Outdoor Living

Seeing the trailer for The Incredibles 2 has me so, so excited. The first movie had wonderful characters and a great story, and naturally my favorite character is Edna Mode – a designer with a strong point of view and very strong opinions that are rooted in years of practical experience.

Capes and costumes aren’t relevant to what we do, at least not yet – you’d think one of these spiders would HAVE to be radioactive, statistically – but I have my own absolute: no squiggles!

Homeowners and landscape contractors alike seem to have a deep love for curves. Large, sweeping curves are beautiful for planting beds. Curves can be used thoughtfully with walks and patios to create some interest, and reflect the shapes and forms elsewhere in the landscape. Where I’ve seen pros and non-pros both get tripped up is when they add a lot of little curves in too small an area.

Why curves can be a problem

A lot of people struggle with foundation planting beds because they’re up against a totally straight house. Just creating a line parallel to the foundation several feet out seems dull and uninspired, so they think “let’s add some curves to that.” The result is often something that has no relationship to the house or the contents of the plant bed and it just looks awkward.

Squiggly plant beds are also a hassle to mow, especially if you use a large riding mower or ZTR. Even if you’re paying someone to mow, plant beds with too many curves require slower mowing and more trimming, which you’d better believe is factored into the price. It’s awkward looking and it’s costing you money. Where’s the benefit? See what a difference there is with a lawn bordered by plant beds defined by large, sweeping curves.

Excessively curved walkways are also a problem. For one, it makes the construction needlessly complex, and tight radius curves on the borders will just never look great. The bigger problem is human nature: we’re lazy. We want to take the shortest path from point A to point B. Throw a bunch of needless curves in and people are either going to get frustrated using the walk, or they may just cut a straighter path.

Case study

We recently did a front walk for some wonderful friends. This was what we replaced.

The homeowners and I spitballed a bunch of ideas for how the walk could go, and they mentioned that they liked the idea of a curved walk. My issue (no squiggles!) was that it’s such a short walkway that going too crazy with curves would look forced and not feel comfortable to use. Instead, we created a compromise that gives a meandering feel to a straight, very functional walk.

And you’re darn right those are perfect curves that hit tangent. Juan’s an artist!

The squiggle thing was something I had to overcome early in my career, and that’s not unusual. Maybe it’s because we tend to not look at the bigger picture at first. Maybe it’s because we’re Americans, and so if one curve is good thirteen curves are better. Just keep in mind that a path should always be functional. A bed edge exists to contain your landscape plants, and those should be the stars of the show – not the edge.

Do you need help overcoming squiggly line tendencies in your landscape? Contact us today and let’s see how we can help.

When I left the gym this afternoon it was a balmy 65 degrees, and I drove home with the windows down. I haven’t completely given up on snow, but it’s starting to feel as though the standard winter colors of Virginia are mud brown, mud red, and mud gray. And sky gray too. Bah. The silver lining, of course, is that warmer weather = grilling weather. After a winter of neglect – I’m no longer as hardcore a winter griller as I once was – there are a few things we all need to do to get ready.

Clean and inspect the grill

If you completely cleaned and winterized your grill at the end of the season, way to go NERD. The rest of us mere mortals never seem to get it together like that. A warm day is now a good time to open the lid and see what shameful mess you left behind. Get the grill nice and clean, and also check to make sure everything is in working order. If something is broken, fix it. If it can’t be fixed, replace the grill. Fire is good, unless it’s when and/or where we don’t want it. Then FIRE BAD, right Frankenstein? A clean, working grill is a safe grill.

What kept you from grilling more last year?

Now is a good time to reflect back on how often you grilled out compared to how often you wish you had. What got in the way? Usually it’s a matter of function: there was no good place to prep or set stuff down, or there was a lot of stupid stuff that had to be hauled outside every time, then hauled back in when you were done. Those are easy fixes.

Would a prep counter have made grilling more enjoyable? I’m always a fan of fancy outdoor kitchens, but there are plenty of creative ways to make a cool looking, functional prep space without breaking the bank. Why not a couple of wine barrels and planks? Even a dedicated prep table is better than what a lot of people have.

Would you have grilled more if you could store the essentials closer to the grill? My clients who are serious outdoor kitchen fanatics keep dishes, utensils, and even some basic spices and paper goods close at hand. With a little creativity, you can find a storage system that works for you that stands up to the elements.

Get better lighting

If you’re using your phone’s flashlight app to see how done your meat is, you’re borrowing trouble. Just wait till that brand new iPhone flies out of your fingers and falls through the grate. If your grill doesn’t have built-in task lighting, there are a few manufacturers who make excellent standalone BBQ lights. They can be permanently mounted on your counter, or they can clamp onto a more temporary counter or the side of your grill.

You can also add overhead lighting. We set up Prime Patio lights in our backyard and the light level is amazing – and my grill isn’t even directly under them! Sure, I’ve grilled while holding a flashlight between my teeth, but that’s no way to do it. Trust me.

I love grilling, which is why I love designing and installing outdoor kitchens. If you’re getting ready to set up an amazing outdoor kitchen in your backyard, contact me today. I’d love to see how we can help you!

I moved to Virginia from Arizona in the summer of 2005. After a couple of weeks of job hunting, I got hired as a landscape designer and hit the ground running. The only hitch was that the plant material was a little unfamiliar to me. To be successful (and stay employed) I had to figure out the fastest way to learn new plants.

Learn new plants the old school way

First I had to come up with a list of plants that I felt I should learn. I grew up in Rhode Island and ran a landscape business in Ohio, so a lot of the plants here were familiar, but I also knew they’d behave differently in a different USDA climate zone. The first thing I did was look for books that recommended plants for our area. I settled on The Mid-Atlantic Gardener’s Guide (affiliate link) as my starting point.

I then busted out the index cards. That’s right, we’re talking about flash cards! I’d love to make some fancy ones and sell them to you, but MJ will kill me if I add yet another project to the mix. These worked great. On each card, I wrote the following:

• Common name
• Botanical name
• Is it a tree, shrub, or perennial?
• Key features – flowers, berries, foliage, etc
• Size at maturity

Each day, I focused on one plant. Memorize it, drill it, know it. We used the botanical names on our drawings so I had to learn those quickly. By doing a plant a day, in a week I learned 7 new plants. In a month, 30. And so on, and so forth.

It didn’t take me long to work my way through the book. My employer had a nursery on the property, so I started learning the plants we kept in stock. Then I went to a retail garden center and started picking plants that interested me. It didn’t take a crazy amount of time before I had a respectable plant palette from which to draw.

The beauty of this approach is that once you know the genus and species of a plant, the individual cultivars become easy to pick up. Ilex is always holly. Ilex verticillata is winterberry holly. Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Red’ has these characteristics, ‘Sprite’ has those, but you still have a decent idea in your mind of what they look like. Understanding botanical names is like cracking a code and if you’re a plant geek, it’s worth learning them.

Have you found a better way to quickly learn plants? Let us know in the comments!

You probably never gave all that much thought to everything needed to plan and build a screen porch. Build a deck, add a roof, staple some screen to the side, BAM! Screen porch. While a screen porch is still a fairly simple addition to your home, there are myriad ways in which to really make it your own. Naturally there are some questions you need to ask to determine if it’s even an option for your home.

Plan and build a screen porch: The basics

Where will it go?

Everyone thinks about cost when planning a project. When designing a framing project, the simpler the design the less it will cost. The closer to a square or rectangle that we can keep the footprint of the screen porch, the easier (and cheaper) it will be to frame. Similarly, the simpler the roof, the less costly the screen porch.

When adding a screen porch to the back of a house, we usually want to place the porch so that the door from the house brings you right into the screen porch. Since you’re building a screen porch to avoid bugs, it makes sense that you wouldn’t want to walk out a door, swat away bugs, and open another door. The screen porch also provides a place to sit outside when it’s raining. Who wants to get wet to sit with their coffee?

Those aren’t insurmountable obstacles. We’ve replaced windows with doors to provide access to the screen porch. We’ve also extended the roof to provide covered access from the kitchen to the screen porch.

The bigger problem is that sometimes the back of the house is just too complex for a screen porch to work. Modern builders like adding all kinds of funky angles and rooflines to a home to make it seem “fancy”. All it does is make my life difficult.

How big?

If you’re going to plan and build a screen porch, the second thing you’ll need to consider is the size and layout. I always ask what the client plans on using the screen porch for, as that makes a huge difference in terms of the size needed. Hangout space for 2-4 people requires less room than dinner parties for 12-15.

I find my clients have an easier time envisioning the size of screen porch that they’ll need because a screen porch is the outdoor space most analogous to a room inside they’re home. No one looks to build a 10’x10’ screen porch for outdoor dining because they know their 16’x16’ indoor dining room feels a little tight at times. It’s much easier to build too small than too big.

Layout plays a role in how large to plan and build a screen porch. If there’s one door into the screen porch and that’s it, deciding on furniture grouping (and therefore size) is pretty simple. The second another door gets added, we have to add in enough room for someone to walk from one door to the other.

Without getting into the weeds on the details, this is the sort of space planning your designer considers. How can we maximize usable space while minimizing cost? That is why you hire a designer!

The roof

The roof of your screen porch is an important aesthetic detail that also has a dramatic impact on the cost. Generally a shed roof is your least expensive style of roof. It’s a single plane (no peaks or hips) that gets lower as it pitches away from the house. It’s also the ideal roof style if we’re building a screen porch in an “L” or an alcove, because a gable roof would be more likely to trap water and snow against the house.

A gable roof is what most of my clients want. It’s prettier, feels more like an addition than “just” a screen porch, and can provide an airy, vaulted ceiling. Because of the additional complexity of the framing, it tends to be more expensive than a simple shed roof.

Roofing material is also a cost factor to consider. Asphalt shingles are the most commonly used roofing material here in Virginia, and the least expensive. Standing seam metal roofing is a beautiful look, especially when adding on to an older, historic home. A flat roof will require a rubber membrane, much like a commercial building’s roof.

To trim or not to trim?

If you’re going to plan and build a screen porch, it’s important to have an idea of what you want the finished product to look like. The least expensive style of screen porch is just simple, exposed pressure-treated framing, either painted or left to weather. With a little thought to the design, a plain wood screen porch can still be quite attractive.

A more attractive – if more costly – way to approach your screen porch is to wrap everything in trim lumber. These days that usually means a composite trim, like AZEK.

There are quite a few advantage to wrapping your pressure-treated screen porch framing:

• Allows  us to make the posts and beams beefier and more in scale with the home (less likely to have that “chicken coop” appearance)
• Pressure-treated lumber is prone to warping, twisting, and cracking. Even though this doesn’t usually compromise it’s strength, it’s not pretty. Trim lumber conceals this.
• For a painted porch, composite trim is great. Because AZEK and similar materials don’t shrink, swell, or move like wood, you’ll get more years between paint jobs.

Other details to consider

The details are what will make or break any outdoor project. My goal when designing a screen porch is to make something that feels like an actual extension of the home’s architecture. These details all matter.

Trim moulding – if the home has ornate mouldings (fascia, dental moulding, etc) then those details should carry over to the screen porch.

To wainscot or not to wainscot? – Generally when we think of a screen porch we envision something with screened openings from floor to ceiling. It doesn’t have to be like that though. A partial wall with wainscoting can make it feel more like a room. It also allows us more room to hide electrical, data, and a/v infrastructure. If you have an idiot dog with a high prey drive like mine, it’ll also prevent dog-shaped holes from showing up in the screens every time a squirrel goes past.

Ceiling treatment – A ceiling of some sort can be a huge upgrade in the appearance of your screen porch’s interior. With no ceiling whatsoever, all you see when looking up are pressure-treated rafters, plywood or OSB, and lots and lots of roofing nails. Painting helps, but a ceiling is the way to go. A very traditional look is tongue and groove pine, painted to match the porch trim or with a pickled finish. The manufacturers of composite lumber also make a tongue and groove product, which looks great and requires little from you.

A ceiling also makes it easier to run lights, speakers, and a ceiling fan. Using trusses instead of traditional rafter framing can save you some money on construction costs, but their appearance dictates the use of a ceiling.

The wall of the house – When you’re facing the house, what will you see from inside your screen porch? The most common approach to this wall is to do nothing. If your house was vinyl-sided, one wall of the porch is vinyl-sided. It doesn’t have to be that way. Talk to your designer about other options.

Get help with your screen porch

If you’re in Virginia and you’re looking for help designing your screen porch, we can do that! We handle everything from a detailed site analysis, to initial design concepts, final designs, and even permit and construction documents. If your screen porch design requires some unusual or non-standard framing, we work closely with an engineer. Revolutionary Gardens doesn’t build screen porches, but we’ve partnered with several outstanding companies that do. We can also design a screen porch to be built by your preferred installer. Contact us today to learn more!

 

When asked if you should use weed fabric under mulch, I think of P.T. Barnum. Before P.T. Barnum was known for circuses (circii?), he operated the American Museum in New York City. While it had some legitimate exhibits, like taxidermied animals, Revolutionary War relics, and even whales in a tank in the basement, he also exhibited things like a “mermaid skeleton”. He also, quite famously, labeled a door “this way to egress” which led people – who didn’t know the word, so they thought it was an exhibit – right out onto the sidewalk.

Were P.T. Barnum alive today, he would be quite the weed barrier fabric salesman.

What happens when you use weed fabric under mulch

The use of weed fabric under mulch seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Roll out the fabric, put down a healthy 4” of an organic mulch, and spend the summer sipping juleps on the back porch while the dog mows the lawn.

Weed fabric doesn’t stop weeds

The idea that when you use weed fabric under mulch you’re totally blocking weeds relies on a few flawed assumptions. It assumes weeds are ONLY coming up from under the fabric, and it assumes that the fabric itself is virtually bulletproof. The reality is that weed fabric does nothing to stop weed seeds, carried by birds or the wind, from landing in the mulch above the fabric and taking root. Also, the fabric can get small rips during installation, and you have to cut holes in it anyhow to accommodate plants. The longer weed fabric is in place, the more it gets torn up.

What ends up happening is the weeds root into the fabric. Not only are you still pulling weeds, but now it’s harder because they have something to grab onto. And by pulling weeds rooted through fabric, you can either tear the fabric or even pull up big chunks of it.

Weed fabric is bad for your plants and your soil

“Dave, Dave, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?”

Well ideally, my plants have plenty of room to spread out, and the soil is constantly getting enriched from my organic mulch breaking down and being worked into the soil from all the insects and microbes that live there. If you use weed fabric under mulch, that’s not happening. Organic matter can’t pass through the fabric. Many fabrics are so tightly woven that it’s even difficult to get water to pass through to the soil. That results in fewer beneficial critters in the soil, which means plants aren’t getting the nutrients they need.

Weed fabric can also choke out woody plants if there’s not enough space around the trunk to allow for growth. The fabric also makes it harder for perennials to spread and thrive. In my planting designs I use perennials and groundcovers that will fill in, reduce the amount of mulch needed, and out-compete weeds. That’s called working smarter!

How do I stop weeds then?

The best way to keep weeds down is by mulching with a heavy (4 to 6 inches) layer of organic mulch, being sure to keep the mulch away from trunks. Good organic mulches include shredded hardwood mulch, leaf compost, or arborist wood chips. If you stay on top of things and weed before they can get established, it’s really not that hard.

You can also use a granular pre-emergent herbicide, installed before you mulch, to help keep weeds down. A pre-emergent works by preventing weed seeds from germinating, so it won’t do anything to weeds that have already sprouted. Just read the manufacturer’s instructions on the label for frequency, application rate, and anywhere that you shouldn’t use it.

What if I’m using a gravel or rock mulch?

If you’re in, say, the Southwest, do what you have to do. Here in Virginia though, I don’t know why you would want to. I know people think an inorganic mulch (rock, tumbled glass, rubber mulch) is going to be way easier in the long run, but it’s not. As I’ve explained, weeds are still going to pop up on, under, and through the weed fabric. Now, though, you’re tearing up your hands trying to pull weeds out from between pieces of gravel.

When we create a dry streambed, we do use a barrier fabric underneath the river jack. It’s a very thick filter fabric, though, one that’s used under paver patios. Using that as a weed fabric would be a terrible idea.

Bottom line: at ten to twenty bucks a roll, plus the time it takes to install something that actually makes your gardening life worse, don’t do it. If that money’s burning a hole in your pocket I’m sure you can find a better way to spend it!

By the way, if you want to learn more about P.T. Barnum and all the crazy stuff he did, The Dollop did a hilarious podcast episode on the subject here.

Mature trees are an asset for any home, adding value to the property and reducing energy costs. We like big trees. We love that feeling of a home that’s tucked into capital-N Nature. Every silver lining has a cloud, and mature trees bring the challenge of landscaping a wooded lot.

Why is landscaping a wooded lot difficult?

Big trees have big root systems. They have massive canopies that prevent a lot of the rainwater from hitting the ground. Their roots are greedily sucking up water and nutrients, and many trees suppress the growth of smaller plants by dropping leaves or needles, and sometime even by releasing chemicals into the soil. When trying to landscape a wooded lot, we can’t just pick plants that say “shade”, because that doesn’t encompass everything that’s going on.

Wooded lots also tend to either not have grass at all, or to have thin, weak lawn areas that don’t amount to a heck of a lot. From a design standpoint, lawns are useful. Functionally, they unify the planting beds around a yard, and they provide a durable means of getting from point A to points B, C, D, and so on. Aesthetically, they tone down the feeling of chaos that can come from a yard full of nothing but shrubs and perennials. This gets more difficult to accomplish if there’s no lawn.

To illustrate what I mean, here’s one of my favorite projects. The client wanted a collection of curated garden beds, heavy on the native plants. I wanted to make sure there were durable paths – the lawn areas – and an overall cohesive look.

Tips for landscaping a wooded lot

A wooded landscape won’t feel finished unless there’s somewhere for the eye to land. You may not consciously be able to say that’s what’s wrong, but unconsciously? You’ll be bouncing around, trying to figure out where to look. For this I look to create a focal point, something that is clearly What You Should Look At. Every one of my wooded landscapes has a focal point. Here, it’s a patio with a firepit.

When landscaping a wooded lot it’s also important to figure out how you’ll get around the property. Paths become very important. We’ve done grass paths, gravel paths, and wood chip paths. It’s even possible to create paths just by strategically placing your plants to make it clear where one should step.

Wooded areas can quickly begin to feel cluttered and chaotic if not planted properly. A few tips:

Pick a primary plant: just like when designing a landscape for plant collectors, I try to find one or two plants with strong structure or color (or both) to create some unity. Diverse plant groups can be placed around these and they work, because the primary plants pull the space together.

Create movement: place some key plants (I like boxwood that’s left shaggy, not sheared) in groupings to help direct you where you need to go. Lead the eye to the focal point destination, deflect away from anything undesirable. You’re reinforcing the paths and/or bed edges.

Simplify the color palette: this may seem out of character for me, as my approach to color is “plantings can look like about three hours after a dog ate a box of 64 Crayola crayons and still be perfect.” Landscaping a wooded lot means you’re probably dealing with some heavy shade, and an explosion of colors won’t read as strongly as simple colors. White and purple flowers, or purple and pink flowers, or white, yellow, and purple flowers, all make for simple, striking combinations. And don’t forget foliage!

Play with texture: Again, heavy shade can make everything seem a little more homogenous and muddy. Textural contrasts can make a shade garden exquisite. As an example, in my yard the fine texture of Fargesia (clumping bamboo) works beautifully alongside the broad, smooth leaves of oakleaf hydrangea.

Use garden ornaments: Wooded landscapes are the perfect place to incorporate garden ornaments that will “surprise” visitors as they move through the garden. Small fountains, like a shishi-odoshi, are perfect.

So are small statues, like this one of my favorite saint (guess who grew up Catholic?)

Bottom line, a wooded landscape takes some thought and planning ahead of time but the results are totally worth it. If you’re still not sure where to start, contact me today!