Houston Landscape Designers

Landscape designers take primary elements—open space, plants, hardscapes and naturally-occurring elements—and arrange them into interesting compositions, thereby turning a mere yard into a landscape. Your Houston landscape becomes soothing or naturalistic or out of the ordinary. Or whatever your intention was in working with a landscape designer in the first place.

At Exterior Worlds, our team of landscape designers begins with a frank and open conversation to ascertain your needs and wants, your lifestyle, limitations and preferences. Based on our expertise in the Gulf Coast region, we stay attuned to the inherent differences in the many upscale neighborhoods in our area. Something that works in Bellaire landscaping may not necessarily work in Piney Point landscaping due to varying terrain, vegetation, soil, or regulatory and permitting constraints. Our ability to deal with these difficult, time-consuming and sometimes conflicting demands is where we prove our value to you.

From these discussions, our landscape designers develop landscape master plans, which address issues such as:

• The purpose of your landscape. Perhaps landscaping for entertainment is important. Or maybe you want a tropical landscaping or butterfly garden design, both highly compatible with our climate. The exploratory discussion brings these concepts to the forefront.
• Hardscapes, the non-plant features in your yard. This category includes the various and marvelous accoutrements that define luxury landscapes, such as wrought iron fencing and driveway gates, patios, custom swimming pools and outdoor fireplaces.
• The infrastructure of the yard. This necessary segment covers drainage, erosion and irrigation matters. Just to highlight one of them: Houston property owners regularly deal with the double-edged problem of torrential rains falling on flat topography. Since all that water has to go somewhere, the question is—where? Exterior Worlds has years of expertise in all these critical concerns.

We always incorporate solid design principles in our landscape plans. Let’s take line theory as an example. Lines, whether tangible or intangible, indicate movement and flow from one zone to another. They also help define a raw space and guide the placement of hardscapes. You could even say that lines have a style of their own since there are many types of lines and each impacts the space in different ways. As an example, curvilinear lines naturally flow and reflect the shapes found in nature. With this line type, we work to reveal the designer’s hand instead creating an ungoverned and wild messiness. At the opposite end of the spectrum are rectilinear lines that imply a grid and convey a very formal style. Here, the space is kept carefully in balance and symmetrical, which can sometimes veer into rigidity and coldness, something our designers work to avoid.

In the end, you want a designer who is creative while staying attuned to your wants and needs. Additionally, this professional must possesses material know-how, including the suitability and durability of materials specifically for our climate, and has to know local construction standards—a combination of skill and talent that you will find at Exterior Worlds, with your Houston home and garden being the ultimate beneficiary.

Landscape Yard Design

A professional landscaping company is your best resource for landscape yard design. It gives you access to a team of people that will create an outdoor environment based upon the very essence of your personal desires and sensibilities.

Exterior Worlds differentiates itself from lawn and garden service companies in this respect. We do more than trim trees, cut grass, and maintain flower beds. We work according to a set of principles that create a holistic unity between your house, your yard, your outdoor architecture, and your garden design.

These principles constitute the core values of all landscape yard design, regardless of the style of landscaping itself, the size of the yard, or the many unique elements we can populate your landscape with.

The first of these principles is the establishment of thematic unity through a landscape master plan. This plan is a CAD document that details everything that will be created in your yard. It shows how individual elements will work together in relationship with one another to establish an outdoor living environment that compliments your home and extends your lifestyle beyond its four walls.

The second principle we follow is simple garden design in key locations. This creates pockets of beauty and interest in otherwise fallow portions of your yard. By simplicity, we mean avoiding overkill that would smother the senses with too much input. Our experience has shown us that less is more. By focusing on the design and pattern of a garden and choosing two or three colors to repeat throughout its form, we can establish a high level of aesthetic without creating runaway growth or excessive complexity that could potentially create a distraction.

The third principle in landscape yard design is the principle of balance. There are two types of balance, these being symmetrical balance and asymmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance is based upon the idea of creating mirror images through complimentary identical elements. Asymmetrical balance uses interwoven geometry, complimentary colors, and motifs of forms to link vegetation and architecture through subtlety and suggestion.

The fourth principle of landscape yard design is transition. Transition is the establishment of movement from point to point within a landscape. It can take both conscious and unconscious form. Obvious elements of transition include gated entrances to entry gardens, entrances and exits to custom patios, courtyards, and outdoor rooms, and walkways of stone or brick. More subtle forms of transition involve variances in perspective. The positioning of certain elements in relationship to one another can alter the sense of depth when you look into the yard. Differing heights of vegetation can also create a line of sight that pulls the eye in a certain direction. Landscape lighting can motivate movement toward the back or front of the yard, depending on the position of the observer and how the lighting is installed.

For more information on how we can use these elements to create a landscape yard design that will add curb appeal to your home, call our office for a free consultation to discuss the preliminaries of a proposed Houston landscape design plan.

Exterior Wall Fountains in your Landscape

Within the landscaping vernacular, exterior wall fountains belong to the category called custom hardscapes. They are the non-plant structures and materials of your landscape design. This category, whether custom or not, include landscaping elements such as decks, patios and courtyards, garden arbors and arches, pathways, gates and fences.

Exterior wall fountains make stylish additions to your landscape. The clients of Exterior Worlds have found that they add auditory pleasure and visual charm as they direct the admiring eye across the outdoor design. In addition, they are extremely versatile, taking center stage as a large water fountain that covers an entire wall or fitting snugly into the odd corner.

If your plantings were chosen for their ability to attract wildlife, as with a butterfly garden design, you will find that fountains of all designs and sizes are excellent choices to make. Wall fountains naturally pair up with outdoor structures such as brick garden walls, whose rectangular surface seems to invite the gracefulness of water. Another excellent location for a wall fountain is a retaining garden wall—the moving water turns the retaining wall’s stolid and functional nature into an element of beauty. In fact, exterior wall fountains fit into any garden theme, from traditional to modern, from stone landscaping to shade garden design.

Exterior Worlds recommends that you consider a custom fountain. Our custom-built water fountains address any design problems upfront, such as the problem found in pre-fabricated fountains when water bounces out of the fountain. This over-spray leads to subsequent problems, such as discoloration of the surrounding material due to Houston’s hard water and the area near the fountain becoming slippery and moldy.

You can find exterior wall fountains in a variety of materials, including stone, slate, cast concrete and metals, such as copper and steel. We highly suggest that, in addition to its visual quality and attraction, durability be an important characteristic you look for since you want your fountain to withstand the constant contact with water and Houston’s various—and notorious—weather conditions.

You will also want to include the fountain in your overall residential landscape lighting plan in order to maximize your overall pleasure in it. As your lighting design experts, Exterior Worlds will help you imagine the wall fountain in daylight and nighttime conditions. We will use lighting techniques that make it a nighttime highlight or a subtle accent, depending on what you want to achieve.

From a design viewpoint, wall fountains are adaptable and flexible resources, a quality that has to do with their varying sizes. At one end of the spectrum, you could install a freestanding wall, complete with fountain, within the spare lines of a contemporary backyard design. Or if you have a wall niche in a small side garden, one can fit perfectly there. In the same manner, a wall fountain at your front entrance establishes a welcoming ambiance. Your imagination and good taste should be your guide you as you contemplate installing a water fountain. It will provide you with years of pleasure and peace—which is a fine investment for your property and for you!

Swimming Pool Landscape Design

For a Houston landscape, a swimming pool landscape design is often the pièce de résistance. Our climate invites the presence of a pool and people are naturally drawn to it. The creativity applied to the attendant landscaping only heightens the impact. Not merely the glue that holds everything together, a pool and its landscaping are the jewels atop the crown.

Exterior Worlds offers luxury designs that take the basic elements of swimming pools and give them sophisticated élan, creating a special atmosphere for all your festive occasions. Our swimming pool landscape designs allow you to move seamlessly from the interior to the exterior with the pool area functioning as a continuation of your living space. Because it serves as this linkage, it is imperative that the swimming pool design properly complement the architecture of your house. Our professional landscape designers will help you achieve all the prerequisite demands.

There’s even good news for homeowners of older residences with pools designed and built in, say, the 70s and 80s. If you’ve been looking with desire at the latest shelter magazines with their exquisite spreads of swimming pool landscape designs, a swimming pool restoration or swimming pool remodeling project from Exterior Worlds could be your solution.

A restoration project is the least involved of the two projects. Perhaps the pool’s shell could use re-surfacing to achieve a particular aesthetic that is available with today’s product offerings. Or it could mean updating the pool decking with more current material choices.

With a remodeling job, however, a complete re-do is required. It is a project that involves reconsidering your pool area and tailoring it to your specific site, including terrain, tree elements, drainage and all structural architecture, and complying with your specific needs and desires. Since no two remodeling jobs are ever alike, an Exterior World’s professional design team is best suited for this extensive venture. Bottom line, though, both re-do options are viable alternatives to consider.

Items to consider in your swimming pool landscape design:

• In conjunction with your swimming pool designer, you will first need to ascertain the best location of the pool, a choice driven by the space available and the spatial relationship of the house and yard. You want it to be eye-catching and inviting. At the same time, you want it to fit the space without overpowering it.
• Another major element is the patio, the wonderful and much-used outdoor space is often the “living room” of your backyard. Common construction types include flagstone patio, wood patios and patio pavers.
• One feature of the pool to pay close attention to is the pool coping. Coping is the masonry product that sits on the edge of the pool’s shell, often rising above the patio and is the hard surface on which you sit when you dangle your feet in the water. Coping material choices are driven by two functions: compatibility (it should be coordinated with other material choices made for your home and landscape) and safety (it needs to be a non-slippery surface like brick or stone).

For more than 20 years, Houston has turned to Exterior Worlds for high-end landscape design and services, including custom swimming pools. 713-827-2255.

Your Front Yard Landscape Design

A front yard landscape design speaks volumes. It clearly sends messages like “All are welcomed here” or “We like our privacy” and is the first thing that registers with people about your home. As professional garden designers, Exterior Worlds can bring all your landscape design elements together. We help you make decisions on lighting, plant placement, the use of various plant textures and the best focal points. Employing sound design principles and our years of horticultural expertise, we can transform your yard into an image of pleasure that greets you every time you pull into the drive.

One way to add a big wow factor to your front yard design is by selecting a theme. This concept works best when coordinated with the architecture of your home. For instance, rock landscaping accentuates a Southwestern style home or a home built in the style of a French chateau invites a formal garden.

However, a simple choice can make an impact in your front yard landscape design. Planting annuals puts sparkle in all outdoor environments. Any well-drained garden spot, including pots and urns, can be used, with the ideal location being one that is highly visible and thus lends itself to maximum effect.

Typically one of the most prominent features of the front yard, driveway designs include the circular drives and the straightaway drive, sometimes with an apron for additional parking. While driveway designs need to be practical above all, we can help you add a design element to them with your choice of materials, such as stone, brick, pavers, decorative concrete and combinations thereof.

A wrought iron driveway gate completes a driveway with its powerful presence. Wrought iron, sometimes called ornamental iron, has utilitarian value, too, since it is practical in matters of security. These gates let you control who has access to your property when outfitted with an automatic gate opener, remote controls, sensors and code entry keypads. Wrought iron gates work wonderfully well with fencing that is also made of wrought iron, a choice that brings unity to your overall design, and equally well with wood, stone and brick fences.

When planning your front yard’s design, Exterior Worlds likes to include the side yards. They may present an opportunity for a small garden design, which will further unite the different zones of your property into one cohesive look.

While the front yard landscape design is always important for your daily pleasure, it is particularly significant when you need to sell your property. Exterior Worlds are experts at creating what real estate agents call curb appeal in your Houston landscape. Studies have proven that professionally designed and maintained residential landscaping is a major player in adding value to your property. It is an investment in your pleasure now. It is also an investment in the future with an expected return, often several times over, when you sell your home. Let us use all the landscaping elements at our disposal to create a valuable and sophisticated front yard landscape design for you.

Yard Landscape Design

What is yard landscape design?
It is the transformation of the front yard into an aesthetic realm that adds curb appeal to the home, and it is the transformation of your back yard into personalized outdoor living space.

Exactly how important is front yard landscape to curb appeal?
It is considered the most important aspect of Houston garden and landscaping. Visitors see your front yard before they see anything else. Some may see only that. It needs to be designed in such a manner that sets the theme for all of your outdoor space and draws attention to your house.

What are some good front yard landscape designs?
The possibilities are endless, provided they fit your home architecture, lot size, and create a sense of warmth and invitation to guests. If you are planning on selling your home in the next few years, you need to create a sense of vibrancy as well so as to suggest an emerging, dynamic lifestyle.

Some of the things we like to focus on are Houston driveway design, custom walkways, plantings of ornamental trees along the property line, and custom garden design. Many larger homes often have a walkway and/or a custom fountain leading up to the front door. Such walkways are very important to Houston yard landscape because they suggest a sense of movement and a call to action that invites the visitor to explore what is yet to be discovered in the back yard.

One thing we definitely strive to create is a feeling that your front yard is more than it actually is. Fountains and decorative sculptures play a big role in creating focal points that put the rest of the property in very unique perspectives. Curved lines in garden design—even small gardens---an non-linear plantings and pathways go a long way toward creating a sense of expansiveness.

Arches and gates are excellent frames for Houston driveway design, and create a sense of differentiation for your yard without making others feel shut out.

What kinds of features can you add to my back yard landscape design?
The backyard is going to be your Houston outdoor living space. It should be as comfortable and amenable as the interior of your home, and yet it should also have an organic sense to it as well.

Points of interest here are based upon two things: intended outdoor events and aesthetic preferences.

Most Houstonians like having swimming pools in their back yard, so swimming pool design is one of the main elements to most of our yard landscape master plans. The reason for this is simple. Pool contractors do not know what else we plan to do in the yard, so it is better for us to develop the schematics of the pool and then find you a company who can actually build it in relation to your house and surrounding yard.

Back yard garden design needs to reflect any clearly evident themes in your home architecture. (You wouldn’t want to put a contemporary garden right behind a traditional Colonial house). Other than that, however, much can be done in Houston garden design that is of a purely customized nature that reflects individual sentiments and taste.

Outdoor activities such as cooking and conversation can be supported by outdoor rooms like courtyards, outdoor kitchens, and outdoor fireplaces.

Are walkways also important in back yard landscape plans?
Yes. They lead you from point to point, and in very large properties, help subdivide the yard into areas of special interest.

Design A Landscape

The first thing to do when you sit down with one of our people to design a landscape is to list your priorities. Do you want to host events outside? If so, you may want a backyard landscaping plan that caters to high-end Houston outdoor living, and you will probably also want a front yard landscaping plan that extends a sense of warm invitation to guests.

Then again, you may just want to relax and be alone with the sights and sounds of Nature. Think about what plants and garden designs will make you feel most at home and most at peace. If something crosses your mind that sounds “crazy” or “unrealistic”, do not hesitate to share that with your landscape designer. Nothing is crazy or unrealistic to us. It may need to be altered or customized, but never thrown in the trashcan of design altogether.

Be realistic, too, about your budget when you design a landscape. Not everything you want has to be done all at once. One thing you can count on from Exterior Worlds is honesty. If we think it is going to cost you too much money to implement all the desires you have simultaneously, we will help you budget out the project in phases based on your priority list.

In fact, a good many of our most renowned landscaping projects were implemented in phases. You can read about some of these in our Case History section. When we work on such a project in phases, we build the hardscapes and garden elements that are essential to the basic theme and aesthetic of your landscape master plan. If more sophisticated structures like outdoor kitchens are planned for the future, we can designate in the plan where these structures will go, and we can earmark a follow up date to construct them when funding becomes available.

This way you don’t have to wait to enjoy your landscape, and you also still have something to look forward to when the next phase of your plan comes on the horizon.

Something else that is essential when we design a landscape for you is some sort of lot survey or topographical map of your property. This will help us determine such things as slope, grade, and the location of some buried utilities. The Houston landscape is very flat and can flood very quickly. Rainfall is either extremely heavy or too absent for large portions of the year.

To compensate for these extremes, we have to create innovative, concealed, and highly effective drain and irrigation systems. We also have to work around things like tree roots and buried utilities in order to avoid doing any costly damage. That is why we need as much documentation on your property as possible whenever we sit down to design a landscape for you.

Finally, bringing pictures of any home or garden are a great way to design a landscape with an Exterior Worlds professional. Sometimes a photograph simply speaks to you in a way that you cannot explain. However, an expert can see immediately where key details of that picture can be extracted, customized, and inserted into the framework of your landscape master plan.

Driveway Landscape Designs

What is driveway landscape design?
Driveway landscaping can consist of both hardscape and softscape. Hardscape options include walls and fences, while your softscape driveway landscaping can consist of flower beds, ground covers, trees or shrubs.

What is the best style of driveway landscape design?
That depends on your home and your yard. The direction and shape of the driveway will always draw the eye toward other landscape elements of interest. If the home is characterized by a very orderly and symmetrical architecture, a straight driveway that runs to a side motorcourt and entry garden can lend itself well to a sense of majesty. If the home appears lower to the ground, and more spread out on the sides, then a circle driveway is an excellent way to keynote the entire property around a central focal point, such as a water feature or contemporary garden.

If the home is set far back from the street, then the driveway can be built to accommodate parking in the front, and a walkway can be built to link the parking area to the front of the home. This is a nice touch that adds a sense of grand entrance to homes in private neighborhoods.

What types of softscape can be combined with driveway landscape design?
Any type of hedge or shrub can be planted along a drive to decorate it with greenery. In most cases, it is best to use more than one shade of green in order to create fullness and dimension.

Flower beds are very popular addendums to driveway landscape design. You can choose to have flowers of a single color to compliment the color of your hardscape and home, or you can you have a layering of different colors designed by our gardening specialists.

An alley of trees is also a good way to ornament your driveway. Many different types of ornamental trees, including Red Maple, Pear, and Myrtle, work well with Houston landscape designs. Larger shade trees are very popular for longer driveways.

What kinds of hardscapes can be used with driveway landscape design?
Masonry walls and ornamental fences are two common hardscape elements used to augment the appearance of a driveway. Small walls add vertical impact to the sides of the driveway. They also help keep vehicles on the pavement and away from delicate plants. An ornamental fence or stone arch can be built at the entrance to the driveway to generate presence and formality.

What type of materials should be considered?
Popular materials range from concrete to asphalt, concrete pavers, brick and natural stone. Concrete is surprisingly more popular in Houston landscaping than you might assume. Thanks to today’s technology, what was once a rudimentary, practical building material can now be rendered highly decorative. Concrete can be stained with a wide variety of colors, and it can be treated in a number of ways to create very interesting textures and patterns in its surface.

Concrete pavers are a great way to create the look and feel of real stone and save a considerable amount of money on your driveway. Brick always lends itself to traditional, Colonial, and Old World themes, and asphalt is a great driveway landscape design to use in conjunction with modern and contemporary landscaping.

Should I light my driveway?
Yes. It is much safer to pull into a lighted driveway at night. Also, outdoor landscape lights are a great way to show off any flowers, shrubs, or trees that you have planted along your drive. These lights will also help increase visibility in your yard and improve the security of your property.

Landscape Pool Design

The first thing to consider in landscape pool design is the size and shape of the pool. It must be constructed in the complex of a larger and more comprehensive landscape master plan. Home architecture must be respected above all things. Next, softscape elements and outdoor buildings must appear appropriately complimented by the pool’s appearance.

What is my first consideration in landscape pool design?
You want to decide on the size and shape of the pool. It is always better to talk to a professional landscape designer about this than the pool contractor. This is because the pool itself is going to fit into the context of a larger landscape master plan. The geometry of the pool must respect the architecture of the home and proportionally compliment the hardscapes and softscape elements of your yard.

How large should my pool be?
Think about your lifestyle and your plans for future events. If you have children, or if you plan to host parties around the pool, you will need a larger swimming pool than you will if you only plan to use it as a couple or entertain a handful of close friends.

Where should I have the pool built?
Landscape pool design is all about relationships to other points of interest. You not only want the pool to look good when you look at it from the home, the arbor, the outdoor kitchen, or the morning garden, but you also want these same features to appear unique and clearly visible when you look out into your yard from the vantage point of your swimming pool patio.

Should special safety features be included in my landscape pool design?
If you have children, yes. If you plan to invite elderly guests or people with disabilities to your home, handrails and special steps that lead down into a shallow part of the pool need to be built into its design.

What recreational features can be incorporated into landscape pool design?
One of the most popular features that we often build into our pools is a spa. Spas are normally heated and lit so people can feel a blend of comfort and luxury when reclining within them. Spas can also be designed with special jets that will help those with arthritis or other physical challenges get safe and healthy water exercise.

If you have such a physical challenge, get your doctor to describe in detail what you need in terms of water exercise and share it with our design staff. We have all sorts of custom designs we can adapt to your needs.

Do you recommend special water features?
That is a matter of personal preference, but the decision to incorporate special water features needs to be made at the onset of landscape pool design. Waterfalls add excitement and vertical impact to pools, and when lit with underwater lights, a sense of magic. Water jets can also add drama and impact to both daytime and nighttime pool activities, as well as giving children something to play in.

What type of patio should I have built around my swimming pool?
You can have anything from decorative concrete to something as elaborate as cut stone that is hand-laid and made to imitate something in the natural world. The shape of your patio should aesthetically compliment both the pool and the surrounding landscape. The size of your patio should reflect your anticipated number of guests for planned outdoor events.

Planting Azaleas in the Houston Landscape

Of the multiple items that work well in a Houston landscape, planting azaleas definitely tops the list. Azaleas provide the heart-stopping beauty that heralds the arrival of spring. At Exterior Worlds, we have long thought that all landscapes benefit from such loveliness.

There are thousands of azalea varieties, with blossom colors that run the spectrum from white to red. (However, even the large garden centers will carry only a fraction of that quantity.) Planting azaleas in a butterfly garden design or shade garden design enhance all the other decisions you’ve made for these styles. Azaleas are a great choice for foundation planting, too. Some bushes grow less than 12 inches in height and provide good mid-range filler in a layered bed or serve as a spreading groundcover, while other varieties grow quite tall and tend to spread with age.

Planting azaleas is a relatively uncomplicated procedure. They prefer good drainage in a slightly acidic soil with partial shade. We advise starting with the planting soil since heavy clay soil, as is found in Houston, benefits from added fibrous material and sand. We recommend a ratio of 1/3 loam (or soil), 1/3 sand, and 1/3 organic matter. In good soil, the hole should be at least a few inches wider than the rootball and as deep as the rootball. Because of this area’s clay content, we position bushes so that the tops of the rootball are several inches above the ground level. We then mound the recommended soil mixture around the rootball. Lastly, we mulch the newly-planted bushes, being careful not to place mulch up the trunks. The last step is to slowly and thoroughly water.

For an additional way to add color to your landscape, planting annuals is a viable option. Seasonal color complements any blooming bushes and trees and adds freshness to the yards. Pots and containers are perfect for annuals since they help define your garden spaces. Small- to large-sized containers can frame a view, create a pathway, or enclose a garden zone.

Masses of blossoms make for garden beds with eye-popping beauty while beds filled with one of this and one of that merely look like a mishmash. When planting azaleas, in general we plant them in groups, to underscore the theory that more is more. At the same time, we are careful to give each plant room to grow. In the spacing of the bushes, we take into account their mature size and shape.

As for garden designs, the ones that express unity are more pleasing, an objective we accomplish by choosing only one or two colors, grouping bushes in series of three or five, and by repeating these groupings across your landscape. This repetition achieves continuity, unity and balance. A residential landscape designer from Exterior Worlds can help you make the best choices for the conditions of your particular property. We understand the Houston topography and natural elements and work hard to incorporate the architecture of your space and your personal style.

In Houston, your garden landscape practically require azalea bushes. Their colors bewitch us. The names alone are lyrical: Pink Cascade, Serenade, Silver Sword, Marvel. Let them work their magic in your gardens.

Foundation Planting That Works

Foundation planting is a term that started when many homes were pier-and-beam construction and homeowners needed landscaping to hide that visual distraction. It refers to the plantings—usually bushes—that are arranged up close to the house. However, these plantings can be an elegant part of your Houston landscape. Foundation planting doesn’t need to be a grim grouping of bushes hugging the house.

As mentioned, bush planting is the most common choice for foundational plantings, but other selections are appropriate—even luscious. For instance, we can create interest in your landscape master plan by incorporating layers into the garden beds, with taller plants along the back and moving forward with shorter and shorter plants down to groundcover. Small, flowering trees also add height and color.

In all foundational plantings, we are cognizant of yard drainage, an issue of particular importance with Houston’s terrain and weather. Since you always want water to flow away from the house, one method to consider around the foundation is the raised bed. Your plants will love it because it helps keep their “feet” dry.

At Exterior Worlds, we recommend that the best place to start in planting gardens of any type or location is to plan first. We can choreograph the layout on paper to best determine how much to plant and where. We want to take a thoughtful approach to your landscape design, including foundation planting, that truly enhances your home.

The pre-planting planning session is particularly helpful if you use a landscape phasing approach to your landscape design. Landscape phasing lets you add elements over time, sometimes during the course of several years, using incremental steps with the more expensive undertakings spaced out to help manage your cash outlay. When we use landscape phasing, we usually do greenscapes first which allows the most time for plants to develop to their mature shape and size.

During the planning process, we are careful to incorporate the architecture of your home. If your home is formal and symmetrical, such as a Federal, Georgian or Colonial Revival, then we employ formal aspects in the landscape design—perhaps neatly trimmed shrubs at the front door. As another example, a contemporary home could benefit from a more organic approach.

We always think in terms of plants at their mature size and scale. It is a common mistake of the amateur gardener to forget to take into account a plant’s ultimate size. Making the right choice in this area helps keep pruning to a minimum. We also consider the features of the surrounding area because we want to design foundational plantings that are appropriate for the entire site. These elements include the sidewalks, driveway, streets, adjacent bayous and woodlands, large trees, fences and hedges.

Exterior Worlds uses the most current landscape techniques to give your foundation planting the look of a professional landscape. We create luxurious, highly personalized signature designs in which green plantings are unified with the home. From the curb to the front door, your property conveys a warm and welcoming impression.

Garden and Landscaping

What goal am I trying to achieve in garden landscaping?
Garden and landscaping services transform your property into a work of art. Like any work of art, there are key points of interest, unique variations of color, and calculated interplays of light and shadow. This makes your yard look multi-dimensional in its expression of beauty. It also provides you with more opportunities for Houston outdoor living, because the many elements that evolve from garden and landscaping services ultimately become hotspots for entertainment.

How important is my lawn in all of this?
Your lawn is like a canvas. It serves as the backdrop of your garden and landscaping design and establishes the degree of openness that your back yard or front yard communicates to guests. The more grass in your yard, the more a sense of vastness. The more hardscape and conscious cultivation of softscape elements, the more isolated points of interests become.

How many gardens should we have in a big yard?
It is not the number of gardens, but rather the way in which they are designed and arranged. When we work in a big lawn, we divide it into zones where different garden and landscaping designs can be developed.

There can be a garden pergola in one zone that leads up to an arbor, while in another zone, a hand-laid stone patio can overlook a lighted natural swimming pool nestled beneath forest-like trees. In still a third zone, a swimming pool with flagstone patio and lounge furniture can function as a transition area between the house and the rest of the back yard, while in a fourth zone, a small garden courtyard can surround a lighted custom fountain for special gatherings and conversations under the stars.

If my lot is very small, does that mean I can only have one garden in the back yard?
No. We also have garden and landscaping designs that work to make a smaller property look much bigger than it is. The key here is to use smaller hardscapes and smaller physical garden sizes to emphasize the grassy parts of the lawn. In places where shade trees may have killed patches of grass, we can plant shade resistant grass and flowering plant species to extend the greenery up to the bases of the trees. This goes a long way toward enlarging the perceived size of the property.
Can you plant trees near my gardens?
Yes, but only if we plan your garden with shade-resistant species. On a larger lot, you can have a veritable forest of large trees toward the back of your yard and still have plenty of room left over for formal garden and landscaping work. In smaller yards, you have to be choose between limited your softscape options to shade-resistant plants or planting a few trees in key locations where they will not interfere with garden growth. You may also want to consider smaller tree species like Japanese Yew or Japanese maple.

Planting Gardens

Planting gardens personalizes your Houston landscape. Because they create a welcoming ambiance and anchor your home in the surrounding landscape, they enhance your overall property value. The time and effort you put into their planning, execution and maintenance is rewarded by the pleasure they afford.

Exterior Worlds recommends starting with the basics when planting gardens—that is, your planting soil. We believe that the most fertile and productive soil mixes fibrous soil, organic matter, rock particles and minerals, water, oxygen and micro-organisms. This combination of materials includes a portion of the native soil to encourage your plants’ health and hardiness.

When planting gardens, most people then consider their trees—which to keep and what to add. This step is usually followed by bush planting, sometimes called foundation planting since bushes, being among the taller plants in your landscape design, are usually planted close to the house’s foundation. We encourage our clients to pay attention to a plant’s mature size so you don’t want end up with bushes that overwhelm the space. Also you don't want to unnecessarily spend your maintenance budget on pruning and trimming them away from walkways and the house.

The holy grail of gardening for many people is planting roses. Roses do well in full sun with good air circulation, so for your Houston rose garden, pick a location where there will be sun for at least six hours of the day. It is preferable to find an area with morning sun and afternoon shade. Also, keep them away from large trees or hedges. They also require regular, light feedings, but do not overfeed.

Planting annuals adds definition to your gardens because you can use their color and texture to, in effect, draw lines. With seasonal color, the more, the better—so don’t be afraid to use drifts of three, five, seven, or more of the same plant. Remember to till the soil prior to planting your annuals because this area’s clay soil is easily compacted.

A question we get all the time is when to plant annuals. We advise our clients that, with seasonal color, you really need to pay close attention to the passage of the seasons. When waiting too long to switch them out—to the point where they’re dying—you’ve often missed the window for the next season’s plantings.

Please consider that one of your smartest long-term investments in the health of your gardens and entire landscape is a partnership with a well-qualified garden services provider, such as Exterior Worlds. From the start, we can help you select the best plants for this region, in general, and for your gardens, specifically. Additionally, we can do the initial installation and labor. Finally, we can provide meticulous care and attention on an ongoing basis so that your plants survive and thrive no matter what Mother Nature throws our way.

Planting gardens in your home landscape design is a key element in your total landscape because gardens, whether a bed of flowers, bushes, trees or combination of these plant materials, add texture, interest, variety and dimensionality to your yards. Not coincidentally, they are also fun because gardens show your creativity and preferences.

Luxury Garden

Where do you build a luxury garden?
We normally build it in the corner of the property. The size of the garden is determined by the acreage of the lot and the architecture of the home. The English garden theme is a very popular style, but other type European style can also be modified to create the feeling of upscale living that characterizes this form.

What are some decorations used in a luxury garden?
Décor varies according to personal taste. There is no hard fast list of luxury garden items you are restricted too. The point is to create an environment where outdoor living looks refined. Urns and are commonly used to hold plants and add vertical impact to small patios. Flowering plants are very popular, particularly with the English garden style. Examples include pansies, poppies, bluebell, and roses. If there is a masonry wall of some kind surrounding the garden, ivy can be trained to climb up the walls and turn them green with life.

What makes a luxury garden luxurious?
Formality is the name of the game in luxury garden design. It establishes order and system and creates a feeling of refinement in the midst of the outdoors. Symmetry and geometry are strictly adhered to in order to create a sense of balance. This is also a very high-maintenance form of landscaping, so be forewarned: you will need a maintenance contract to maintain your luxury garden.

Is shrubbery used in this form of gardening?
Yes. Topiaries are one of the more popular types of shrubbery used in luxury gardens because they can be molded. They are pruned into particular shapes which are highly ornamental. Some clients even prefer to forgo the erection of masonry walls around their gardens and prefer for us instead to build them walls of topiary.

What types of structures can be built in these gardens?
Luxury gardens are typically very Old World in theme and therefore feature outdoor architecture reminiscent of the estates of European Aristocracy. Statuary is commonly used to add a historical touch to the scene. Some people prefer Classical figures from Ancient Greek and Roman times. Others prefer Medieval and Renaissance statuary, particularly that of France and Italy.

Fountains are also important structures in luxury gardens. Fountains have been associated with tranquility and ease for millennia have a powerful psychological impact on any scene. Exterior Worlds specializes in the construction of high-end custom fountains that feature remote pumps and silent operations. All you hear is the sound of the water bubbling against the stonework. All fountains are professionally lit as well so they can be enjoyed at night.

Is any type of special masonry or patio work installed?
Yes. Houston masonry experts are subcontracted to build planters, retaining walls, and ornamental walls in luxury gardens. The intent in all of these forms is to mix the manmade with the natural to create a sense of the structured organic. Patio work is normally done with ornamental cut stone. Some patios are designed for seating, while others are very small and intended to support flower pots, urns, statues, and custom masonry planters.

Small Courtyard Design

What are the most important considerations in small courtyard design?

1. Purpose – You first must decide on the purpose of your small courtyard. Design follows function in our industry. We don’t want to build you something just to look at. We want something you and your guests can experience from a full sensory perspective. Will you use this area only for conversation? Do you intend to cook outdoors? Will you use it in the winter and possibly need an outdoor fireplace or fire pit? All of these questions should be answered first before the first plant goes into the ground and before the first brick or stone is laid.

2. Accessibility –If you want your courtyard to be something people move through as one of many stops along a lighted trail, we can design the courtyard around radial pathways that emanate out into the yard. Keep in mind that such a design does not prohibit you from having outdoor seating in your courtyard—it simply gives you more choices for gathering, conversation, observation, and landscape exploration.

If you want more of a seating area, then a low-level wall with only one or two access points can be built that will significantly increase the feeling of privacy and enclosure. Such walls do not block the view of the home or surrounding Houston landscape. They only function to create a sense of special separation from your general surroundings.

3. Shade Resistance – Because small courtyard design is often done beneath roof overhands, next to homes, and alongside of masonry walls, sunlight is often limited if not blocked outright. We compensate for this in two ways. For softscape elements, we choose shade resistant ground cover and flowering plants that do not need a lot of light to flourish. For hardscapes, we install path and garden lighting to illuminate surfaces in twilight and evening times. For contemporary landscapes, we may also use strategically positioned reflective elements like stainless steel posts or mirrors that will catch what light that does shine into the courtyard and disperse it in other directions.

4. Height – The types of plants you can grow in a small courtyard must be shorter plants themselves in order to maintain proportion to their surroundings. To overcome the impression that everything is two flat to the ground, elevated planters and containers can be used to house garden plants. These masonry structures can be built from brick, stone, concrete, or any number of special materials to add color and design to the occasion.

5. Maintenance – Landscape maintenance contracts are another key component of small courtyard design. Many of the smaller plants used in the gardens here are very vulnerable to diseases and parasites and will require special professional care to properly maintain.

Houston Deck Builders

What is a deck?
A deck is an elevated, flat surface that is normally connected to a house and provides a special surface for outdoor gatherings, seating, and transition into the rest of the landscape.

What can a deck do for my yard?
It can serve as a transition from your home to a manicured landscaped design. Houston deck builders create platforms of vantage point and opportunity by positioning seating areas and stairways in such a manner as to lead guests to various points of interest in the yard.

What is a deck made of?
Houston deck builders typically use wood. This has been the mainstay material used for decades and shows no signs of going away. Wood has to be specially treated in order to support the weight of human activity and the many decorations that are used to adorn its surface. Common wood that are used are pressure treated pine, cedar, redwood, and a number of exotic woods.

There are also well over 100 manmade decking materials we can build your structure with, provided it compliments your home and landscape design theme. Contemporary and modern style designs, for example, do better with composite decking, vinyl, aluminum, etc.

The deck frame provides support and structure for the horizontal decking. Houston deck builders are very careful in calculating the strength and material build of the frame based upon the type of deck they are constructing and the number of people the homeowner plans to entertain on its surface.
How can you blend my deck into my landscape?
We can line the edges of the deck with some type of softscape to blend its perimeter into the yard. This can be done in several different ways. One way is to build the sides of the deck as terraces that work as planters. Another way is to line the sides with hedges that grow even up to its surface. Our Houston deck builders can also plant different types of vegetation at varying heights in order to create a sense of descending entryway into a garden or courtyard below.

What are some of the different types of decks you build?
Platform Decks
These are the simplest types of decks and are built low to the ground. They are actually perfect for the flat Houston landscape and work very well as transitional areas between single-level homes and level back yards.

Raised Decks
Incorporate Safety Precautions like railings and stairs. Houston deck builders frequently recommend this style for families with small children.

Two-Story Decks
These decks give you access to upper levels of your home if you have a two story house with a balcony.

Houston deck builders have to build these structures with extra supports that must be disguised or camouflaged in order to maintain the structure’s aesthetic. One way to do this is to cover the pillars with flat rocks or skirting to ornament their appearance.

How can you decorate a deck?
Planters and benches can line the perimeter to create a garden-like or courtyard-like effect. A screened-in gazebo can be built to one side of the surface to provide a shaded area that blocks out summer mosquitoes. Angles, curves, and decorative railings can create a sense of overlook onto the backyard landscape beyond.

Outdoor Fireplace Patio and Courtyard

An outdoor fireplace, such as the one we built for Rick and Susan Ashcroft, are a great way to create an outdoor living experience that makes is possible to enjoy a view of the Houston landscape regardless of the time of year. Outdoor fireplaces are ideal for temperate, humid climates like ours, where it never gets all that cold per se, but rather where the high moisture content of the air creates a chill factor that can penetrate all the way to the bones.

A patio fireplace dispels humidity and warms the air. It also works as an ideal architectural compliment to home architecture. Many are courtyards that look more like outdoor living rooms than patios as we typically conceive of them to be. To create such a centerpiece in the Ashcroft project, Houston landscaping, professionals placed symmetrically square, interlocking pavers in a pattern that imitated indoor tile. This accentuated the feeling of a living room outdoors, and it worked to blend the stonework and vegetation into the surrounding Houston landscaping theme.

The outdoor fireplace itself was constructed completely with natural stone. Each stone was fitted together like pieces in a puzzle. The chimney was 2 ½ times higher than the fireplace interior, giving the entire structure a majestic presence rising up out of the Houston landscape. An Old World sensibility was also added in the form of two flanking columns.

At one end of the patio, just opposite the fireplace, was a drop-off of about 4 feet. Here, Houston landscaping designers built a stone staircase that descended to a walkway. This walkway wound around the corner of the house to a natural swimming pool. Near to the steps of this walkway, masonry contractors we subcontracted built a stone wall connecting both ends to the patio. This created plenty of room to construct a planter which housed a number of indigenous plant species. We planted an oak tree in this enclosure so that the patio would have shade in the years to come and eventually provide support for a future outdoor chandelier the Ashcrofts intended to hang.

Houston landscape professionals added one more special touch to the patio outdoor fireplace. In order to make the structure functional year round, they contracted a local lighting design firm to install special lights inside the fireplace interior. This way, on warm spring and summer nights, these hidden lights could generate an artificial firelight that contributed charm and ambience to occasions without adding to the heat of the Houston summer.

If you are interested in any high-quality Houston landscaping services, Exterior Worlds has been providing the high-end residential landscape services and garden design services discussed above for the Houston and the surrounding areas including memorial villages (Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village), Tanglewood, River Oaks, West University and the greater Houston (Hou), area since 1987. Contact us at 713-827-2255

Concrete Driveway Houston

What is an affordable and durable driveway option for our residence?
Consider getting a concrete driveway built for your Houston home. Concrete is an enduring substance that can easily last for decades without showing any signs whatsoever of wear. Concrete driveways require virtually no maintenance and can be built in a number of ways that will improve the appearance of any lot and can also be used by your family as places to skate and play basketball.

How long can a concrete driveway last?
It is not uncommon for a concrete driveway in Houston to go as long as 30 years before needing any type of major repair work. Its strength makes it well-suited to the clay-like soil and flat terrain of the Houston landscape.


What benefits do concrete driveways offer Houston homes that other materials do not?

• Affordable- As a material, concrete costs less than many other materials. Its low maintenance cycle offers additional financial gains that accrue over time.
• Quality- The driveway is the first impression people get of your home. A well-designed concrete driveway adds curb appeal to your home creating a very clean, polished façade at the forefront of the property. Many concrete driveways in Houston were built so well in the 20th century that they have since outlasted the homes they were built to enhance!
• Durable- Aside from steel and natural rock, you won’t find anything that can weather the elements and take the stress of vehicle traffic as well as concrete will.
• Decorative-We routinely build concrete driveways in Houston of all colors, textures, and surface patterns. Remember—concrete may be concrete, but it doesn’t have to look like concrete.
• Versatile- Concrete driveways can fit with any Houston landscaping style.

What kind of design options can you offer us in a new concrete driveway?
There are three elements of design that can be customized to your home architecture and landscape design. One is shape. Concrete can be poured in a linear shape or built with a radial arc to form a semi-circle or circular drive.

Texture is another variable we can customize to your preference. While concrete is wet, there are all sorts of things we can do to enhance its appearance. One of these is pattern stamping. Just after pouring the slab, we can imprint any number of patterns that will emulate bricks, tile, or stonework.

We can also finish these surfaces with swirl designs, bromide, brushing, or exposed aggregate.

The third option is color. Along with finishing, brushing, and stamping, we can add chemicals to the concrete mixture that will alter its basic color into a variety of hues and shades.

How do concrete driveways contribute to Houston landscape architecture?
Houston homeowners have always put a great deal of care into maintaining the exterior facades of their homes. Concrete drives lend a sense of invitation to the front of the house . This, combined with its versatility in shape, texture, and color, makes it a something of a universal Houston landscape element that can work in front of a mansion in River Oaks just as well as it works in front of a small wooden house in West University Place or the Upper Kirby District.

Masonry Contractors

Why hire a masonry contractor when I can do the work myself?
Building a patio, a walkway, or even a simple structure like a retaining wall is much more complicated than it seems. You have to design your structure from the standpoint of relationship to your home and the totality of your property, not just the structure itself. Also, you have to sort through what appears to be a near infinite number of materials to find the select few that can give you the texture, color, and structural integrity most appropriate to your landscape design.

A masonry contractor, under the general contract services of Exterior Worlds, can save you time and money by listening intently to your description of what you would ultimately like to see constructed in your yard. We can then hire the appropriate masonry professionals, source the very best materials, and combine them with over two decades of expertise in landscape design and outdoor architecture construction.


What are some of the more common forms of masonry Exterior Worlds builds?
Stone Retaining Walls
A retaining wall is very useful to hold back the grade of the otherwise flat Houston landscape that is vulnerable to flooding. Often a retaining wall also serves as a façade of sorts to an elevated outdoor building such as an arbor or summer kitchen. Stone works with any number of landscaping styles depending on its cut, color, and finish.

Outdoor Fireplaces
An outdoor fireplace can be built on a custom patio that can serve as a comfortable outdoor seating area available to guests any time of year. Masonry contractors can build planters for winter flowering plants, low level ground cover, and even small trees into these patios to create an illuminated courtyard warmed by the light of a fire.

Patios
Exterior Worlds has a team of masonry contractors that represent some of Houston’s finest custom patio design specialists. These experts build your patio to the scale of your yard and the scope of your intended guest lists.

Walkways
Masonry contractors can strategically build all sorts of concrete, brick, or stone pathways to cross and crisscross your yard, connecting key points of interest and balancing the relationships between otherwise very divergent elements.

Why would I hire a landscaping company instead of just finding an individual masonry contractor?
A masonry contractor is normally not trained in garden design, tree services, yard care, and tree preservation. In order to make sure that the new hardscape elements balance with your house and the vegetation that surrounds it, it is better to hire a landscaping company like Exterior Worlds to work as the general contractor for your project.

The outcome will be something functional that aesthetically compliments your landscape with seamless design integrity and adds curb appeal to your home.

Houston Garden Design

What types of garden design work the best for Memorial homes?
Although it is very close to the Galleria, the Memorial neighborhood has a distinctively rural feel to it. In fact, it feels and looks more rural than a lot of Houston area suburbs. The large lots and ranch style homes create a feeling of expansiveness. Houston garden design experts support this by planting natural gardens that contribute to the forest-like feeling of heavily wooded lots, and country-style gardening that supports the ranch style homes.

What are gardens in River Oaks like?
They are very formal. Lots in River Oaks are very large, and many of the homes date back to the 1920’s. River Oaks is famous all over the world for some these Old World and Colonial style Mansions that are truly magnificent in every respect. Many of the trees here are also among the oldest in Houston. The magnolias, for example, are survivors of Houston’s all but gone indigenous forest that was cut down in the late 19th century to build the railroad.

Houston garden design teams must be careful to preserve all the many layers of history laid on top of one another in River Oaks. Many unknown factors—such as tree roots near the surface that must be worked around, or utility cables that are not marked on city documents—require highly customized garden installation to avoid disturbing existing tree life and structures.

What are Tanglewood gardens like?
In the Tanglewood neighborhood, the lots are very large, and the homes were built in the 1960s. The terrain is very flat in this part of the city. Large water oak and live oak abound throughout the Houston landscape in all directions, giving the otherwise flat lots a sense of fullness and life.

This led to the original homes here being built in the same ranch style homes that Memorial is known form. However, recent trends have seen a more toward the construction of new custom homes, many of which are well over 6,000 square feet in size.

Rose gardens work very well with many of these yards. Around the perimeters of new custom homes, we take a more innovative and highly individualized approach to Houston garden design. Forms here must be highly individualized in order to properly respect the persona that the new home projects toward the neighborhood. Front yard landscaping and small gardens in the front are very important here in order to give each new home a highly distinguished and truly unique appearance.

What about Bellaire and West U?
In Bellaire and West University, Houston garden design focuses on making small lots look large. Most lots here are small, and the homes range from smaller wooden homes to very large homes that have recently replaced original structures. Gardens must be compact, geometrical, and often many in number. This helps create the illusion that the property is larger than it is and proportional to the new, larger home now residing on it.

Houston Driveway

What is a driveway?
In residential landscaping, it is a small thoroughfare that provides street access to the front yard. Most Houston driveways are plain concrete slabs and nothing more. People park their cars over them and never give them a second thought as they march to the front door.

The thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way in your front yard. Exterior Worlds can build you a driveway that is as decorative as it is functional. The key to doing this is the understanding of your home’s architecture and the construction of a surface that mirrors its aesthetic elements and compliments surrounding hardscape and softscape elements.

What are driveways used for?
Houston driveways support the commuter nature of our city by providing parking areas in front of homes. Not everyone parks their vehicles in the driveway all the time, though. Some use garages and carports to house their cars, trucks, and SUVs and leave the motor court open to guests. In these scenarios drives can be built that almost act like pathways leading from the street to a separate motor court parking slab or covered parking area.

What are different types of Houston driveways are there?
The residential parking areas that we design tend to be highly individualized to the home. Much of the customization lies in the choice of materials. A brick driveway goes very well with a traditional or colonial home. A concrete driveway, on the other hand, works very well with contemporary styles. Black asphalt can contribute a majestic sense to custom homes that are large in size and feature a unique blend of architectural motifs. Still other materials include decorative forms of concrete, such as brushed concrete, decomposed granite, and cobblestone.


What would you suggest for driveway landscaping?
Houston driveways can be constructed using a blend of hardscape and softscape designs. Varying both the surface and the structure of the hardscape is the best way to make your drive truly stand out. Walls are one way of enhancing the form without altering its function. In fact, walls can even provide additional safety for parking at night. They can be built to run parallel to the surface, or they can cross perpendicular to the entrance. A gate can be installed that then allows you to control access to your own parking area and secure your car behind a barricade after dark. If you do not want to look so elusive to your neighbors, we can build an arched-entryway that provides a decorative, open access to and from the world at large.

Can you really integrate softscape into a Houston driveway?
Yes and far more than you may think. Plantings like small gardens, tree islands, shrubs, and various ground cover species can bring attention and vitality to your parking area. Flowers can either support or enhance the geometric boundaries of the motor court. For example, if your drive is simply a straight, linear form with no variation, we can plant a variety of garden forms that sweep out in curved radiuses to either side. This can soften your entire front yard and add a sense of dimension and vitality impossible to achieve with strict linear movements.

Houston Masonry

Hardscapes typically represent 60%-80% of any landscape. Masonry is an key component to hardscape design because it makes lifts the hardscape off the horizontal plane of the ground and adds a vertical dimension to the yard. You need masonry to create a truly superior outdoor living environment that conveys a sense of curb appeal to neighbors and possible future home buyers. The otherwise flat terrain of the Houston landscape will become transformed in your yard into realms of ascending and descending realities where ornamental stonework, custom patios, and special stepping stone blend harmoniously into the sculpted vegetation of your landscape design.

Some materials used in Houston masonry have been used for centuries. Stone and brick have been around since ancient of times. Today, the list of materials has also been expanded to include blocks, concrete cast materials, poured concrete, colored concrete, and textured concrete.

People routinely ask us if they can do their own masonry work. This depends completely on the individual’s level of skill and personal time. It is not easy for today’s working professional to find the time to build the many complex forms that a truly impeccable landscape requires. It is more practical to hire a professional firm like Exterior Worlds that can get a clear picture of what you want and do it for you.

Just a few of the many things we can add to your front yard landscape or backyard landscape include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

Concrete Masonry
The great thing about concrete is it doesn’t have to look like it’s just concrete. New finishing methods can make it any number of colors and polish to a level of refinement equivalent to polished stones like granite.

Rock and Slate
If you love Nature and want a natural swimming pool or miniature tropical stream added to your property, rock and slate can be used to create masonry forms that look so natural they could just have easily been carved out of a wilderness landscape.

Fired Clay Bricks
This is one of our more popular Houston masonry materials used in the construction of courtyards and outdoor fireplaces.

Quarried and Cut Stone
These are ideal for developing both contemporary and Mediterranean landscape themes.

Mortarless concrete blocks
Concrete blocks can be used to build multi-level planters around structures, adding a vertical dimension to the otherwise flat Houston landscape.

While it is a fact that Houston landscaping design occurs on a completely flat floodplain that offers no natural change in elevation, the skilled landscape developer is never held back by the constraints of local topography. Artificial earthworks and masonry forms can always be added to any Houston property and be developed in such a way as to mirror much more varied and interesting terrain in other parts of the country.

Keep this in mind if you are a new resident to our city and have recently found yourself homesick for forests, streams, or rolling hills. Call Exterior Worlds now and let our experts come build your home into the home you have always wanted that is both close to work and close to heart.

Courtyard Garden Design

What is courtyard garden design?
Simply put, it is the cultivation of special garden space or spaces inside a courtyard of some kind. Since courtyards tend to be highly individualized outdoor rooms, courtyard garden design often features a very high level of customization.

Why consider a courtyard garden?
A garden will enclose an otherwise sterile hardscape enclosure into a true outdoor living room by incorporating living things into the fabric of its design. You will feel like you are more of a part of your landscape if you are seating in the midst of greenery and flowers. Your patio, fountain, and ornamental masonry will take on an added dimension of life that will transfer directly to the occasion at hand. Nothing stirs the moment more than something else stirring in the night around you. Nothing else brightens up the day than something alive for the sun to shine on.

What type of courtyard garden design should I choose?
Look through our case history section to get some ideas on basic garden styles. Then, think of ways you would like to see these forms altered and customized to match your particular tastes and lifestyle, and make a list. Let us discuss your preferences with you and lend you our professional expertise in style, materials, color, and finishes to make an impeccable final produce.

Are architectural details important to consider?
Yes, but you do not need to worry about making your garden match your property. Our core philosophy of residential landscape design hinges upon the appropriate compliment of home architecture with hardscape structures and softscape elements.

Would drawing a plan to scale help me?
We do not expect you to draw a garden design plan to scale. Just draw what you want to see. Make it look the way you want to feel. This gives us a better idea of what is in your heart and mind than anything else. Consider it your option to create a rough draft of sorts that communicates your core values and perceptions to us, and our professional duty to formalize and polish this rough draft for you as part of our service offerings.

What types of plants are used in courtyard garden design?
That depends on the size of the courtyard. Hedges are used for organic walls in smaller courtyards to allow for a partly open view of the Houston landscape. Smaller plants are used in courtyards built in smaller yards in order to make the surrounding property look bigger than it really is. Conversely, many courtyards in extremely large yards need shielding from the sense of too much vast expanse. These courtyards tend to have gardens with very large or very exotic tropical plants. They also have higher walls made from custom masonry or mid-level trees planted as an organic wall.

How can I make my courtyard garden a true reflection of me?
Itemize your favorite indoor decorations, activities, and works of art. Anything goes when it comes to brainstorming. Be generous with yourself when it comes to the flow of ideas. Never feel embarrassed when it comes time to talk to our design team.

You will find that our staff has a remarkable ability to go through your list and find outdoor equivalents to your indoor living experience. Special features such as statuary, custom fountains, lighting pools, ornamental seating, and elaborate patio stonework suddenly emerge in concrete reality as a courtyard that creates your own personalized expression of Houston outdoor living.