Plant Gardens 101

Now that spring is here, it’s time begin selecting the best plants and flowers for your garden. But before you do, have you ever been guilty of buying plants on impulse only to discover after planting them they look like the forgotten step child, making your garden look ackward? The goal of this article is to teach you how to plan a backyard garden…right now.

Step 1 - Starting with a Solid Plan

Take the time to assess your garden environment. Determine how much sun and shade your garden gets. What type of soil do you have? Is it the well draining type or does it get waterlogged easily? Take note whether your garden is sheltered or exposed to the sun and wind. Now that you have completed your homework, it’s time to buy the best plants for your situation. (more…)

A client in the Heights contracted Exterior Worlds to create an Italian garden with a number of complimentary, classical elements to the front and rear of their home. Their house had a classic Old World appearance to it. It was a two-story structure with a porch and an upstairs balcony. Steps led up to the porch, and shuttered windows with arched tops lined both the porch and the balcony. A stately, old, and very large oak tree grew just next to the house, reaching up and over the top of the house. The architecture and indigenous landscape were an ideal setting to further develop a European look and feel to the property.

We began by installing lights in the trees next to the home in order to illuminate the roof and balcony, and we placed lights under the eaves of the porch and patio to illuminate the surfaces, walls, and windows. We planted a small Italian garden in the front near the trees. In it, we placed a variety of ground cover plant species, shrubbery, and smaller, ornamental trees. This lent an organic sense to a very symmetrical and elegant structure, and helped develop the Classical theme we were asked to create. We completed the design in the front with urns placed on either side of the stairs that led up to the front door. This worked to create a sense of grand entryway that alluded to a sense of Roman antiquity and classical design. (more…)

A well maintained green lawn can enhance the beauty of any house. However for many people maintaining and keeping the lawn in a proper shape is a tough task indeed. This is because they are not aware of the right way to care for their garden. Are you one of them? Then read on as we share great gardening tips with you!

Green plants need water and nutrients. Right lawn fertilizer is responsible for giving proper nutrients to plants and on the other hand irrigation or nature provides water. However, choosing the right lawn fertilizer is quite difficult.

Lawn fertilizers play a great role for proper growth of plants in the lawn. The application of plant nutrients over the lawn seems quite simple. In fact after sprinkling the fertilizer, you should water it so that it penetrates in the underlying soil. So, application of lawn fertilizer is a painless job but what is tough is determining the specific needs of the lawn. (more…)

Certain factors come into play when designing your yard. A well-planned landscape should suit your lifestyle, your family’s needs, your site’s plot plan, and topography. Of course, there is also personal preference as well as the fact that your landscape should complement the architectural style of your home. In general, it helps if you decide whether you want a landscape design that is formal or informal. Think about your hardscape needs and permanent structures first. Any structures such as greenhouses, tool and storage sheds, garages, etc. require level topography along with easy access for traffic, be it pedestrian, wheelbarrow, lawnmower, or vehicular. Once structural and traffic considerations have been planned, then you can consider where to site your gardening areas and plantings. (more…)

In 2003, we received a call from John and Jennifer Randall of West Houston. They had decided to build a French-style home just off of Piney Point near Memorial Drive. Jennifer wanted a modern French landscape design that reflected the symmetry, balance, and patterns of Old World estates. French landscapes like this are popular because of their uniquely proportioned partier gardens, formal garden and constructions, and tightly clipped hedges. John also wanted the French landscape design because of his passion for his heritage (he originally came to Houston from Louisiana), as well as the obvious aesthetic benefits of creating a natural complement to the architecture of the new house.

The first thing we designed was a motor court driveway/parking area in the front of the home. While you may not think that a paved element would have anything at all do with landscape design, in reality it is truly apropos to the theme. French homes almost always have paving that extends all the way to the house. In the case of the Randall home, we used interlocking concrete pavers to create a surface that looks much older than it really is. This prevented the property from looking too much like a new construction and better lent itself to the elegance and stateliness characteristic of French landscape designs in general. (more…)

It does not matter if you have a big or a small garden, most people like to have fresh herbs. Having a natural supply of herbs is wonderful for cooking, grilling and even barbecuing. And with the right herb garden layout it also looks wonderful in your garden. Before you can harvest those delicious herbs you need to consider a few aspects of herb garden layout for an effective and sustainable growth of herbs.

Natural elements to consider
For your herb garden layout, it is important to effectively plan and manage the natural elements involved in your garden. The herb garden layout should integrate nicely into the existing garden layout. However keep in mind what conditions the herbs need (sun, shade, moisture etc.). If you do this, you can successfully create a herb garden layout that will give you fresh herbs all year round. (more…)

There are various styles of garden to choose from, although there are no definitive rules and there is no reason why gardeners should not choose a mixture of designs. Having said that, there are a number of styles that have a proven track record, and it is perhaps worthwhile considering the pursuit of just one of them until you are confident enough to mix different styles.

The basic advice is simple, choose a style of garden that you like. There are however, various other factors that may be worth taking into considerations. Your lifestyle is one of the most important of these.

However much you may like formal gardens, there is no point in designing a neat garden that needs to be kept in pristine condition in order to look its best if you are not naturally a tidy person or never have the time to keep it neat. (more…)

We were contacted by the owner of a Houston, Texas home who asked us to design a series of gardens and landscaping features that would compliment and expand the Mediterranean theme of his house into the surrounding landscape. This house sat on a very large lot of several acres in a secluded Memorial Drive neighborhood located near the 610 Loop. The home featured a symmetrical, linear appearance in spite of its two-story build, and our client wanted a landscape and garden design that would follow these same principles of self-contained regularity and subtle linear motion.

Creating a Mediterranean theme in a Houston, Texas garden and landscape is a bit more complex that it might appear at face value. The southern coast of Europe—particularly in Italy and Greece—is a mountanous area where homes and gardens are built on steep angles and sharp vertical rises. Gardens and fields are often built in terraces that climb the mountains due to the limited planting area and rough, rocky terrain. Limestone is the predominant rock type in Italy and Greece and has become iconic of this part of the world in our collective consciousness. Mediterranean homes and gardens are historically famous for their white stucco walls, olive groves, and carefully sculptured greenery embedded in a rugged limestone backdrop. (more…)

For the house owner who has a little bit of space outside the house, they may thinking about having small garden. Or even ones who have large space so they can have bigger garden either. However, wjat generally happen is garden design and arrangement, most of them normally take this job to professional. Only they have to do is to choose the design from the catalogue that designer give to them and pay when the garden finished.

However, some of them knowing what they are choosing but unfortunately, some of them don’t. Therefore, as there are many style and arrangements of garden design. It is also good to know how they different from each other and which factors you have to consider when you want to have good, attractive and beautiful garden within the budget.

Generally, it is depends on the preference and style of the house owner which type of garden that they are going to have, but apart from that, you may have to that the decision about the type of type of garden have to based on these following elements;

1. Weather/Climate

This is the most important factor to consider but normally be ignored by many of us. You have to choose garden design or type of garden base on the climate of where you are living. For example, it is really impossible to have tropical garden if you are living in the freeze zone and vise vesa. You have to choose garden types and designs that suitable with the local climate first, other wise your garden will not last long and you have to spend a lot of money on maintenance your garden.

2. Space

Space has great impact to the design of the garden. You have to consider the design that suitable with the space that you have. However, in most case, I would suggest that utilization of the space is very, depending on the purpose and preference of the house owner. Arranging space particularly for garden have to be very careful in design and function. Because 0garden needs more function than any other area. For example, it needs the waste water system, it is the place that sunlight have to reach and has proper climate for plants and tree. So you have take these factors in to account before you decide type and design of the garden.

3. Budget

This factor is also important, you can not have your desired garden without proper budget. Also, you do not have to spend much money to get good and beautiful garden if you have good budget planning. One of the big tips here is if you have very limited budget, you can hire only garden designer and once when you have he design, you can ask the designer to give you the list of plants and equipment need for the garden and you go to the shop/market then let the designer arrange it. This is very effective ways, because you can reduce the cost for the garden equipment. As you can have cheaper price if you buy them for yourself to avoid mark-up cost that usually add by the garden designer.

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About Catty
Garden Design

There are a number of yard and garden elements that provide height. Some of the more obvious of these might include trees, fences, decks, and tall shrubs. However, all of these garden elements have one thing in common: they are permanent. While it is important and often times necessary to have these types of structures, sometimes it’s better to have the option to move your vertical garden elements around, as needed. In this article, we’ll explore four non-permanent vertical elements that you can use to spice up your garden or landscape.

#1 - Hanging Baskets - Hanging baskets are one of the easiest ways to add a vertical element to your garden, plus they have the benefit of being mobile. Most homeowners who do any type of outdoor planting will find themselves using hanging baskets at some point. They come in many varieties, colors and materials to compliment your decor. Most common are the free hanging baskets that allow flowers to drape down all sides as well as up the hanger. By moving your hanging baskets around, you can easily provide a splash of color to a specific area of your yard or garden at any time throughout the growing season. (more…)

A Mediterranean garden is one of the eye catching gardens that have the look and feel of a European get away even when the garden is located in Southern California. This is a tasteful and colorful type of garden that is found in places like Italy, Spain or Greece with a maraud of colors and old world charm.

The Mediterranean garden also includes things made of stone, concrete or ceramics and can include fountains or ponds that lend a cooling and relaxing atmosphere to the garden. In a true Mediterranean garden there are plants and trees that are of olives, citrus, and vines of grapes, along with Pomegranates. Plants that are found in these gardens are Lavender, Rosemary, Oleanders and even the common Geranium. This garden is usually built upon a mixture of edible herbs and fruits among the color and beauty of flowers to make it an appealing and aromatic place to relax. Relaxation is one of the key features in the Mediterranean garden; this can be from a simple stone bench, a swinging seat or the table located on the stone or brick patio. One thing that is out of place in this garden is wood and metal, this is a garden built on old world charm and not the modern conveniences of today, like the wood that is placed to hold some beds in place or help to raise them. (more…)

A well-known resident of River Oaks contacted us and asked us if we could harmoniously blend the organic and inorganic components of her landscape into a design that would complement the classical architecture of her house and exterior masonry. We immediately noticed that the symmetry of her three-story house, and the fine linear designs of the yard and surrounding stonework, were also two very key elements used in Italian gardening. We shared this insight with the homeowner, who agreed that such a design would work very well for what she had in mind.

We began by working on the walkway that ran from the sidewalk up to the front of the house. This walkway curved in from the sidewalk between two small stone walls and converged in a series of very small, ascending steps reminiscent of those in a staircase. This gave us an opportunity to establish an immediate sense of formal entryway by framing the front of the walkway with Agapanthus and a number of other perennial and flowering plant species that bloom in seasonal cycles throughout the spring and summer. We framed the flowering plants with boxwoods to create an organic enclosure whose angular symmetry and self-containment speak to essence of an Italian garden. (more…)

Before you get started with either your balcony garden or gardening on your rooftop, there are some very important factors to consider.

Firstly, and of course the most obvious, make sure that the structure can withstand the weight and the rooftop will not be comprised with anyone walking on it, let alone creating extra weight or watering difficulties. (more…)

How many times have you gone to the garden store and bought some plants that you absolutely loved only to get home and not be able to find a suitable place in the garden?

Getting the right look in you garden takes a lot of planning. You simply can’t go to the garden store and randomly choose plants as there are many things to consider such as light conditions, soil conditions and surrounding plants. A well planned garden will have plants that thrive and compliment each other but a randomly chosen garden will look haphazard and may even be bad for the health of your plants.

Before you purchase your plants evaluate your garden for how much sun and shade it gets and in what areas. Consider whether the soil is well drained or has standing water and whether it is sheltered or windy. Then when you go to the garden store, buy only plants that will thrive in your garden; shade-loving plants for the shady areas, sun-lovers for those sunny spots, swamp plants for areas with poor drainage and drought-resistant plants for those areas that don‘t stay wet enough. (more…)

The first thing you must do when you want to start a garden from seeds is to make sure you can get all the necessary equipment or materials to do this properly. You will need pots—to start, use peat moss pots. Other pots and planters, tools, potting mix, plant markers, watering supplies, grow lights, fertilizers and sometimes heated seed germination equipment are just some examples of what you may need. You will also need some desire and patience.

You have selected the seeds of the plants you have chosen to grow. This requires a little careful research to know which ones will work where you plan to grow your garden. Be sure to read the instructions on the back of each seed packet for the zone in which you reside. And to achieve optimal results, follow the recommended timeline: for example, planting three weeks before the last frost. (more…)