guide you.
Be careful with books, make sure the book is for your area and the plants suggested for a design are suitable for your part of the world.
It's fun to get a graph pad and do your own design, give it a try and you could surprise yourself.
One word of advice, if you purchase plants from the big chain stores and they have been in air- conditioning or inside a building even with the shade cloth inside/outside style of shop, never take the plant home and put it in the garden straight away.
Take about three weeks acclimatizing the plant. Keep the plant inside or on an enclosed patio and gradually over the three week period, increase the outside time and decrease the inside time. Doing it this way you have a better chance of the plant surviving and growing into a beautiful specimen for you.
You can quite often pick up some bargains in the plant department, doing the acclimatizing can save you money.
Gardens like everything else has trends. These trends usually follow the interior decor trends. This is a good thing as the outside and the inside will compliment each other.
If your home is cottage style, then a garden along the cottage lines would look great and you would have the flowers to decorate your home to add to the look. A modern minimilistic interior then a minimal no fuss landscaped garden.
Landsscaping and gardening can improve your stress levels too. Feeling a bit stressed about something, take yourself out into your garden and potter, tip prune, pull out a few weeds, water a few plants, separate a few clumping plants and pot up for later Give yourself at least a half hour and feel the stress go.
Works for me, hope it does for you too.
Landscaping and gardening, wonderful!!!!
Carmel Baird
CTBaird Copyright © 2006
Copyright © 2006 by CTBaird All Rights Reserved
You have free distribution rights to this article but you may not alter it in any way.
http://www.ctbmarketing-australia.com/landscapingebooks.htm
About The Author
This article was written by CTBaird of ctbmarketing-australia Internet Marketing and Online Home Business Opportunities reviewed for you. http://www.ctbmarketing-australia.com.
landscaping information
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Beauty of Landscaping
by: Bob Janeway
In architecture, landscaping refers to the science and art of modifying land areas by organizing natural, cultivated, or constructed elements according to a comprehensive, aesthetic plan.
This landscaping involves the elements of topographical features like hills, valleys, rivers, and ponds or growing things like trees, shrubs, grass, and flowers as well as constructions like buildings, terraces, and fountains.
Today, landscaping is quite popular for homeowners who would want to improve their homes. The goal should be the house and the landscaping must complement with each other.
A GUIDE TO D-I-Y LANDSCAPING
Any house with landscape should complement each other. In order to achieve this harmony, you really need to consider and reconsider your options and the extent of landscaping you would want to have.
There are actually so many aspects in do-it-yourself landscaping like budget, skills, the climate of your region or place, personal design tastes, and the available resources. If you really want to beautify your home through landscaping, here are some do-it-yourself landscaping tips that can help you get by.
1. Make sure that you provide your landscaping with a year-round theme. The surefire tip in landscaping is to provide it something related to four seasons so you’ll never be outdated. A combination of a plant-selection with flowering trees or shrubs throughout, and fall foliage would do.
2. Try to layer the garden’s flower beds when planting. By layering the planting beds in rows of three that include a back row filled with tall plants, a middle row planted with the next tallest plants, and a front row containing the shortest plants. The repetition of each flower bedding will give your garden a unified look.
3. Consider the use pf evergreens for continuity. When it comes to DIY landscaping usually focuses more on trees and shrubs but this doesn’t mean that you cannot include evergreens because this will give the space more structure and the view of variety and continuity.
4. Experiment on using annuals to supplement perennial hues and colors. Perennial flowers are ideal for flower beds because they last for a long period of time. But since they bloom only in a specific period, it is best if you try incorporating annual plants with perennial ones so you can fill up the colorless spots in the flower beds when perennial flowers are not yet in bloom.
If you are quite particular about color coordination of the two kinds of blooms, try using a picture gallery so you’ll get ideas what is the right color scheme for your garden.
5. Don’t forget to assimilate hardscape into your initial and final landscape design. Aside from paying much attention to plants when landscaping, don’t forget to include hardscape features such as fences and other garden decorations.
If you want to be more specific, try including patios and decks to your garden because these will provide great transition from your indoors to your outdoors.
6. Don’t be daunted in installing water features. One of the best focal points of any excellent landscape designs is the water feature. Aside from being one of the hottest trends in landscaping today, installing a water feature will not only make your garden more visually appealing but it can only create soothing sounds great for relaxation. The most basic water feature you can install is ponds.
When you think you’re ready to do something bigger and better, consider conceptualizing a simple waterfall through the use of cheap fountains, flexible tubing, pre-formed rigid plastic liners, and durable pumps.
7. Always keep foliages and drought-tolerant plants in mind. When thinking of landscaping your house or garden, never forget to include the characteristics of a plant’s foliage. The varying foliage textures and colors are needed to help you liven up your yard while the presence of drought-tolerant plants so your garden will have a staple decoration.
8. Lastly, make sure that you can maintain your yard without so much hassle. Sure, you can do landscaping in your yard based on your taste and aesthetic sense, but never forget to keep it low-maintenance so you can enjoy the beauty of your work even if you don’t spend much time and money keeping it.
About The Author
Bob Janeway is the owner of http://landscaping.knowsmart.com/. Check it out for a great landscaping idea.
In architecture, landscaping refers to the science and art of modifying land areas by organizing natural, cultivated, or constructed elements according to a comprehensive, aesthetic plan.
This landscaping involves the elements of topographical features like hills, valleys, rivers, and ponds or growing things like trees, shrubs, grass, and flowers as well as constructions like buildings, terraces, and fountains.
Today, landscaping is quite popular for homeowners who would want to improve their homes. The goal should be the house and the landscaping must complement with each other.
A GUIDE TO D-I-Y LANDSCAPING
Any house with landscape should complement each other. In order to achieve this harmony, you really need to consider and reconsider your options and the extent of landscaping you would want to have.
There are actually so many aspects in do-it-yourself landscaping like budget, skills, the climate of your region or place, personal design tastes, and the available resources. If you really want to beautify your home through landscaping, here are some do-it-yourself landscaping tips that can help you get by.
1. Make sure that you provide your landscaping with a year-round theme. The surefire tip in landscaping is to provide it something related to four seasons so you’ll never be outdated. A combination of a plant-selection with flowering trees or shrubs throughout, and fall foliage would do.
2. Try to layer the garden’s flower beds when planting. By layering the planting beds in rows of three that include a back row filled with tall plants, a middle row planted with the next tallest plants, and a front row containing the shortest plants. The repetition of each flower bedding will give your garden a unified look.
3. Consider the use pf evergreens for continuity. When it comes to DIY landscaping usually focuses more on trees and shrubs but this doesn’t mean that you cannot include evergreens because this will give the space more structure and the view of variety and continuity.
4. Experiment on using annuals to supplement perennial hues and colors. Perennial flowers are ideal for flower beds because they last for a long period of time. But since they bloom only in a specific period, it is best if you try incorporating annual plants with perennial ones so you can fill up the colorless spots in the flower beds when perennial flowers are not yet in bloom.
If you are quite particular about color coordination of the two kinds of blooms, try using a picture gallery so you’ll get ideas what is the right color scheme for your garden.
5. Don’t forget to assimilate hardscape into your initial and final landscape design. Aside from paying much attention to plants when landscaping, don’t forget to include hardscape features such as fences and other garden decorations.
If you want to be more specific, try including patios and decks to your garden because these will provide great transition from your indoors to your outdoors.
6. Don’t be daunted in installing water features. One of the best focal points of any excellent landscape designs is the water feature. Aside from being one of the hottest trends in landscaping today, installing a water feature will not only make your garden more visually appealing but it can only create soothing sounds great for relaxation. The most basic water feature you can install is ponds.
When you think you’re ready to do something bigger and better, consider conceptualizing a simple waterfall through the use of cheap fountains, flexible tubing, pre-formed rigid plastic liners, and durable pumps.
7. Always keep foliages and drought-tolerant plants in mind. When thinking of landscaping your house or garden, never forget to include the characteristics of a plant’s foliage. The varying foliage textures and colors are needed to help you liven up your yard while the presence of drought-tolerant plants so your garden will have a staple decoration.
8. Lastly, make sure that you can maintain your yard without so much hassle. Sure, you can do landscaping in your yard based on your taste and aesthetic sense, but never forget to keep it low-maintenance so you can enjoy the beauty of your work even if you don’t spend much time and money keeping it.
About The Author
Bob Janeway is the owner of http://landscaping.knowsmart.com/. Check it out for a great landscaping idea.
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