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.

Natural Landscaping

Is Natural Landscaping native landscaping?
When you think of natural landscaping what comes to mind is an abandon field of various grasses, a thicket edge of tangled vines, shrubs and underbrush or a mature grove of oaks with leaf ground cover underneath. Totally natural would look messy and you would want to improve upon it. First and foremost natural should be your own interpretation of what is a beautiful natural look, which is probably far more cared for than what nature would create alone. The natural landscape improves upon the best features of the site and makes it even better or into our own liking. Also, threw working with a site and observing nature, the natural landscape can give you many solutions for difficult areas. “How to work with and plant under all this shade?” is often asked on wooded lots in Memorial and Bayou Areas of Houston. In the creating natural landscapes utilize the best of natural site elements and improve upon it still utilizing the design foundations of form and function.
What is the next step in creating a natural landscape?
In creating the landscape design you pay attention to the “sense of place” and “mood” of the site and its relationship with the house. Inspiration can come from the existing site or from travels throughout the natural world. On a new site you may want to borrow a nature inspired vision from a place in the wild that you want to recreate. The beauty of a flagstone patio under a soaring oak tree that reminds you of a hillock you visited in Ireland. Bring out the best features of the sight and change those that are not so attractive. For the most part the natural landscape approach is sympathetic so work with the site rather than changing it; utilize existing site features, trees, woodland edges rather than imposing a specific design as in classical landscape design or formal landscape design.

Landscape Design Ideas for the Natural Landscape
A simplistic approach is to create more formal landscape spaces and surfaces near the home and to dissipate into more natural landscape spaces and surfaces as you move away from the house creating a hierarchy of spaces and pathways from formal to informal.
In the landscape design natural plantings can reflect plant associations in nature. Laying out plantings in large masses or groupings will look natural as well as be easier to maintain over time.
Natural Landscape Materials:

1) Luxury Swimming Pools- slate, natural stone a refined rustic overall feel.
2) Walkways and pathways- cut stone, wood, pavestone, gravel and cobble or small stones and boulders.
3) Landscape Lighting-light up existing large trees, path lights and accent lighting for flagstone pathways and features.
4) Fencing and gates-split cedar and pine for a rustic natural look

Creating Nature and Beyond
Designing natural landscapes is on of the best opportunities to be creative. The natural landscapes is truly an interpretation of nature and our attempt to represent our reality of beauty and bring about its very best features. The home and landscape are still used in relation to your wants and needs for form, function just with nature at close hand.