Outdoor Stone Fireplaces

Where outdoor stone fireplaces normally built?
They are either built in direct relationship with the home or in complete juxtaposition to the home. Outdoor stone fireplaces also play important functional roles in patio seating areas and outdoor kitchens. Sometimes they are built into the kitchen itself, while at others they are constructed on an adjacent patio.

On larger estates, outdoor stone fireplaces are built in the back as getaway destinations, offering shelter under the stars and panoramic 360s of the Houston landscape.

How is an outdoor fireplace designed?
The inside is basically a box in which wood is burned, just like an indoor fireplace. There the similarities end, however, because the design possibilities for an outdoor fireplace are limitless compared to indoor versions. This is because they do not have to be built into a wall for support. Chimneys can be designed in any style or size that is structurally sound and appropriately reflective of home architecture, outdoor buildings, and the distinguishing features of the surrounding Houston landscape.

Are these ever a part of an outdoor room?
Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. They most commonly built as the foothold of an outdoor room. Outdoor rooms typically do not have walls the way we think of walls inside a home. Outdoor room walls are more like boundaries that mark space rather than barriers that block out the Houston landscape.

An outdoor stone fireplace can be the keynote to such an area, because it provides a central structure that acts as a focal point of design. Organic walls of hedges or ground cover plants can then extend from this focal point in either linear angles or radial designs.

What types of stones are used?
Any natural stone will work. Moss stone, sandstone, blue stone, and even brick can be used to construct these unique landmarks of landscape architectural design.

How do these structures support home architecture?
The most important thing they do is to extend the architecture into the yard. Geometric patterns evident in home period architecture and style constitute the conceptual elements of patio and chimney design.

This serves to expand the feeling of the home outdoors. It also make the garden feel more like
part of the home by adding and organic element to Houston outdoor living.

What softscape elements can be integrated into these structures?
You can add a small garden of sorts to an outdoor stone fireplace, although this is not what we normally would call a garden in professional landscaping design. It is more like a planter built into the patio and/or architectural walls surrounding the seating area. Grass, tropical plants, ferns, and flowers are popular vegetation for these plantings.

Stones can also be broken out of the patio and used as space to plant trees or bamboo. Decorative effects can be added by laying down gravel with ornamental stone work or combinations of gravel and drought resistant plants.

Natural Stone Patios

Where do you typically build these patios?
Most natural stone patios are built to provide functional space off from the home. There primary purpose is to provide gathering places for outdoor activities and scenic views of the back yard, home architecture, Houston landscape, and nighttime skyline.

Do you mean a specific type of stone or a stone that looks like it was found in nature?
It is the natural appearance of the stone to which we are referring. Stones that aren’t cut, honed, or finished look much like stones we find in remote places. A natural stone patio has irregular edges as a result.

Patios have irregular boundaries, we really mean irregularly constructed. There is no obvious sense of order, although on our end, we have to take a lot of time to painstakingly fit them together by hand.

What types of stones are these?
The same types of stones in other Houston landscape designs. Bluestone, limestone, and flagstone are commonly bought from quarries in a rough-cut shape ideal for natural stone work of this kind.
What attributes make natural stone desirable?
It fits in well with nature. It is causal and relaxed.

How are these stones arranged?
They are arranged in a deceptively naturalistic way. In reality, they have to be pieced together by hand, almost as if fitting together a jigsaw puzzle. Workers have to search for one stone that fits with another, so the project is not going to be finished overnight.

At other times it may even be necessary to break a large stone to make two pieces that fit together with each other and with surrounding stones. This may even involve chipping off part of the edge or hand chiseling the stone. Whatever we can do to make a Houston landscape look authentically natural with our work, we will do in this instance.

Why do you go to so much trouble?
Because the alternative is to do what cheaper landscaping and gardening services do. They put all the pieces together regardless of how they fit and this makes for too much of a gap. They then grout in or fill in the spaces with trash pieces of stone. You end up with big pieces and a bunch of little pieces that doesn’t look all that good.

Are they laid down with no grout or mortar?
No, both are needed. Proper installation requires a concrete sub slab (typically 4" thick), then they are laid on a mortar bed about 1" think. Grout is then added between the stones. The concrete is not visible.

What architectural styles does is support?
As design goes, it allows the design to connect architecture in a way with the Houston landscape and resolve conflict with nature. It can even work in modern landscape as juxtaposition to modern form.

What other structures?
In Houston landscape renovations where preexisting structures are not in axial alignment with one another, a natural stone walkway can be very useful that structures are not parallel. That type of walkway can create the perception of linearity between say an entry garden or courtyard as you move toward an outdoor room or swimming pool in the back.

Limestone Patios, Architecture, and Décor

What architectural theme does this best support?
All architectural themes and Houston landscape designs can benefit from limestone forms. Limestone is a soft stone that can be easily crafted into almost any style shape or form. This makes it easy to match the resulting form to the specific architecture of houses and outdoor buildings.

Limestone can also be polished, which makes it very good for creating ornamental or decorative elements. There is very little that we cannot do with limestone.

Are there any negatives to limestone?
Limestone’s only negative attribute is that it is highly porous, so any surface that requires resistance to water should be built from something else. Aside from this very narrow and singular limitation, it can be used to build virtually any type of hardscape.

Where is it mostly used?
While it works with any type of architecture, its most powerful expression is found as a compliment to very strong architecture. There is a cultural and historical association that all of us share in that links limestone to antiquity.

Classical buildings and porticos were commonly built of this stone, so any work we do on today’s Houston landscape can convey that same feeling of grand drama and regal authority that we associate with our own heroic, historical origins.

English and French landscape designs both convey a strong sense of presence due in part to the their deliberate incorporation of classical materials and their insistence on symmetry and geometry that trace their way back to Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia—cultures that all used limestone to build their monuments, temples, and great works of art.

What if I could care less about ancient culture?
Then you can enjoy limestone’s modern application. Because of its malleability, limestone is a timeless material to work with. It is easily molded to human intent, and it works just as well in contemporary and modern Houston landscapes as it did on Appian vineyards and Greek hillsides 2,500 years ago.

You can go forward with limestone just as easily as you can go backward. The choice is yours.
What are some decorative objects that you can build out of limestone?
Many decorative Houston landscape design elements can be made from limestone. These elements include custom fountains, walls, arbor columns, urns, and planters.

What garden design does this work well with?
It works best with Mediterranean, French, and Italian themes. Limestone makes ideal material for building architectural walls, retaining walls, garden stepping stones, and linear planters to set the boundaries of garden space.

Will just about any outdoor building benefit from a limestone patio?
Yes, because we can shape the stone to match the architecture.

The Importance of Custom Masonry in Houston Landscape Design

What is custom masonry?
Custom masonry is a very pronounced form of hardscape that rises up from the ground, adding a third dimension to the landscape beyond that offered by a simple foundation or patio.

Masonry includes a multiplicity of forms most of us have seen all of our lives. Most of these forms date back to ancient times and have become iconic of the mythic and archetypal in our collective consciousness. Brick walls, stone patios, columns, seat walls, stone steps, and stone retaining walls, have dominated everything from the Sumerian landscape to the Houston landscape, and many places and times in between.

Where does masonry offer the greatest aesthetic impact on the Houston landscape?
Its strongest virtue, as the Ancients would say, is that it marries the architecture to the landscape. Such unity is prerequisite to creating a truly livable outdoor space that defines activity with aesthetic itself. When we introduce the masonry elements of the home by building them out into the open spaces of the yard, we create a feeling of unity between hardscape and softscape that implies a return to a state of Nature, and a blissful life of harmony with the elemental forces of life.

What are some examples of custom masonry?
Some of them are surprisingly unobtrusive until you get close enough to see them. Custom drain grates, mosaics, and custom stone patterns constitute the “little things” that transform functionality into sophisticated ornamentation.

How does custom masonry support swimming pool construction?
Custom masonry is literally the backbone of swimming pool construction. It is the predominant material for cladding the substructure of the pool. This superstructure includes the beams that stabilize the entire structure, the pool shell itself, and the concrete that forms the actual bottom of the pool.

How does custom masonry support garden design?
Since gardens are almost completely organic, the selective addition of custom masonry elements ties the vegetation directly into the architecture of the home. For a typical garden, a small architectural wall, or a planter running parallel to a wall, is often all that is needed to link apparently divergent realities into a interrelated, interdependent unity. Larger gardens can also be linked to key elements of the Houston landscape with more elaborate masonry work.

How does custom masonry support outdoor room construction?
As we have previously noted, masonry has been the main element of architecture for millennium. Outdoor room construction follows this principle. Since most outdoor rooms are open to the air on at least one side so that people can have a view of the Houston landscape, the importance of custom masonry is even more pronounced, because it is in the nuances and subtleties of design that unique outdoor living spaces find true expression in the form of new and innovative boundaries and spaces.

The Many Uses of Cut Stone in Houston Landscape Design

What is a cut stone patio?
It is a patio constructed out of stones cut into geometric shape. They are generally cut into squares, rectangles, or some other clearly recognizable pattern.

Are these stones all the same size?
The individual stones in a cut stone patio may or may not be the same, depending on the style of Houston landscape design they are intended to support.

Where is it mostly used?
Cut stone patios are used to build hardscapes in areas where people gather and move from point to point. We commonly build them around swimming pools located at the rear of homes. Here, the patio becomes the focus of outdoor living space, and a gathering spot that links architecture to water’s illuminated fluidity and ambience.

Front walks are also made of cut stone to create a sense of grand entrance to a house. This sense of stateliness can be further enhanced by building the front porch out of the same materials. A house differentiated by these elements stands out on the Houston landscape as being unique in its ability to add human refinement to natural elements without overpowering the organic vitality of life.

How does it compliment garden design?
Because stone is a natural element, it ties very well into the richness and natural order of a garden. Cut stone makes an excellent border for almost any garden style. It can also compliment nearby gardens with patterns that are recognizably geometric and reflective of the layout of garden design. Many times a pathway, fountain, or retaining wall that is built near a garden will draw attention to the greenery and magnify its importance on the Houston landscape.

Is this a good style to use near a pool or outdoor building?
Yes. One of the biggest benefits of cut stone is its ability to communicate a sense of control that is governed by the order of nature and not the hand of man. This creates symmetry, design, and containment without overpowering the scenery.

What architectural theme does this best support?
All architectural themes can be enhanced with cut stone patios. Different styles can be reflected by simply varying the type of stones we use, the geometric shapes into which they are cut, and the sizes of the individual stones themselves.

Color also plays a very important role in supporting certain architectural styles such as traditional, contemporary, and modern. Stone colors should be selected that appropriately reflect the intent of the home itself as it rises up from the Houston landscape.

What landscaping theme does this work best with?
Any landscaping theme can be enhanced with this type of patio design. It works especially well with natural landscape design and tropical landscape design.

Houston Landscape Design

What makes your company unique among other Houston landscape design companies?
Most of them are not landscape design companies. The majority of these businesses only work on the organic elements of the front and back yard. Some only do lawn work. Others provide specialized services in garden and flower bed planting and maintenance.

While these are all important parts elements to a residential Houston landscape, they represent only a fraction of what a true landscape design really is. What we create through a landscape design master plan is the equivalent of a home outdoors, complete with outdoor rooms, recreation areas, and special points of interests.

How do you create a home outdoors?
We create a multiplicity of elements linked to the thematic principles established by the architecture of the home itself. In a since, the house on the property is the hub from which the spokes of our design radiate outward into the yard into a diversity of hardscape and softscape forms?

What is a hardscape form?
There is broad definition and a narrow definition. By the broad definition, a hardscape is anything manmade. By the more narrow definition more commonly used in Houston landscape design, it is a manmade horizontal surface such as a deck, a patio, a motorcourt, a driveway, or the tile flooring of a courtyard.

Any manmade structure with a vertical rise is more accurately described as custom masonry or outdoor architecture. These forms include such things as architectural walls, retaining walls, custom planters, ornamental drains, stone steps, columns, and seat walls.

What is a softscape form?
Essentially, it is plant life. This includes lawn grasses, trees, shrubs, garden plants, and ground cover. Softscape design is the process by which plant life is sculpted to reflect mood, theme, and geometric order of the human mind without losing its organic essence in the process.

How do you bring such opposites together?
Well, you are assuming polarities here that really do not exist. Plant life is alive, and architectural forms are living space. In this sense both are living systems of a sort. When we look at life supported living systems we are dealing with compliments, not opposites. This makes landscape design more of an art of creating interdependent and interconnected relationships rather than reconciling what many assume to be irreconcilable opposites.

You mentioned outdoor rooms. What are these?
An outdoor room is really nothing more than a space that has been set apart for a special purpose. Entry gardens, courtyards, morning gardens, and terraces can all be outdoor rooms. Many of these have nothing more than low-level ground cover or small trees that create partial boundaries just high enough to separate them from the rest of the yard, but low enough to permit a clear view of the Houston landscape.

An outdoor building, on the other hand, is more like a room in a home. Generally it has a roof and at least two solid walls to provide shelter from the elements, yet also permit open access to the outdoor spaces of the yard.

Common outdoor rooms include summer outdoor kitchens and arbor living rooms.

Arbor Living Room & Landscape Design

An arbor can be something simple you sit in under the trees, or it can be the high point of your outdoor landscape design. Many arbors are nothing more than vantage points beneath large trees from which homeowners can quiet moments of the Houston landscape. Others, however, are outdoor living rooms that can only be described as monuments of residential outdoor architecture.

The arbor living room we built for the Friedman family was just such a structure. It was constructed in the form of a formal, outdoor luxury living room. It was built at the end of a long, three-level sandstone patio. Its axial location in relationship made it the second most significant structure on the landscape, and the terminus of the pool and hardscape design.

When you leave the summer kitchen that is adjoined to the home interior, you suddenly find yourself standing at the end of a patio that stretches past the length of a luxury pool and culminates in the grand finale of an outdoor luxury living space decked out with the finest furnishings and a crystal chandelier.

The arbor itself is designed with a traditional style of architecture and a touch of classicism. Four large pillars support a glass roof that shelters the fine furnishings beneath. A chandelier hangs from the roof’s interior. This adds a sense of drama, richness, and tone to the moment. Red curtains frame your view of the Houston landscape when you sit inside the arbor, and they also attract you from a distance when you look at the room from other vantage points in the yard.

The beams are made of solid steal and surrounded by pressure treated pine. They are stained to match the rest of the room’s interior. The roof is pitched slightly to run water backward to an organic wall of Japanese yew trees. This exposes the underbelly of the ceiling just a bit, making it appear to slope upwards. This gives you a better view of the stars and the traditional-style house looming majestically up from the Houston landscape and nighttime skyline.

The floor of the arbor living room is made from the same sandstone that was used to build the pool patio. Limestone inlays are cut into it, which create decoration and scaling. These look superb under chandelier light.

A few other features near the arbor enhance its preeminence position on the Houston landscape. The first of these are sandstone steps leading up to its interior. Every step is set on a concrete base hidden in the grass. Sandstone risers support the 18-inch treads that measure two inches each in thickness.

The treads are cut and thermal finished in order to give them a rich texture and sophisticated look. The generous width of every tread allows for a generous step and allows for a gradual descent to the upper pool terrace. Dwarf mondo grass grows between the risers to compliment the back wall of Japanese yew.

On either side we find additional softscape elements that lend vitality and décor to the sophisticated and complex hardscape designs that delineate this massive Houston landscape into gathering points of interest and activity. On one side we find a formal parterre garden, which runs parallel to the pool. Boxwoods frame the arbor on sides to provide scaling, organic complimentary framing, and structure, and a decorative planter housing Cyclamens adds color and vitality to the scene.

Clean Landscaping

I understand clean landscaping is a form of contemporary landscaping. Why is it called clean?
Clean landscaping gets its name from the fact that it is a form of landscape design that is characterized by a lack of clutter. In some respects, we might say, it is the epitome of the “less is more” approach to landscape design in terms of both hardscape and softscape.

Clean landscaping features straight lines and curved radiuses. It also features both plant massing in some places, and a reduced plant pallet in others. In some applications clean landscaping can also mean form gardens of an organized nature.

Is this a popular form of residential landscape design?
As a form of design, not, but as an overall approach to design, yes. As a form, it is mostly found in modern and contemporary gardens. In commercial applications, where there is a need to differentiate commercial property from the surrounding Houston landscape, clean forms are not only more popular, but in many cases, mandatory for success of the landscape master plan.

Overall, our approach to design in general could be called clean regardless of the style we use because we are very selective and deliberate in what we construct. We avoid overkill and aim for impression more than extravagant expression.

What are elements of this style are almost always used?
Clean landscaping is always done with modern or contemporary elements. Materials tend to be inorganic, and vegetation is strictly controlled, if not contained altogether.

How is clean landscaping valuable to Houston landscape clients?
In addition to the aesthetic contribution it makes to a Houston landscape, the clean style of design can also be very valuable from a financial perspective. Its minimalist use of forms and vegetation requires less maintenance than more elaborate landscaping designs. This helps keep annual maintenance costs down.

What is the emotional sense one gains when one looks at a clean landscape?
The feeling of order and intention typically evoke a feeling of calmness. This is another reason that Houston office parks often prefer to have clean landscapes.

Is this a costly design?
No

Does clean landscaping involve using exceptionally high grade or unique materials?
No

Is clean landscaping generally done in one portion of a yard or an entire yard?
No. The desire of the client, or the design intent of the professional landscaper, is the driving force behind a clean Houston landscape. Homeowners who prefer this design style are lovers of the ultra-modern and contemporary. They want a contemporary landscape design style that speaks of futurism without overkill, and peace of mind without traditional forms.

Commercial clients are seeking to reduce overhead expenditures on Houston landscape maintenance without compromising the quality of their landscape design. Clean landscaping offers them a chance to create structure, order, and symmetry at minimal front end cost and even lower ongoing maintenance costs.

Is this style of landscaping highly supportive of displays of outdoor art and sculpture?
Yes. In fact, the ordered nature of clean landscaping supports the geometry of sculptures and art forms.

Small Garden Walls

Size does matter, so the saying goes. Yet Exterior Worlds has found that small garden walls can carry a big wallop, so don’t let the use of the word “small” here mislead you.

A classic concept within the landscaping lexicon, the small garden wall—so called due to its short height—lends its strong, clean lines to bring order and structure to a garden landscape. Short walls create zones. They direct traffic from one area to another. They divide a space. We prize the short wall in our landscape design work, particularly in the way they can bring interest to otherwise flat and uninspired terrain.

Some of ways we have used short walls for our clients:

• We have built small garden walls in entertainment areas to provide de facto seating or table space.
• They have been used as lines of demarcation, specifying areas to be highlighted—a custom swimming pool, rose garden or outdoor room.
• When built to enclose flower beds, these walls can protect the plants from wind and other elements.
• They can serve as retaining walls when constructed with proper engineering.
• With a subtle but sophisticated touch, a small wall can delineate a property line to give it clear distinction. A small wall used in this way is particularly apt for a front yard, since it creates a visual barrier rather than an actual one, thus preserving a welcoming look for your home.
• Conversely, we have used a small wall in combination with a wrought iron fence. The results—a finely crafted fence that is built for durability, longevity and beauty. These combination fences convey an open ambiance and elegance while also providing protection.

If you are working within a particular theme for your landscape design—maybe a French garden or a Southern garden—small garden walls can further underscore that choice. With a classic theme like a French garden, all you need to do is visualize the structured gardens of Versailles to understand the impact of short walls. For romantic designs like a Southern garden, a small wall builds on the sense of intimacy and enclosure.

In general, walls are versatile tools for any custom landscaping project done by Exterior Worlds. For instance, living garden walls—in which we sculpt tall plants such as a lantana, cherry laurel (both of which are drought-resistant and have the added benefit of flowering), or reedy bamboo and turn them into green and living walls—add form, interest and texture to your yard. A glass garden wall that uses architectural glass within a sturdy framework provides both definition and privacy. You even get a hint of mystery when the sun shines through it and back-lights the plants on the other side.

Whether small, glass, brick, stone, or living, exterior walls allow you to take advantage of the strength inherent in geometric lines. Your garden will bloom, grow and flourish by putting this concept to work in your landscape design. It is such design consciousness that brings distinction to a landscape, so let Exterior Worlds seamlessly integrate walls into your landscape plan.

Garden Wall Fountains

You can turn your Houston outdoor patio into a refuge and retreat with the addition of a garden wall water fountain from Exterior Worlds. Water is one of the four cardinal elements and brings us back to nature, brings us back to ourselves. The calming and nurturing sound of water, its ever-changing movement, and the cycle that it represents all combine to put mind, body and soul at rest.

A garden wall fountain is the perfect solution for people who have always wanted a water fountain, but don’t have room for a free-standing one. Since they come in a variety of sizes, you can find the perfect one for the area you have available—a brick garden wall, a small garden wall or even a fence. In any event, wall fountains take up little space, thus providing a lot bang for your landscaping buck.

The garden wall fountains we use are made from many different material types, including slate, stone, cast concrete and metals, such as steel and copper. You will find strengths and special appeal in each choice, but we always remind our clients that durability is a key characteristic to look for in addition to any aesthetic quality.

When planning for a garden wall fountain installation, you will need to have the appropriate plumbing wherever you place your fountain. As experts in this area, Exterior Worlds will ensure that your fountain has access to incoming water as well as proper drainage.

As another consideration, you will want to envision the wall fountain in both daylight and nighttime conditions, including the landscape lighting you plan to use, to increase your overall pleasure in the fountain. Once again, we would be happy to help with this aspect of the project.

Garden wall fountains can further be used to augment your existing garden theme. A modern courtyard design could come alive with a dramatic contemporary garden fountain, as one example. The proper garden wall water fountain situated in your patio, outdoor room or outdoor lounge design can recall the Old World cultures of Europe; for example, a wall water fountain made from cast stone recalls the traditional Mediterranean wall fountains commonly found in Greece, Italy, Spain, and France. Or you can find a fountain in the style reminiscent of Asia, Mexico or Native America—dependent on the design of your home and gardens, of course.

Visually attractive and soothing water features, wall fountains make any space more interesting, beautiful and restful. A wall fountain designed and installed by Exterior Worlds can make your luxury backyard an extension of your exquisite interior world by serving both as a centerpiece of your landscape design and as a secondary accessory within the overall outdoor design. The sight and sound they create can provide a lovely accoutrement to a luxury spa, become a focal point during a morning meditation, or create as a pleasant backdrop to conversations during times of formal entertainment. For all occasions, wall fountains are works of art that enhance your garden by turning it into a tranquil and enchanted space.

Hardscape Design

A recent project that we did for the Friedman family demonstrates just how important hardscape design and variation of grade changes are to creating zones of interest and comfort in a vast Houston landscape. The size of the home and the property at large demanded that outdoor elements be very large as well. For example, the pool patio alone had to be 2,000 square foot to compliment the size of the house and to provide sufficient space to entertain an average of 40-50 people.

We decided we could break up the sense of an overwhelming structure by creating three changes in elevation. These grade changes were the pool patio itself, an upper terrace between the pool fountain and the spa adjoined to the outdoor kitchen, and an arbor overlooking the Houston landscape from a vantage point above.

We built the pool patio out of Pennsylvania blue stone and provided a nice dark surface area that set the gathering area apart from the surrounding vegetation. It featured custom drains and special water jets that sent water into the lighted depths of the pool at night. The stairs leading up to the terrace are broad and wide, and they create a feeling of a very gradual, gentle ascent to a higher realm where one can view the surrounding Houston landscape from the comfort of a rocking chair, or the sheik luxury of a heated spa sunk into the terrace.

The upper terrace was also constructed using Pennsylvania sandstone. It is also the first entry point for guests when they enter open space. It gives them a choice between the spa and the arbor above. Rocking chairs position the viewer for panoramic visual intake of the Houston landscape, swimming pool, and parterre garden. A retaining wall that rises behind the terrace aesthetically frames it and adds emphasis to its border. It also functions on a practical level to hold back the soil and the grade.

Perched above both the terrace and the pool, we built a traditional style arbor built with ornate columns and a solid roof, built in the style of a luxurious outdoor living room, and overlooking the entirety of the pool, the garden, and the Houston landscape beyond. In many respects, this was the grand finale to the Friedman project. It is built on an axis with the pool and provides us with as an entry point to the upper terrace through a series of steps very similar to those built along either side of the pool waterfall. Each two-inch step is built upon a concrete base hidden in the grass, with veneered sandstone risers and treads. Each top stone is flat and thermal finished.

The treads are also constructed with a very rich tread to prevent slippage. They are gauged at 18 inches in width to give you a generous step and uniform descent to the terrace. This reinforces the feeling of controlled drama that you feel when you walk out into the open space of the Friedman back yard, and it helps pause the visitor just long enough to make choices as to where to go next.

Climbing the steps creates an even greater sense of grand finale, because the arbor itself is decorated as an outdoor living room overlooking the Houston landscape, complete and living room furniture overlooking. The rear of the arbor is covered by a group of Japanese yew trees that create an organic wall and frame the Houston outdoor living experience with a sense of controlled vitality.

Houston Pool and Lanscape Project

A Houston family by the name of Friedman was adding an outdoor summer kitchen and screened-in dining room to the rear of their home. Their home was a traditionally style home residing on an enormous lot. They hired us to develop a master plan that featured a pool and Houston landscape concept that would connect to the new addition and extend the semi-outdoor space of the screened room into fully open space.

Our assignment was to create movement, interest, intimacy, and a controlled sense of drama that would ultimately help this enormous property appear inviting and intimate through carefully constructed, special points of interest.

The design we created, in many ways, introduced the theme of the entire Houston landscape. Since the view of the backyard was by nature panoramic, and because we were dealing with an enormous yard to begin with, we wanted to create a controlled sense of drama that you were coming into a yard whose plane dropped down. Grade change was the key here. By varying elevation and step width, we could make even the largest of forms on the Houston landscape feel intimate and inviting.

One of the two most prominent elements on this vast expanse of Houston landscape was the ornate custom swimming pool that we designed for the Friedman’s. It consisted of a two-level structure, with a fountain on one end. In the fountain there were three bubblers that shot water up into the air. The bottom of the fountain was completely covered in blue glass tile and lighted from within. Although small in comparison to the rest of the pool, the uniqueness of the fountain’s design made it one of the most prominent areas of interests, ideal for pulling chairs around its perimeter.

The fountain also adds something of a spa element to the pool. The lower end is 18 inches deep-deep enough to sit in, and the water is both heated and lighted. People can actually recline here much like they do in the spa, and dangle their feet over the edge of the waterfall.

This waterfall was one of the most unique features we added to this traditional Houston landscape. We had a quarry cut a slab of stone in a radius design and cut runnels in it with a diamond saw. We then thermal finished the slab and covered the front end with a custom blend of glass tile. The various colors and hues in the glass are intentionally reflective of surrounding vegetation and water patterns. There is also a deliberate copper hue to the design to help reflect pool lighting.

This further develops the sense of controlled drama that creates interest and intimacy on such a large tract of Houston landscape. The variation of colors, especially when catching either sunlight or pool lights, especially mirrors the elegance of the adjacent parterre garden and various flower species planted to the side of the arbor entrance.

Both the upper and lower portions of the patio were made of Pennsylvania full color sandstone. The coping of the pool is a lighter colored material known as Leuders Limestone. It has a rich hue that provides a superb compliment to both the architecture of the home and the surrounding foliage. Water rises up from jets covered by custom stone covers for water jets. This adds scale and sound to the patio, and provides special effects when illuminated at night.

It is very relaxing to pull up a chair by the water jets and watch the kids run in and out of spurting water as it arches into nighttime sky above the Houston landscape and lands in the lighted water of the pool.

Garden Maintenance Services

Expert garden maintenance services are a necessity for a luxury garden. Luxury gardens, such as a Zen garden or tropical landscaping as you might find in sophisticated residential landscaping, need exceptional care and specialized knowledge. And not just in the early stages, but throughout the lifespan of the garden.

What are some of the benefits you should expect from Exterior World’s high-quality garden maintenance services?

• Care for annual flowers. Our services include pruning annuals to maximize the bloom cycle and, in the cold season, we cover them ahead of freeze warnings. We are also experts at switching out seasonal color.
• Landscape lighting. A vital part of high-end gardens, landscape lighting serves the two-fold purpose of enlivening the garden at night and providing safety. We can do the required repairs and maintenance to this intricate system.
• Fencing and gates. Our specialty garden crew can also paint and repair the fence and garden gates to maintain proper security and increase the life of your fencing. Additionally, we can maintain and repair your automatic driveway gates.
• Specialty services. This category includes regular chores such as pressure-washing patios, driveways, sidewalks and other hard surfaces, inspecting and cleaning the gutters, and tree removal.
• Landscape drainage systems. Since drainage systems are such an important infrastructure of yards in Houston we have, over the years, become experts at their design, installation and maintenance.
• Irrigation systems. Sprinkler systems work best with scheduled inspections. This inspection—and any subsequent repairs—is a time-consuming job best done by professionals such as Exterior Worlds who are routinely in the gardens and yards, and thus can spot problems quickly.
• Mulching services. Mulching is necessary for moisture retention and proper mulching is even more necessary. For instance, it is important not to put too much mulch on the base of plants as it causes plants to struggle to survive. Unfortunately, we find this careless practice done by some of our competitors.

If you currently use a single maintenance crew for both your garden and lawn services, remember that you can “un-bundle” those services. For instance, you can keep the lawn crew—something you may prefer to do out of loyalty or due to favorable pricing. However, you could hire Exterior Worlds, with our finely-honed skills, for the subtle work needed by your gardens.

In these days of increased ecological awareness, it is important to discuss xeriscaping with your garden maintenance services professional. Exterior Worlds is an advocate of xeriscape (pronounced “zer-a-scape”) gardens, which is a type of gardening that de-emphasizes the use of fertilizers and watering via sprinkler systems. The intention behind this gardening philosophy is to use indigenous plants that take naturally to our soil and climate—and still look magnificent. You can use these plants in a new bed or we can artfully arrange them into your existing garden.

For a wonderfully unique landscape, you need the best garden maintenance services. Since 1987, Exterior Worlds has provided the best landscaping services in the Gulf Coast region by understanding the local terrain and weather, using the best techniques and practices, and always striving to understand your desires and needs.

Garden Walls

Straight or curvilinear, square, rectangular or circled, walls are vibrant additions to the design of your landscape. At Exterior Worlds, we have built them for needed privacy, as the backdrop for raised flowerbeds or rock landscaping, to demark property lines, for a visual divide between your turf and the garden beds or between your patio and lawn, to guide guests through your gardens, or to terrace the contours of your property.

A type of landscape architecture, walls are the means to accomplish a beautiful end: as a living garden wall to give your space verdant definition, as a natural and visual transition between your house and the yards, put to work as a sturdy retaining garden wall, perhaps doubling as permanent seating or planter. In other words, use them anywhere you need to define a space with a lovely touch.

Our clients have enjoyed them in additional ways. We have installed outdoor walls to function as the dividers that close off part of a patio to provide a quiet retreat and to encircle an outdoor room. We have created micro-climates with them—building a wall facing north or east followed by planting species of plants that prefer shade. Similarly, we have used the wall as support for vines and climbing roses.

For material choices when building an outdoor wall, you have a wide range of options, including stone, brick, pre-formed masonry blocks, wood, stucco and frosted glass, each with its own look. For example, a brick garden wall lends a formal touch to your landscape in comparison to wood. Because the wall should unify your landscape with the architecture of your property’s structures, we encourage our clients to carefully consider the relationship of the wall to their home and the style of both.

Because exterior walls come in all heights, they are perfect tools within your landscape’s “language” for creating physical or mental private areas and barriers. Exterior Worlds is known for our expertise in navigating through the approval process that most municipalities have in place for walls built over a certain height. For instance, some cities may require that an engineer approve plans for any wall built two feet or taller.

We have found that an exterior wall fits into any garden theme or design. You will find walls work well in a Zen garden or modern garden décor, while the romantic ones, such as English gardens and Southern gardens, practically demand one.

Walls in gardens complement other features within your landscape design—for example, paired with a luxury spa, thus providing additional seclusion and a sense of enclosure. They are also suitable for garden wall fountains which you can find in a range of shapes, styles and configurations.

Outdoor walls are delightful, charming and useful architectural elements in your yard’s design. But please keep in mind that building such a structure is a craft, in its planning, placement and construction. At Exterior Worlds, we pride ourselves in the highest level of professionalism and workmanship, which will only increase your pleasure in your outdoor wall—now, and for all the years to come.

How to Add Movement and Interest to Narrow Spaces

How do you define a narrow space?
A narrow space is any area between two forms that is longer than it is wide. Mathematically this is generally approximates to a 5 to 1 ratio. However, there is not hard fast rule to this. These places are typically so narrow very little can be done with them, and many developers simply leave them alone hoping no one will notice they are there.

Our goal is to make these erstwhile eyesores into special points of interest on the Houston landscape.

Do such narrow spaces occur more in residential environments or commercial environments?
We find them in both of these environments. In commercial environments, they may be found between buildings or in the areas between buildings and atriums. In residential areas, you will often see them between a house and some other outdoor structure. Sometimes they even occur between a home and a stone wall that surrounds the back yard.

In these settings they are a particular eyesore, because while the rest of the yard looks great, these linear spaces are simply sitting there with nothing in them, creating emptiness in the midst of a diversity of forms.

What parts of the Houston have more narrow spaces in landscapes?
Narrow spaces are more common in the urban areas of our city than in the more spread out parts of the Houston landscape. In commercial environments they are most commonly found between office buildings and atriums. This often presents an awkward appearance for the office park management, because while the atrium itself appears superb, the space around it looks drab and wasted. Something has to be done here to make it more presentable to visiting clients and more inviting to tired employees on break.

In residential areas you always see narrow spaces around townhomes. By nature these dwellings are taller than they are wide, and they typically reside on lots that are small to begin with. Many are surrounded by stone walls and have mini-garages. Some are practically side-by-side with other townhomes. Every time we see adjacent structures like this, there is some area between them that is fallow from a vegetation perspective and very challenging to work with from the standpoint of deliberate forms.

However, without some very creative landscaping techniques, these narrow spaces found in both residential and commercial Houston landscapes are typically unusable areas from a developmental perspective.

What hardscape elements do you use to add movement and interest?
In areas where the ground lies partly covered in shadow for much of the day, and where planting a garden may prove impractical, there are other things we can do to turn an otherwise drab narrow space into a point of interest. One favorite method of doing this is to build a curved walkway through the area.

This breaks up its linear narrowness. This can then be further magnified by adding gravel or texture patterns to either side of the walkway. When done correctly, this not only breaks up linearity, but it also adds a feeling of dynamic movement.

What are some other specific things you can do to make narrow spaces keynotes of Houston landscape design?
Custom wall planters and custom trellises both provide excellent support for the existing linearity of the space. In some businesses and schools, scenes of the surrounding Houston landscape can be painted on a wall in the form of a mural. For Italian homes this also works very well because many of these houses are very tall structures and the suggestion of vegetation growing up the sides of the wall is very reminiscent of Mediterranean hillsides. Mirrors can also be installed to reflect a custom garden.

Swimming Pool Renovation Project

The Berry family of Houston, Texas recently hired us for a pool renovation project. The pool surface, plaster, tile, and coping required reworking. Originally, the Berry’s had contacted us to see of we could simply restore the pool. We told him that we certainly could, but after pointing out to him how the pool was actually working against his overall landscape design, we were able show him how swimming pool renovation would actually give them a better outcome than they had hoped for.

The original pool had some design challenges that prevented it from working harmoniously with the remainder of the landscape aesthetic. Part of the pool was framed by an architectural wall and by a partly brick and bluestone patio. The problem with this design was that the wall was too tall. It created a sense of separation from the remainder fo the yard, and it obscured the view of a beautiful arbor located just behind the pool. It also hosted a contemporary, sheer descent waterfall fountain that looked oddly modern and out of place in relationship to the traditional lawn garden design of the yard. Restoring this wall to its proper relationship with the landscape was the most important component of our swimming pool rennovation project.

We knew that the fountain had to go because the contemporary design did not work with the freeform swimming pool design or the residential architecture of the home. We felt that the wall would work better if it were one foot lower, and if it took on the appearance of a more deliberate vertical extension of the brick and bluestone patio. To create this façade, we had to rebuild the wall with bluestone columns that match the tile of the patio. These columns rose up in stately form behind the water and were capped at the top. Wiers jutted out from beneath the capstones and poured water into pool. These wiers were crafted with a thermal finish in a flame detail.

We continued our swimming pool renovation with an expansion of the brick coping. This drew greater emphasis to the body of water within its form, and helps focus awareness on the tranquility created by the fountain. We also removed the outdated diving board and replaced it with a diving rock. This was more attractive, and far more safe as well.

We then extended the entire pool and patio another 15 feet toward the right to give the area a more relaxed, sweeping feeling. We also changed out the spa coping that had a lot of problems. It had an odd shape, so we custom crafted brick interlace coping that would fit the oodd shape. We also expanded the brick coping all around the pool from the original 8 inches to a full 12 inches.

We then expanded the new forms of our swimming pool renovation into the rest of the yard. We began by building a sense of connection to an arbor that stood behind the pool. The arbor needed no remodeling of its own, but it had been previously obscured by the oversized wall. Because an arbor is both a seating area and an architectural focal point of outdoor landscape design, we wanted to generate an interest in its location, and create something that would invite visitors to venture beyond the hardscape into the world under the trees.

To accomplish this, we built a walkway out of bluestone stepping pads that actually extended across the surface of the pool. We also built a terrace and a dining area in front of the arbor to make it a place where people could spend an entire afternoon and evening under the trees.

Drip irrigation systems

Drip irrigation systems keep your garden landscape design beautiful and healthful. In all kinds of weather and whether you have a small garden design or are managing a commercial landscape design, they make life easier. Having come a long way from the old-fashioned soaker hoses, the drip irrigation systems of today provide efficiency, control, convenience and money-savings for the ongoing care of your landscaping.

Drip technology is the perfect way to water plants as part of a landscape design for difficult spaces. At Exterior Worlds, we recommend them for strip beds that are close to your house, between sidewalks or along a driveway, vegetable gardens, plants in raised beds, and plants in containers such as decorative pots, urns, hanging baskets and custom iron wall planters. Important for Houston rose maintenance, drip systems let you water roots instead of flower material. We also like these systems around retaining walls since they help reduce hydro-pressure.

The benefits of our drip systems include:

• They water only what and where you want. This targeted watering method, an element of xeriscaping, reduces weed growth and eliminates the useless water that falls on paved paths, concrete sideways and driveways.
• There is little to no runoff. A two-fold advantage that helps control any erosion you might have and makes it safer for your family and guests to walk problem-free in high traffic areas.
• No overspray. With hard water like we have in Houston, water does leave a mark. But with drip systems, there is no overspray and so little to no resulting damage to nor marring of windows, structures or fencing.
• You realize water savings. Estimates run as high as 60 percent in comparison to regular sprinkler systems which loses water to evaporation. Most often, you use a drip system in areas notable for being hard to water and ones that are ill-suited for sprinklers. This attribute makes drip irrigation systems an essential part of your “green” green garden strategy.

Today’s drip systems, also called low-volume systems, are constructed of high-grade hose materials especially engineered to withstand the damaging UV rays of the sun, a drastic improvement over the porous, often recycled, rubber of the old soaker hoses. High-end drip systems also use drip emitters (also called micro spray heads, drippers and inline drippers) that let water seep slowly onto the plants and ground in a gentle, soaking method that is most beneficial to the plants. Spacing of these emitters varies with soil type, but usually runs at 12-, 18- or 24-inches intervals.

If you are thinking about a drip irrigation system, you might also consider an automatic sprinkler system for your entire yard. It is a prudent choice since some estimates show that the watering of lawns and landscapes accounts for as much as 50 percent of an average homeowner's total water usage.

Also when thinking about adding drip technology to your overall residential sprinkler system, you will want to consider ongoing maintenance. Drip technology features mechanical and computer aspects and therefore they will break down from time to time. Water experts like Exterior Worlds can systematically check them out, a service that will only enhance the overall performance.

Automatic Sprinkler System

An automatic sprinkler system is one of the best methods for protecting your landscaping investment. It keeps the appearance of your entire property at a high level. You save money from resourceful water usage. The health and life cycles of your plants are improved. And, with an automatic sprinkler system, you do it all with the flick of a switch.

It goes without saying that water is essential to your landscape master plan. But when left to natural occurrences, you can end up with too little or too much of it. It is the rare year when it is just right. An automatic sprinkler system solves that problem. It is a type of xeriscaping that conserves water and saves money. No more wasted water when you forgot to turn it off. No more anxiety about watering the sidewalk, curb and street.

The best way to ensure a vibrant and healthy landscape is to be sure your lawn, trees and other plant material receive timely water in even amounts. A professionally designed lawn sprinkler system by Exterior Worlds protects your Houston landscape because it delivers the correct amount of water to each specific area. For instance, what happens when it rains? Your automatic rain shutoff device or moisture sensor can tell that it’s raining and shuts the system off without any effort on your part. Conversely, when we have dry weather, as happened in the spring and summer of 2009 in Houston, your system can deliver steady amounts of water to your yard to prevent it from becoming under-hydrated—which can happen in just a few days without water.

One of our typical automatic sprinkler systems includes:

• A controller. This device acts as the brain of the system.
• Sprinklers. Various heads are chosen based on the area to be water—its size, plant material, sun conditions, to name a few considerations.
• Valves. These devices are programmed to open and close, thus controlling the flow of water.
• Drip irrigation systems and bubblers. These low-volume features deliver water perfectly to trees, rose gardens, pots and planters.
• A pressure vacuum breaker (PVB). A quality sprinkler system installation usually includes this element that prevents the irrigation system from allowing contaminates back into the city’s drinking water when water pressure drops.

When considering the installation of a sprinkler system, it is best to hire lawn care professionals who specialize in irrigation systems. Exterior Worlds can design and install the most cost-efficient and energy-efficient system possible for your specific needs. Our high-quality installation involves getting the job done quickly so as to minimize negative effects on your existing residential landscaping. We carefully set grass aside, but replace it as soon as possible after installation. While your grass may yellow, it usually re-establishes itself quickly. We also hand-dig trenches so as not to disturb any existing wiring and lines.

In addition, we are knowledgeable about watering requirements of different plants, water pressure, climate conditions, and soil type, which is especially important in Houston because of our temperamental clay soil. We are also pros with local codes and ordinances, thus eliminating costly mistakes and over-runs during the planning and installation phases.

Houston Landscaping Creates an Outdoor Dinner Room

What is an outdoor dining room?
An outdoor dining room is an environment that is created through landscaping elements that creates a special space where dining feels appropriate and meals can be enjoyed in comfort. Traditional walls are typically not the norm for enclosing such spaces, although low-level architectural walls made from custom masonry may at times be used. More common enclosures are typically built from hedges that are low to the ground or from columns that set the space apart with a sort of “invisible wall between them” appeal that appears at once both contrasted from the surrounding landscape and simultaneously open to the full view thereof.

What are common furnishings in an outdoor dining room?
Common furnishings include chandeliers, fireplaces, and ceiling fans. Gas lanterns are also popular. Larger outdoor rooms can be decorated with curtains that partially enclose the space and still leave some space open to view the Houston landscape.

What does Exterior Worlds do to make this actually FEEL like an indoor room?
We make sure that the dining room tables have adequate space between the chairs. We set the room up on an axel basis to give it a sense of balance and proportion so that any vantage point looks equivalent to all others within the space. This contributes to a feeling of intimacy in the midst of open spaces.

We also sometimes add decorative stone mosaics beneath able to emulate the patterns seen on indoor rugs. If the room is designed between columns, these stones can also be placed between columns to create a feeling of grand entrance from either of two directions.

Where do you normally build these rooms?
Outdoor dining rooms are normally built near an outdoor kitchen or just behind a house.

Are they usually a part of an outdoor kitchen?
Yes.

Do they always have ceilings and hardscape walls, or can they be courtyard style surrounded by trees and hedges?
When it comes to using the term walls, we want to clearly define this term as meaning more than what you think of when you think of the walls inside your house. Walls that surround outdoor environments can never block the view of the Houston landscape. Instead, they have to be skillfully constructed to actually magnify its appeal by sectioning off a unique area which in turn provides a unique vantage point onto the rest of the Houston landscape.

What are common flooring materials?
We want these environments to be as comfortable as possible. Formality is something that nine times out of ten the homeowner prefers we avoid. Since a more casual environment is therefore preferable, any number of simple materials can be used to build a solid, attractive, floor surface that is workable and aesthetic enough to create mood—but never so overdone as to draw attention away from the moment and down to the ground.

What would be the point of that?

Do you place climate controls in these?
Normally we do not place climate controls in outdoor kitchens. Outdoor buildings like summer kitchens and entertainment rooms are better suited for AC and Heating. There have been exceptions to this per homeowner request, with the understanding that cooled air in such an enclosure is immediately lost to the environment.

Do you have restrooms in them?
Sometimes, yes.

What entertainment media, if any, goes into these rooms?
We can easily configure audio distribution centers, iPod connections, and television sets with all weather equipment.

What is the art of water?

What is the art of water?
It is the use of water features to beautify a landscape

What features make water art and not just water?
The art of water depends partly on movement. When mobile and fluid, water gives the mind a feeling of being freed from form and rigid constructs. To maintain a sense of artistry, however, fluidity must be focused. Some type of geometric boundary or structure is necessary to lend aesthetic to the scene at hand. When these two elements are combined proportionally, the art of water then functions to compliment and reflect both organic and inorganic landscape elements. Vegetation looks more supported by the very stuff of life itself, and architecture becomes more dynamic and preeminent as it is reflected from a variety of angles that magnify its preeminence and sense of proportion.

How does the art of water support architecture?
Fountains are very important elements to landscape architecture. As masonry forms, they mirror the geometry of homes, patios, and outdoor buildings. As water moves out of these structures, it gives life and emergence to these forms. Putting lights in a fountain adds an even greater dimension to the scene.

Reflecting pools and infinity ponds create mirrored surfaces that actually reflect the forms of buildings. Structures then take on new significance, and smaller landscapes can be made to look much larger and complete with this effect.

How does the art of water support softscape?
The art of water is essential to creating a landscape that looks like Nature, so to speak. Even in the driest parts of the world there are rivers, oases, and beaches, so few topographies exist that do not have water somewhere in the scenery. When we create a backyard landscape to represent a wilderness area, elements like natural pools play a very critical role in establishing a sense of getaway from the big city. Streams and waterfalls are two other designs that can be added to a backyard to add a sense of movement and freedom.

More refined European garden designs can be customized by adding water features. Fountains can be placed at the heart of small parterre gardens, for example, in order to magnify their sense of proportion and aesthetic impact. Koi ponds can occupy the central positions of entry garden courtyards. Waterfalls can actually be built to act as lighted walls at night and separate one portion of the landscape from the rest, or even one property from adjacent yards. The art of water in these landscape designs always helps to create a sense life energy that is emerging, dynamic, organic, and diverse.

What landscape designs benefit the most from the art of water?
While the art of water is used in every landscape master plan to some degree, its greatest benefits are seen in contemporary and modern landscape designs. In contemporary landscape design, we find an aesthetic that is extremely mentalist, mathematical, and abstract. Vegetation is scarcer in this landscape style than in any other aesthetic. Consequently, since organic life is minimized, the stuff of life itself—water—is often used as a substitute for vegetation.

Custom fountain work is therefore very important to both commercial and contemporary residential landscapes. In patio design, it adds vertical presence to a horizontal plane. In other areas of the yard, such as the central entryway to the front yard, or in a special seating area in the back yard, contemporary fountains create movement and a feeling of vitality without having to deviate from an essentially inorganic design form.

Modern landscape design is not quite so abstract or inorganic as contemporary landscape design. There is more vegetation, particularly in styles like modern tropical gardens. The art of water here not only adds a sense of life, but it also provides linkage between living elements and nonliving structures. Modern garden décor will often call for a blend of high-grade material constructs, such as glass walls and steel columns, surrounding by plants of various species. Turning the glass wall into the backdrop for a waterfall fountain is a good example of what we mean by water becoming more than water, transforming itself aesthetically into the literal art of water.

How to Make a Large Expansive Yard Feel Intimate

What neighborhoods do you most have to do this in?
Most of the largest yards in Houston are found in places such as River Oaks, Rivercrest, and Memorial. Some of these parts of the Houston landscape, due to their proximity to Buffalo Bayou and its tributaries, are also heavily wooded. Trees make a landscape look even larger than it is, so we have to develop ways of making areas of the yard appear special and unique in a way that will not harm standing trees.

What are some basic ways that you can make an expansive yard feel more intimate?
All main components of landscape design—including garden design, hardscape design, and outdoor buildings—can be used to create smaller habitable zones out of an otherwise massive property.

How do you use garden design to do this?
We can use hedges to create outdoor rooms and partition garden rooms. This may involve using very low-level ground cover to create more of an open area that is still set apart from the rest of the yard, or it may involve using taller hedges to block the view of one part of the garden to another. We would use over-sized plants to do this, or even deliberately plant species with large, shiny leaves to reflect the illumination of outdoor lighting.

How do you alter hardscape to do this?
We can add patios at different elevations. This breaks up the large scale and creates different seating areas and focal points. On Houston landscapes surrounding more contemporary-style homes, we can plant modern gardens in the center of a large patio that has been “staggered” in this fashion.

On more traditional landscape designs, we can build a custom fountain.
Still another technique that we use is to create paving with large scale stone. Using very large stones to build a relatively small patio distorts one’s sense of perspective in a way as to concentrate the attention of the eye more on the patio than the surrounding Houston landscape. How do you construct outdoor buildings?
Outdoor buildings are more sophisticated structures than outdoor rooms. An outdoor building typically has three full-sized walls and a roof. The positioning of two or more of these structures can be pivotal to the aesthetic impact of the entire yard.

An outdoor living room, for example, can be built in a garden, thus breaking up the view from space to space. Or, an arbor can be built between a luxury swimming pool and an outcropping of trees in the back yard to create the sense of separation between refined outdoor living space and more open natural space.
What special or ornamental features are used?
In courtyard design where we rely primarily upon organic elements to create partitions and walls, we often use outdoor curtains to section off all or part of the courtyard from the rest of the Houston landscape. These curtains can be made to work just like indoor curtains so they can be partly opened to other parts of the yard to create something of a window-like effect.

In portions of the yard where patios and custom hardscapes predominate a large Houston landscape, large-scale planters can be built to either run parallel to home walls, architectural walls, or elevated patios. They can also be integrated into more sophisticate hardscapes such as outdoor fireplaces and custom fountains.

Lawn Landscape Design

Lawn landscape design involves more than taking care of your yard. It actually has more to do with craftsmanship than mowing. The lawn is treated like a unifying fabric that is shaped into a design that connects all the many elements of residential landscape design. Both organic and inorganic forms are included in this. The point of lawn landscape design is not to develop the greenery at the expense of human form, but instead to unite green elements with fantastic figures of stone, tile, wood, brick, and gravel. Only then can we say that the lawn has truly been designed, and only then can we truly call it a landscape.

Gardens are one of the more important elements of lawn landscape design. Gardens do several things to make a yard look larger and more vibrant than it originally appeared. For one thing, they add a vertical aspect to otherwise flat terrain. No matter what types of plants are growing in a garden, they are always taller than surrounding grasses and provide focal points of awareness to anyone who has just stepped outside. Any number of garden designs can be developed in a Houston landscape. Our flat terrain provides us with limitless opportunity to create any design we choose. Styles are chosen to compliment home architecture and outdoor activity theme. Colors are used to distinguish garden elements from ordinary lawn elements and to establish mood and tone for the outdoor setting.

Trees are also very important to lawn landscape design. Trees are magnificent and communicate a reality that is uniquely their own. They grow all over the world and are iconic pillars in human art, myth, and symbology. It is mandatory that landscape architects pay special attention to trees of any species or size. Larger trees provide shade and complimentary structure to outdoor seating areas, shade gardens, patios, courtyards, and arbors. Smaller trees are actually used in some types of gardens. Entry gardens and Japanese gardens rely on a number of smaller tree species to either add a vertical, column-like aspect to their aesthetic or to work as organic walls that separate special space from open space.

There are also a number of inorganic elements that are essential to the success of lawn landscape design. It is important to give equal credence to these forms for two reasons. One reason is the obvious human need for structures that will support comfortable Houston outdoor living and also function as center points for outdoor events. Secondly, the deliberate and careful construction of hardscape designs in the midst of organic vitality lends form to the intangible longing to see human civilization somehow return to balance and harmony with Nature.

To do this we have to think about what people like to do in the backyard and front yard and map out interest points that will later provide foundation for specific structural elements built to accommodate these activities. Natural transit points can be developed into walkways made of stepping stone, polished concrete, or running bond brick. Open areas between trees can become the new locations for courtyards, arbors, outdoor kitchens, outdoor fireplaces, and ponds. Architectural walls and fountains can be placed virtually anywhere to create worlds within worlds and special realms of light, water, sound, and motion.

In all of this we work to create an embodiment of lifestyle and heart-felt beliefs that are better expressed through forms instead of words. It is so much better for someone to create a lawn landscape design that represents who they are in spirit and to simply invite the people who matter to come over.

It is more pleasant and truthful for people to live who they are rather than vainly attempt to explain who they are with fear-based inner dialogue, and it creates true society free from the inner tyranny of social conditioning in an outdoor setting of tranquility that combines the better parts of nature and architecture for the betterment of Man.

Outdoor Garden Seating

Can Exterior Worlds design gardens that are more than beautiful places to look at?
Yes. We specialize in building gardens that work as seating and gathering place for outdoor events and family entertainment.

What styles of gardens support seating?
Outdoor garden seating can be created in any style of garden. It is not so much the style of garden you need to think about. It is the number of people that the space we are developing is supposed to support.

Why is outdoor garden seating so important to Houston landscape design?
Houston landscape design is the heart and soul of Houston outdoor living. It is all about the emotions you create for people. Beautiful gardens are essential elements of the outdoor experience. Much of what people will take with them in the form of memories will be generated while they are sitting in the garden.

Therefore, it is very important for us to think about where people are going to sit and what they are going to be looking at. How people enter the garden and exit to other zones of interest is also very important. No one can enjoy themselves if they feel cramped coming and going. Transit areas to and from the garden are also needed to keep people’s feet dry and to avoid safety issues like trip hazards.
Is this a small yard, big yard, or any yard motif?
Exterior Worlds can design superior outdoor garden seating in any Houston yard of any size. Even a small lot with a curved linear pathway can have a garden area and garden seating placed along its edge.

Does this ever tie in with water elements like pools, fountains?
Yes. Outdoor garden seating is often developed near a number of outdoor water elements. The most obvious is a custom swimming pool. Because it is very common to install gardens near pool patios, we can often create seating areas in the garden itself to function as an alternative to patio/poolside seating.

Garden seating in front of a lighted fountain is also a popular motif for both small and large back yard landscapes. Lighted fountains provide special focal points for ambience and conversation and contribute a very unique, multi-dimensional presence to the softscape surrounding the gathering area.

Is this part of outdoor room design, and if so, how?
In a very loose sense of the term outdoor room design, we might can call this form a very rudimentary type of outdoor room. However, we want only the garden itself to create the sense of intimacy and enclosure. True outdoor room design involves the construction of either organic or inorganic wall elements, or sometimes ceilings in the forms of literal outdoor buildings.

Concealed Custom Drainage Systems that Protect the Houston Landscape

How would you define the term, unique irrigation as opposed to irrigation?
A concealed custom drainage system, by definition, is one that is designed to address all the needs of a home or a business in a way that doesn’t disrupt the paving or the terrain of the Houston landscape with severe slopes.

What components are used to make a custom drainage system?
The typical system is made of a network of basins and pipes. Gravel is often used to conceal the basins. Gravel provides an ideal compliment to both hardscape elements and softscape forms.

How do you design such a system without it being an obvious eyesore?
We have to use very creative design ideas. We look for ways to conceal drains and pipes in the very fabric of the land itself. Sometimes we even use special materials to conceal our systems in a way that ultimately improves the aesthetics of the Houston landscape.

What areas of the Houston landscape need concealed, custom drainage systems the most?
Lawns in particular need quality drainage. The worst thing that can happen to a yard is to have pools of water collect without any possibility of runoff. This will kill entire patches of grass, threaten flower beds, and potentially harm trees as well.

There is also a risk to human health when standing water forms like this. The Houston landscape is a favorite breeding ground for mosquitoes due to the heavy rainfall the Texas Gulf Coast receives. In fact, prior to European Colonization, the Karankaway Indians pretty much stayed clear of what is now called Houston because the swarms of mosquitoes the bred in the bayou systems made foraging and hunting uncomfortable even for them.

Building a network of pipes and drains in a lawn is one of the most important steps toward the creation of not only a beautiful landscape, but also a livable and healthy one as well.

How do you conceal drains?
One of our favorite techniques is creating paving solutions that are designed to let the water fall through slots in the pavement. This works very well in the relatively flat Houston landscape. These slots are very small, so the eye will not see them.

What if I don’t want any slots in my pavement?
We can also slope the paving so the water moves to areas that allow for discreet, hidden drain basins or troughs. Sometimes we move the water toward garden areas surrounded by French drains, where just enough water touches plant roots before being drawn through the gravel into the basin.

What Houston neighborhoods need custom drain systems the most?
The landscape throughout the city is flat wherever you go. Therefore, all neighborhoods need this service equally.