Get your pool ready now
It’s that time of year again, and while spring has made you start thinking about getting your pool up and running for a new season. Another reason some homeowners are eager to get their pools open is to add to the landscape. Even if it is too cold to swim, they enjoy looking at the beautiful scenery a great pool provides. Many pools have such great features such as swim-up bars, lights that show misting systems and much more. Many homeowners are adding on the pool area turning it into an outdoor living space. While many of us have our grills out by the pool, so we may enjoy our guests and watch everyone swim. We have noticed the latest trend is building an outdoor kitchen. The kitchens are complete with built in grills, stovetops, warming ovens, refrigerators and beautiful stone countertops with seating. So if you are thinking about a pool and or an outdoor kitchen call Environmental Landscape Associates to design a comprehensive plan that will ensure the best results for your swimming pool and entire outdoor living space.
Posts Tagged ‘Landscape Design’
Get your pool ready now
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011Outdoor Structures: When they Work and Why
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011Structures such as gates, fences, free standing walls, retaining walls, and pergolas serve many functional uses, but what often goes unnoticed is that these structures perform a critical aesthetic role. When properly designed and placed, these landscape features help our minds organize the space, putting us at ease, which then enables us to enjoy the other things: a bubbling water feature, striking gardens, the scent of blooming Lilac. In addition to helping us “read” the space we are encountering, structures can artfully create or highlight an existing focal point and gracefully direct us to interesting points throughout the space. Likewise, the horizontal line created from the outline of a fence or wall can be used to draw our eye away from uninteresting or unappealing elements. A curving path that disappears behind a screen of shrubbery or a wall is a classic way to create a sense of adventure, curiosity, and surprise.
Designers and landscape architects use some of these fundamentals all the time when drafting outdoor space. If you are grappling with the need or desire for a fence, gate, wall, pergola, or some sort of other structure, explore the places that you feel have gotten it right. As you consider these issues, you will begin to recognize that the design and layout of these structures is just as critical as the materials and craft used to build them.
Choosing a Landscape Designer
Friday, February 25th, 2011Design your project for success. Identify your family’s needs and desires, and then find a professional designer. Choose someone who is experienced, educated and creative. Find a designer who is versed in a range of design tools from hand drawings, to computer drafting and three dimensional modeling. And make sure he is knowledgeable of the municipal regulations and permit process. With those key elements in place, you will experience a successful design process and achieve a quality final design.
Outdoor Living Landscape Design
Landscape Design – Defining Success
Thursday, January 27th, 2011Clients can ask themselves a series of questions to determine the quality of a design. Is the design organized and cohesive? Does the design respond well to the land and fit comfortably in that context? Do the various lines of sight enhance appealing elements of the property? Does the design integrate well with the existing architecture of the home? Are the spaces functional and logical? Does the overall form have a unifying theme or sense? Does the design accommodate the family’s needs and desires for how they plan to use the space? Once design quality criteria are met, there are two more major elements to a successful design. Can it be build within the budget and does it comply with municipal regulations?
The most gorgeous designs are not successful if the project can’t be built within budget. A quality designer will be skilled at value engineering a project to achieve the desired goals within budget. However, sometimes the client’s desires simply can’t be achieved on their budget. Then it becomes a matter of either scaling back or phasing the project and completing some elements in the future.
A successful design must conform to municipal regulations in order to obtain permits. Local zoning codes will determine setback distances for pools, decks, pool houses, outdoor kitchens, fireplaces and much more. Zoning regulations will also determine the amount of a property that can be covered with an impervious surface, such as patios. A quality designer will be skilled at generating designs that conform to municipal regulations and will be versed on the process of creating construction drawings that get the project through the permit process.
Landscape Design Process
Friday, January 14th, 2011Design starts with a conversation between client and designer. At that time a designer may throw out some ideas, but the best ideas and true quality design requires a more reflective process. The designer needs to survey the property and generate a base map of existing conditions, accurate and to scale. With that, the design team can work out ideas with a series of trace paper overlays exploring a variety of possible design solutions.
Most designers will work through their initial ideas in hand drawings, but there are benefits in moving design to the computer as soon as possible in the process. Once the project is in a computer aided drafting (CAD) program, it can be transferred to a three dimensional modeling program. Three dimensional computer models allow the client to see their project from a variety of angles and provide an understanding far beyond the two dimensional plan. Computer drafted plans can be directly e-mailed to clients, building architects or site engineers, streamlining the design process and saving the client time and money.
Quality Landscape Design
Thursday, January 6th, 2011Successful landscape projects require quality landscape designs. This is true whether you are building a simple flagstone patio or walkway or an extravagant porch addition, swimming pool, outdoor kitchen, or outdoor fireplace project. Landscape design is the process of unifying a range of factors including a family’s needs and desires, their budgets, natural elements of the property, and municipal building/zoning regulations. Plans are the landscape designer’s tool for expressing everything from the concepts of the designs to the layout and the construction details. A skilled, professional designer and a quality set of plans will make a project smoother from the permit process though to the finishing details.
The first step is to choose a designer. That choice revolves around a potential candidate’s education, experience, creativity and chemistry. Does the designer have an accredited degree in landscape architecture or a related degree? Does he have hands on experience with construction materials and techniques? Do examples of his work express a unique creativity in each project? Personal chemistry is critical since design is a process of working together as a team from start to finish. Projects can be long and stressful at points, but the right designer will help the whole project go smoothly.
Environmental Landscape Associates provides exceptional quality landscape design and landscape contractors
Swimming Pools
Friday, April 16th, 2010
With summer around the corner, many homeowners are dreaming of a swimming pool. The first instinct is to call a pool company, but that may not lead to the best overall result. All too often we find ourselves called into a project after the swimming pool has been designed and contracted, only to have significant ideas that could make the project better but it is too late. The problem is that most pool contractors are only interested in selling a pool and are not trained to develop plans that create a unified and successful entire back yard landscape. For the best results, call a landscape architect or professional landscape designer first and develop a comprehensive plan for you back yard living spaces. You will most likely end up with a much better pool design as it relates to the entire property. Landscape architects and landscape designers will work with the pool contractor to develop the best pool design for your project, and they will incorporate that design into a comprehensive master landscape plan. Landscape architects will also be able to help you negotiate the best price for your people and consult about the pro’s and con’s of various pool builders. So if you are thinking about a pool, call Environmental Landscape Associates to design a comprehensive plan that will ensure the best results for your swimming pool and entire outdoor living space.
Landscape Permits
Thursday, April 15th, 2010Do I need a permit for my landscape construction project? That answer depends on the township and the project. You’ll generally never need a permit to put plants in the ground, but for most everything else you may need a permit depending on your townships requirements. I’ll be posting more about this over the years because it is a deep and complex issue in the industry and difficult for most homeowners to understand. The big picture is that if you are planning a significant hardscape project you will need a zoning level permit, often called a ‘minor grading permit’. That permit ensures the township that you are dealing with the grading in an appropriate way. Also, many townships will require on site storm water retention which is part of that permit process. Once that permit is approved, a variety of building permits may be required for everything from general construction to outdoor lighting. ELA has worked with many townships to get through the permit process successfully, and each one is different.
Spring Pruning
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010With spring in full swing, people often have questions about what to prune. Well start by making sure all your perennials are cut back. Lots of people do that in the fall, but it is really better for the plant to wait until spring if you can tolerate the somewhat messy appearance. And cut back all of the ‘cutback’ flowering shrubs, the more herbaceous ones. Plants like spirea can be cut to 6″ above the ground and will bloom much better if you do this. And prune your woody shrubs to create the form you are looking for from them. Finally, check all your trees for any dead branches or tips and clean them up. If you put your time into spring pruning, your landscape will reward you throughout the season with better growth, healthier plants, and more flowers.
Spring Landscape Design
Saturday, April 10th, 2010Spring is here in Bucks County. The trees and shrubs are blooming. The landscape is gorgeous and bright again. One of our favorite spring flowering shrubs is the Viburnum Carlessi – Fragrant Viburnum. The smell of the flowers permeates the air. The fragrant and colorful shrubs and trees of spring can’t be beat. The red bud trees are brilliant purple/pink. The bulbs are covering the ground with colors. Time to plan your landscaping projects so that next spring your garden will glow even that much more. Time for planting is now. So call us and get your landscape planting design ready for installation. It is the season for landscape design and construction now, so don’t wait.