Estates Landscaping

What does “estates landscaping” mean?
It means the careful development of a landscape master plan with special materials and techniques in mind. Estates landscaping requires creativity, innovation, and impeccable construction methods. This is more than simple lawn and garden service. It involves very sophisticated grade and hardscape designs, unique and functional outdoor rooms, and exquisite gardens that express a unified sense of home and landscape.

What special elements go into estates landscaping?
Motifs are regularly borrowed from specific periods of history or specific cultures that have been emulated and admired throughout the world. Such periods include the Classical Age, the Italian Renaissance, and 20th Century Modernism. Popular cultural forms include the Italian, Mediterranean, French, and English. Designs can be strictly Old World and true to historical form, or they can be modified to suggest a period or culture in a personalized, contemporary expression.

What materials would go into estates landscaping?
This really depends on the size of your home and yard and the theme with which you wish to develop your landscape. Generally speaking, materials are going to be very unique and very high-end in nature. Larger properties will need more plants, stonework, and masonry materials than smaller landscapes will need.

What designs would this include?
Very large estates can have labyrinths or traditional parterre gardens that people can walk through. These areas can be illuminated with sophisticated outdoor landscape lights that will provide excellent visibility and special effects. Curved pathways that wind through garden courtyards, wooded areas, and small knot gardens planted with herbs are a great way to make the most of a large estate so that all points of interest can be enjoyed in something of a planned sequence.

What type of plants can be used?
Topiaries and sculpted shrubs are used for accenting entryways and outdoor rooms. Entry gardens are very popular forms to build on one side of a very large home. It creates a sense of transition from the front of the house to the backyard landscape and often screens the property with additional privacy. The walls of these gardens can actually be created from shrubs and smaller trees. This creates a barrier that adds a sense of privacy to the residence, and it also lends living vertical impact to the garden.

What other elements are to be considered?
Fountains, statues, and outdoor furniture are commonly used in estates landscaping to create a very sophisticated outdoor living experience. Other things that we can build include:

• A simple arbor with climbing, flowering vines growing around their wood or iron frame
• A loggia, which is an open air living room that you decorate with plants, furniture, and outdoor lights
• A pergola, which is a structure that has pillars and cross beams and supports climbing vines

What are the benefits of estates landscaping?
You will definitely add curb appeal to your by creating new functional space outside and improving the general overall appearance of your property.

High Quality Landscape

What is a high quality landscape?
It is a style of garden and hardscape development that creates an exceptionally high standard of outdoor living. Ingredients that are key to its success include high quality soils, plants, trees, architectural techniques and construction methods.

Is their only one style of high quality landscape?
No. This level of quality can be attained in any landscaping design style. The differentiation lies not in the type of form, but in the level of its intricacy and the exceptional level of construction and service that goes with it.

What type of homes need a high quality landscape?
The great thing about high quality landscaping is the fact that any home can theoretically benefit from it. Our only word of caution to homeowners is not to overinvest in the property. This is not to say that buying high quality is ever a bad idea. However, it must be done in proportion to your home value.

Where in a yard like this do landscapers have to focus the bulk of their attention?
Landscape professionals must focus more on softscape elements than hardscape elements. This is because almost any hardscape form, when correctly built to last and aesthetically compliment the terrain, exhibits a high level of quality in its own right. Gardens, shrubbery, ornamental trees, and special grasses now have to be added to frame the inorganic with a sculpted layer of greenery and color that retains its natural life force in the confines of sophisticated forms.

When does a high quality landscape offer today’s homeowner maximum financial value?
It creates long term sustainability. The superior aesthetics of garden planting, ornamental plant life, patio design, pool construction, and custom fountain work extend living space into the outdoor world where home buyers are invited to experience a better quality of life on two fronts: one indoors; one outdoors.

How does a high quality landscape affect the lifestyle of the homeowner?
Exterior Worlds can create such a realm in a manner that is stress free for the client. You never need to worry about what is happening, because our team handles everything.

How do hardscape elements distinguish themselves on such a property?
Quality is determined by investing in the material infrastructure of a particular form. Adding beams and substructure to patios, arbors, and pools increases the longevity of the structure and adds tangible improvements to the quality of landscaping design.

Where in the US are high quality landscapes essential?
To begin with, high quality landscaping is not limited to luxury homes. However, because home value is a determining factor in the amount of money one should spend on a landscape, most work of this type is done on luxury properties.

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.

Residential Architecture

French Homes
French residential architecture can be accented by an ordered arrangement of shrubs and bushes that establish order and symmetry. The most famous French landscaping design is a parterre garden. Its cross-shaped design creates paths of gravel through walls of green. From a pedestrian point of view, it surrounds a person with rising walls of life. From an elevated vantage point, it divides the landscape into living quadrants of green. The modern parterre garden and French gardens are usually based on elements of the original, traditional form.

Italian Two Story and Townhomes
Italian residential architecture owes a great deal to the Roman Empire. Rome loved its structures so much that it often developed lifestyle itself around structure. Modern Italian art and architecture are much more opulent and somewhat Romantic compared to their Imperial predecessors, but there yet remains a touch of the classical in today’s Italian gardens that personify a fascinating blend of opulence and discipline.

Modern and Contemporary Homes
Modern and contemporary residential architecture are dedicated to man’s attempt to understand himself in relationship to himself alone. It relies heavily on geometric hardscapes, clear lines, sharp angles, and curious forms of 3D art. Only small areas of green are permitted on a modern landscape due because of its contention that Nature is neither something to be cherished nor destroyed, but rather ignored in pursuit of the supremely mathematical and rational.

Colonial Homes
Colonial residential design has a great deal of Old World formality still present in its design. However, like it is with most things American, you see find a relaxation of certain elements. Flower beds do not have to be perfect, but they do have to be neat. Trees do not need to be furiously trimmed every day, but they do need consistent maintenance and care. Walls and fountains should rise up more that hug the ground to mirror the archetypal columns that symbolize the whole essence of Colonial forms.

Traditional American Homes
Traditional residential architecture is characterized by a love for the beauty of simplicity and the practicality of daily life. It projects an essence of conservatism that is also curiously blended on the option of free thinking at the drop of a hat.

Accordingly, the landscape designs around traditional homes consist of basic elements like gardens, pools, fountains, flower beds, patios, and decks. Their uniqueness is generated in consultation where actual materials and arrangements of such things are determined by the personal values and tastes of the homeowner.

Residential Landscapers

Our residential landscapers start off every project with a thorough client consultation phase. We believe that impeccable landscape development is predicated on the virtues of expression and reflection. We work to create landscape that embody and reflect homeowner thoughts, feelings, sensibilities and values in a landscape developed into a unified expression of architecture, living systems, and artistic design.

In order to do this, our specialists have to put a lot of time and energy into developing a master landscaping plan for designers and subcontracted partner companies to follow. This keeps everyone from landscape architects to swimming pool contractors and outdoor lighting experts on the same page in order to ensure a unity of design diversity at the end of the day.

In most instances, the starting point is a comprehensive cultivation of the landscape’s many organic elements. Residential landscapers most often start by installing a garden whose style reflects home architecture and homeowner interests. For example, if we are working on a property surrounding a French-style home, we will compliment the house with either a parterre garden or a derivative form of French garden design.

More linear architecture, though, may be better supported by an Italian garden. An Old World formal home or opulent façade may look better if surrounded by a Mediterranean garden with touches of Classical Greek and Roman elements. In any case, the intent of garden design is to create a living mirror that reflects the structure, size, and geometry of the house and helps unify human living space with natural space.

Residential landscapers also plant trees around properties that do not have clear separation from surrounding yards. This gives the homeowner wants a greater sense of privacy and enclosure around their own personal outdoor living space. A tree line like this, consisting of smaller species such as Japanese Yews, can literally create a living wall of greenery in the daytime and illuminated foliage at night. Such a scene provides an impeccable backdrop to gatherings, events, or even personal moments in the back yard regardless of the time of day or night.

Larger trees can be trucked in, planted, and even illuminated with special tree lighting fixtures to fill empty spaces in large yards and create shaded areas where none existed before. This in turn creates vertical organic structure to which we can add a myriad of corresponding inorganic structures that serve intentional purposes. Summer kitchens, wooded arbors, custom hardscapes, and outdoor rooms are just a few of the many things that residential landscapers can add to the world beneath the trees that gives real meaning to our brand, Exterior Worlds.

Outdoor lights can then be installed by an expert team of lighting design experts who partner with our residential landscapers to illuminate the many forms our team of designers creates. Through a blended layering of general and accent lighting, a new world of ambience, mood, and special effect emerges that project establishes the residence as a preeminent example of lifestyle and impeccable taste to friends, family, and neighbors alike.

Residential Landscape Lighting

Residential landscape lighting is a complex and highly evolved science in its own right tied to architecture, art, and outdoor design much in the same way as our own discipline. Exterior Worlds partners only with the very best and most experienced residential landscape lighting experts in order to create for our clients will provide residents and guests with a truly superior outdoor living experience.

From a functional perspective, residential landscape lighting makes a yard safe to walk through at night. It may surprise you to read this, but the human eye does NOT need a great deal of light to safely navigate through an area. Low-voltage fixtures are many times all we need to install along places such as pathways, flagstone walkways, or small patios around gardens and ponds. This is more cost effective, and with only little bit of lighting is creates just enough light to see by and no blinding glare.

Such a deliberate and careful approach to illuminating landscapes lets the residential landscape lighting designer take what would otherwise be a purely practical function—that of making mobility safe and convenient—and transform it into an aesthetic in and of itself. House lighting fixtures signify the home as the central figure and work to establish the aesthetic tone of the entire property. Garden lights of all types let you see the very smallest of details on the darkest nights. Gathering spots, paths, and seating areas are made visible and accessible from all important locations.

In order to make such a variety forms visible without creating a blinding outdoor glare, residential landscape lighting experts must to treat each subject individually and use a diversity of fixture types to accomplish their objectives. Illuminating a line of boxwoods surrounding a French garden is not the same as lighting an organic wall of yew trees that grow along the property line.

Tree lighting in the center of the yard requires a special type of fixture concealed in overhead branches. Lighting an outdoor building, or even more so the house, requires a combination of fixtures and some very skillful mounting techniques in order to make both form and surface area clearly seen from all angles.

Once the residential landscape lighting designer establishes general visibility, he or she can then focus on accenting the most unique and remarkable landscape elements. This layer of accent light is extremely important to the aesthetic of the property because it designates points of interest that, when viewed in relationship to each another, establishes a thematic linkage of style, tradition, and personal customization.

Architectural keynotes, for instance, can be brought to the forefront with special spotlighting techniques or hidden fixtures that highlight the cultural and stylistic origins of home design. A parterre garden that is installed along intersecting axes can be accented by path lights that bisect the greenery and establish the visual importance of linearity and right angles to French garden design. Custom patios can be better emphasized with any number of energy efficient fixtures that magnify the decorative aspects of stonework and decorative design.

The emotions that visitors will feel under the influence of residential landscape lighting will transfer beyond pure enjoyment to a sense of mood and activity appropriate to different spots, gatherings, and special events. Low-level lighting in entry gardens and outdoor fireplaces helps set the tone for quiet conversation. Fountain lights can create a suspended sense of time for romance and quiet moments. Brighter lights inside custom kitchens, outdoor rooms, and swimming pools create a sense of festivity and high energy.

Call Exterior Worlds now for an evaluation of your property and the many benefits that landscape remodeling and landscape lighting can add to your home value and quality of life.

Residential Landscape Designer

The residential landscape designer begins his or her work by developing the many organic forms to that comprise the essence of landscape aesthetic. Gardens rank preeminent among these forms. Any number of traditional styles can be planted, or they can be morphed into new custom styles specific to the master plan at hand.

Hedgerows play a significant role in helping create boundaries for outdoor rooms, gathering areas, and play areas. In homes where there is no clear boundary between one property and the next, hedges and plantings of smaller trees also provide privacy in the form of organic walls that shield the residence from outside view.

Tree planting maintenance is also very important to the aesthetic of the yard. Trees are some of the most long-lived and majestic organisms on the planet. They lend both shade and decoration to any yard, and they can be planted at any size in virtually any location far enough from the house proper to put down effective roots.

Once organic patterns have been established in the yard, hardscape structures have to be built to create the foundation of the outdoor living experience. Custom patios are perhaps the most important of these forms, providing surface areas for gathering, seating, and relaxation. Walls help segregate special areas from the remainder of the yard proper, and often help make a property look large in much the same manner than furniture and artwork appears to enlarge an indoor room. Walkways form connecting points between varied elements of divergent interests. Motor courts provide parking for residents and guests and contribute to landscape aesthetic if constructed out of respect for home architecture.

The residential landscape designer has to be very careful to not overdo it when it comes to hardscape design. The point is to create surface areas for human activity that allow human beings to better connect with nature—not overwhelm the environment with concrete and stone. Materials used to create hardscape vary widely per form and master plan model. It is the responsibility of the landscaping expert to select only the appropriate materials that will effectively compliment home architecture and blend harmoniously with gardens, hedges, trees, and flower beds.

Specific living environments can then be built in the form or outdoor rooms and buildings dedicated to particular activities and lifestyle interests. One of our most popular forms is the outdoor summer kitchen. A completely self-contained outdoor cooking facility replete will refrigeration, air conditioning, abundant cabinet space, and adjacent dining areas, an outdoor kitchen allows the host to prepare a meal from start to finish without ever having to run inside for food, supplies, or dinnerware.

Other popular outdoor environments include outdoor fireplaces, entry gardens, courtyards, and arbors. These areas provide comfortable seating for guests to gather, talk, eat, and drink under the stars. The residential landscape designer develops these forms very carefully and deliberately to reflect both the core essence of homeowner lifestyle and to anticipate intended future use of the property.

Water elements are also developed, if nothing else on a conceptual level, by the residential landscape designer. Plans for custom swimming pools are drawn up that will make the pool and surrounding patio more reflective of home architecture and proportional to surrounding organic and inorganic elements. Custom fountains and natural ponds are similarly developed in accordance with overall landscaping theme. Once detailed plans are developed, specialists in pool construction, earthworks, and custom masonry can be subcontracted and supervised under the umbrella of the master landscape plan.

Residential Landscaping

Residential landscaping by Exterior Worlds provides the discriminating Houstonian with an outdoor living environment that functions as a virtual home outside the home and that generate a higher yield property value investment by creating a sustainable environment that can be passed on to future homeowners.

Organic elements constitute the essence of residential landscaping.
Without greenery, landscapes appear sterile and devoid of energy. Even styles like modern landscaping need some natural form to punctuate the abstract designs of the manmade. In more traditional landscape styles, vegetation forms the core essence of the outdoor experience and consists of several important elements.

• Garden design is perhaps the most varied and complex element of residential landscaping. Almost every culture in the world has its own style of gardening that can be duplicated in the Houston area.
• Any one of these styles can be customized to specific properties as a unique, living expression of homeowner taste and a direct compliment to the house and surrounding property.
• Trees of any type or size can be trucked in and planted. Trees give landscapes everything from shade to borders between one lot and the other

Just as organic elements establish the tone of residential landscaping, hardscape design helps give form and function to its design.

• Patios are built to host specific events and accommodate expected numbers of attendees.
• Courtyards help establish varying levels of privacy and conviviality by their size, geometry, and positioning in relationship to the rest of the yard.
• Decorative masonry serves a similar function by making a yard look much bigger than it normally and providing vertical surfaces to which flower beds, smaller fountains, and decorative statuary can be added at will.
• Outdoor buildings of all varieties can then be added to host specific occasions and to pay tribute to home architecture.

The ultimate success of a residential landscaping plan is often determined by the type and variety of water features that are then added to the property.

• Custom swimming pools are constructed to the geometry and sensibility of the house and to create visual linkage between the house and the entirety of the property.
• Pools can very formal, or they can be built to mimic natural ponds like the ones we commonly see in wilderness areas.
• Residential landscaping also work very hard to use water as a decorative feature by building fountains provide everything from focal points for public seating areas to private spots for contemplation, meditation, and repose.

Outdoor lighting plays not only an important role in residential landscaping, but in many senses of the term, a defining one as well.

• Architectural lighting illuminates the house as the preeminent feature on the property and sets the tone for landscape aesthetic.
• Garden lighting allows you to see the most minute of details in the most ornate and formal plantings even on the darkest of nights.
• Underwater lights illuminate pools and fountains from within to create a myriad of special effects that will contribute ambience and mood to outdoor gatherings and special occasions.

Houston Lawn Services

Exterior Worlds calls itself a landscape service company. What services do you offer for lawns?
Your landscape design program, including the lawn, begins with the design process followed by installation. Then comes the weekly care of and tending to that landscape, making sure everything conforms to the overall design intent—with plenty of room to make changes along the way.

Because of our climate, Houston lawn service is a year-round issue and one that has special needs because of our particular climate. Houston lawns require mowing and trimming weekly from March through October. From November through February, you can get by with every other week, unless you have other considerations, such as trees that shed their leaves. Exterior Worlds can customize a residential landscape maintenance contract to suit your needs.

Over-seeding your yard with winter grass is one way to keep your lawn beautiful during our cold months. It is best done in early to late October. The big disadvantage of this practice is that the winter grass competes with the St. Augustine grass for space and nutrition and that may have a negative impact on the St. Augustine in the spring.

A regular fertilization program is a wise idea. Fertilizers we have used include organic, semi-organic, fast release, slow release, winterizer and low salt. Two other important treatments in Houston lawn service care are insecticides and fungicides, which control disease and insect infestations.

Should we invest in an irrigation system? If so, what are the best practices?
Our clients have found that an irrigation system is really worth the money—it provides good value for the financial outlay. But if you spend the money, you also need to schedule quarterly inspections of the system since, being mechanical, it will break down occasionally. Attention to this detail is extremely important on large properties. Undetected leaks can be very costly—on your monthly budget and on the environment.

As for good watering techniques, we suggest that you water in longer spans of time, but for less time. This combination promotes deeper water penetration, which gives your plant material stronger root systems and healthier plants. Plus, because you water less, you save money. Another advantage is that it helps create a more drought-resistant lawn. In other words, your Houston lawn service program requires proper water management.

As part of a Houston lawn service program, how does Exterior Worlds promote the long-term health of the grass in my landscape?
One recommended lawn care practice for compacted and heavily-used turf is lawn aeration. Lawn aeration involves removing small soil plugs or cores out of the lawn by a tool called a core aerator. You may have heard of another type of aeration called spiking. With it, solid spikes or tines are driven into the soil without removing a plug. It is not as effective as core aeration because, with Houston’s thick, gumbo-like soil, spiking can actually contribute to compaction.

We also suggest regular dethatching, which is the process of removing thatch or excessively thick grass with machine or by hand, because it promotes healthy lawns. Lawn aeration also helps control thatch build-up, which is another reason to do it.

Residential Landscape Maintenance

Professional residential landscape maintenance ensures that your yard will look green and colorful regardless of the time of year. It will also keep your yard free of the many negative forces that will destroy plant life and damage the aesthetic of the property. Maintenance contracts lock labor rates into an affordable, predictable budget and ensure timely and consistent services on a regular basis.

Flower beds make a yard look like springtime regardless of the time of year.
Annual color maintenance is the rotation of different flowering species so that no matter what time of year it is, your flower bed will look lively and colorful. This is best done by trained experts who know what types of plants will flower at specific times of the year, and what types of flowers will grow better in the shade versus the sunlight.

Lawns are greener and neater when cared for under a residential landscape maintenance contract.
Mowing and edging the grass are the two fundamental basics of your lawn care program. During the warmer months, you should have this should be done on a weekly basis. Beginning in October and February, you should have it done bi-weekly. While onsite, we will also check your lawn for a number of diseases that plague grasses and treat them accordingly if discovered.

Professional aeration of soil is an extremely important aspect of residential landscape maintenance.
Houston soil is much like clay in its thickness and constituency. Over time, it gets pressed and compacted, which creates a barrier to root growth. Aeration removes cores of soil from the lawn that are approximately one-half inch to three-quarter inches in diameter. This both softens the soil and lets in much needed air and water, which roots need just like we do for optimal growth and health.

A residential landscape maintenance contract will take care of your irrigation and drainage systems.
Irrigation and drainage systems are usually custom built in a yard. Any repairs to these systems or cleaning that needs to be done is best performed by the professionals who installed them.

Residential landscape maintenance keeps all of your vegetation fertilized the way it needs to be, when it needs to be.
Grasses, gardens, and flowers need to be fertilized periodically in order to remain healthy and vibrant. Lawns, ground cover, vines, and shrubbery must be fertilized once every three months. Certain types of flowers, such as gardenias an azaleas, need fertilizing in April and May. Roses must be fertilized every four weeks beginning in the spring and continuing throughout the growing season.

A residential maintenance contract includes systematic and safe pest and disease control.
It is essential that you protect all vegetation against insects, fungi, and plant diseases. Each species of plant, grass, shrub, tree, and vine has its own specific vulnerabilities that must be addressed on an individual basis. What works for roses will not work for shrubs and grass. An advanced knowledge of botany is required to counteract the many different threats to plant life, and to systematically treat each species proactively without putting adjacent species at risk of the wrong chemicals or treatment methods.

One of the greatest threats to your lawn is a fungal disease called “brown patch.” To counteract it, we will perform routine fungicide treatment. Roses will be treated for black spot disease, and virtually everything in your yard, at one time or another needs a good spraying of the right kind of insecticide.

Tree preservation is one of the more unique benefits our plans offer.
We would all like to think that trees will take care of themselves because they do such a good job of it in Nature. This is an exaggerated perspective. In the forest, we do not notice how many trees actually suffer from disease and injury. In our yards, however, we can spot a dying or damaged tree almost instantly.

Landscape Maintenance

Our landscape has become more and more sophisticated over the years and we need a landscape maintenance firm that can properly care for it. Can Exterior Worlds help us out?
A beautiful yard says something special about the homeowners and, after spending your hard-earned money on a landscape installation, it now makes sense to protect it and make sure it develops as designed. And that’s where an Exterior Worlds’ landscape maintenance program comes in.

The services listed below are part of any excellent landscape maintenance contract. But Exterior Worlds prides itself on providing extras, such as identifying unexpected diseases and providing an estimate for treatment, and treating all landscape elements—for example, your sculptures and statues, irrigation systems and landscape lighting—with particular respect. We are also mindful of hard surface maintenance: pathways, driveways, patios and outdoor kitchens. Water elements, such as swimming pools and outdoor water fountains, that may accumulate debris during trimming of shrubs or lawn are cleaned as well.

Please give us Exterior World’s philosophy of maintenance.
Landscape maintenance starts with your turf. Houston lawns typically need trimming weekly through the summer and bi-weekly in the winter. We also recommend that lawns be aerated twice a year, although with aeration the more often, the better.
Other key components of our maintenance program:

• Shrubs, Ground Cover and Vines. As part of our thorough landscaping maintenance program, hedges, shrubs and bushes are trimmed regularly to maintain the desired contours. Vines and ground cover are also edged to maintain a neat appearance. This regularly-scheduled maintenance ensures that all elements conform to the original plan of your landscape design.
• Flower Bed Maintenance. We weed flower beds weekly. We also turn the mulch every two weeks so as to keep the exchange of air and water flowing into and out of the soil. To optimize the growth and bloom cycles of seasonal flowers, we regularly prune and fertilize them.
• Tree Maintenance. All small trees are pruned as necessary. As a good practice of landscaping maintenance, we also schedule a deep root fertilization of these trees annually.

What about long-term care? An important step for your landscape’s long-term health is a pro-active fertilization and chemical treatment program. It provides a healthy boost to plants and is also a preventative for diseases and infestations common to our area.

We recommend that lawns be fertilized four times a year. All vines, ground covers and bushes should be on a similar schedule. Roses need to be fertilized in the spring, and then continued every four to six weeks during the growing season. Azaleas and gardenias need fertilization in April and May, and acidified in February.

For Houston lawns, one of the most common diseases is brown patch, or “Rhizoctonia solani.” The solution is a basic maintenance program involving a fungicide and herbicide treatment. For Houston roses, the major enemy is black spot disease, therefore roses need to be sprayed when black spot appears. Finally, we have found that all plants benefit from chemical treatments to protect against various insect infestations.

Garden Care

Garden care looks simple, but it involves a great deal more than you might think. Quality garden care should always be done by a trained professional, because it involves so much more than weeding and watering plants. It is a sophisticated science of cultivation—many aspects of which must be attended to prior to planting of the garden itself.

One of these aspects is developing effective drain systems in and around the garden. Drains are much more difficult to install than you might think. It is one thing to create a method of water removal, but it is quite another to build it effectively without letting it be seen. Professionals have to do this so that pipes, gratings, and any holes in the ground are concealed. Our planning and development team puts a great deal of care and effort into building drainage systems in this manner, and they also work very hard to periodically maintain them to keep them clean and functional.

The engineering of an irrigation system is yet another crucial component of garden care. Houston often will see several months with no rainfall during the hottest time of the year. The majority of exotic and tropical species that we cultivate cannot survive these months without some type of irrigation. We strongly advise all of our clients to avoid using garden hoses to water these plants. This is because plan leaves, when wet, become vulnerable to fungal growth. Plants remain much healthier and look much more attractive when they are irrigated beneath the leaves close to the ground and the root system.

Still another important part of garden care that must be done in the very beginning is soil preparation. Many of our first time clients have already planted some type of garden that has since become unhealthy or unsatisfactory in appearance. When we go out to visit them, we often discover that the problem began in the beginning with improper soil preparation. Store-bought fertilizer is often the root cause. Not every type of fertilizer will work with every type of plant, and many people fail to read the labels on the bag that tell them just what types of plants the fertilizer is intended to nourish. Most are manufactured for popular species of flowers and plants and may not work very well at all with more exotic or tropical species that people may decide to add to the garden later. It takes knowledge of botany and what nutrients each type of plant specifically needs to create just the right soil mixture required for a diversity of plantings that may otherwise not be able to grow together at all.

The aesthetic aspects of garden care are also important. The basics of clipping, weeding, and trimming even the simplest of flower beds have to be done no matter how large or small the garden is, and no matter how simple or complex it is. Again, we recommend that people not try to do this themselves. Some plants are very sensitive and require very special trimming methods. Furthermore, specific garden designs like parterre garden, the knot garden, the English garden, the Italian garden, and the Japanese garden have to be trimmed by people who know these forms—preferably by the people that planted them.

For these reasons, and many more, we always recommend that garden care be managed as a line item on a landscaping maintenance agreement with Exterior Worlds. This allows the team who designed the garden to consistently and cost effectively maintain its vitality and health.

French Drainage Systems

While we already have a drainage system in our landscape, we need to expand it. We’ve been reading about French drains and were wondering what Exterior Worlds thought about them?
French drains are trenches or ditches filled with gravel or other small rocks that move water parallel to the ground. Water flows much easier through loose gravel or rocks, especially as compared to Houston’s infamous thick and gumbo-like clay soil which is always a challenge for any local landscaper. A well-designed drainage system using this type of drain will often have pipes buried in the gravel to further ease the flow of water from the wet area to the dry one.

For those homeowners who are interested in a “green” green garden—that is, one that is ecologically-correct and sustainable—French drains add a “green” element to your landscape drainage system. By the way, French drains were not invented in France. Rather, Henry French of Concord, Massachusetts came up with the idea in the mid-1800s and popularized it with his book.
Why do people install such drains? What are their advantages?
This type of drain fits into almost any landscape design. Their rewards are many, including:
• These drains make residential landscape maintenance easier since they prevent standing water that can cause soggy roots or drowned-out plants. They also help prevent slippery surfaces and breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
• Your overall lawn service is improved because these drains pull standing water out of the landscape while at the same time storing rain water in the subsoil. Your grass ends up looking healthier and more vibrant.
• These drains can work in conjunction with your irrigation system. Both systems can be designed by landscape designers or landscape architects so that water collects in and nurtures garden beds, thus conserving water. Your designer can also work to hide the hardware to lessen any negative visual impact.
What do we need to know, in general, about drainage systems?
It goes without saying that storm drainage issues are very serious in the Gulf Coast region due to our flat topography, dense clay soils, and increased impervious surfaces on heavy forested lots due to years of construction. These three major factors have caused flooding problems for streets and homes during our seasonally heavy rainfalls. Therefore, many local ordinances have begun to follow the standard set by the Memorial Villages that require minimum pipe sizes, temporary drainage systems, topographic maps, engineered drainage plans, calculations, flow rates, and as/built plans.

Homeowners may find themselves swimming in the middle of a big mess that can cost thousands to rectify if their drainage contractors takes on a drainage project without a thorough understanding of these demands.

Also, we always recommend to our clients that, when installing any drainage system, you hand-dig trenches around trees to minimize damage to them. Alternately, pressurized water can be used to dig deep trenches or you can tunnel under tree roots by using compressed air. Any of these tree preservation methods expose tree roots so they are not abruptly torn, thus endangering the life of the tree.

Front Yard Landscaping

Lawn areas in both larger and smaller lots require subdividing the front yard with a number of related, yet independent landscaping design themes. Entrances, transit areas, gardens, and seating areas all represent very unique elements that must still be integrated together through linear progression and repeated aesthetic themes. Front yard landscaping must also pay great respect to home architecture and style, because newcomers to the residence will see these the house and the property as an aesthetic unity more than distinctive elements.

One of the more significant aspects of front yard landscaping is the entry experience. How you get to the front door is important. As a transition from public space to private space, the entrance sets the tone for the entire landscape. Entry space can be neat and tidy, abstract, or contemporary. It tells neighbors and visitors something about you, revealing personality and lifestyle through such exterior forms as theme gardens and professionally installed landscape lighting fixtures.

Transit areas are another important aspect of front yard landscaping. Motorcourts create unique parking areas that are positioned to give new arrivals a prime vantage point of the landscape before they exit their vehicles. Walkways lead visitors into lawn areas where a number of organic forms and inorganic structures can await them. Theme gardens such as parterre, knot, and Italian gardens further establish the tone of the landscaping design and provide organic reflections of home architecture. Decorative features such as sculptures and fountains can then be used to add vertical dimension to lawn space and further work to unify the front yard landscape, garden forms, and architectural themes of the home.

In larger front yards, landscaping does not stop with simply ornamenting the property to establish mindset. Larger custom homes normally have a great deal of underutilized space when we first arrive on property. Many people do not realize how detrimental this is to optics. Too much empty space creates the illusion that the front yard is much smaller than it actually is. By adding outdoor structures that integrate function and form into the landscape, one does greater justice to the property and contributes to the aesthetic of both the outdoors and the home itself.

Any number of structures can be constructed to accomplish this. Patios can be built that can host everything from public gatherings to private conversations between couples. Porches can be added to the fronts of home that feature special seating arrangements, screened-in outdoor rooms, and even fully functioning kitchen or entertainment areas.

Once a front yard has been landscaped to this degree, what you end up with is a space divided into special areas, each with its own function and aesthetic. That is, if you hire a professional landscaper to design, create, and maintain these elements at a level of sophistication required for a truly superior outcome.

Houston landscape

The Houston landscape today is very amenable to growing a plethora of both exotic and indigenous plants. Because of its hot and humid climate, and very mild winters, it will support a wide range of Mediterranean and tropical plants. This makes it possible for the professional landscaper to offer an eclectic range of garden styles to the discriminating homeowner. Houston landscapes are also very colorful as a general rule, and almost always have flowers that can bloom at any time of the year.

The downside to the Houston landscape is the heavy rainfall which we can receive at virtually any time of year. When it is very hot, heavy rainfall can produce outbreaks of mold and fungus sometimes in as little as 24 hours. Landscaping professionals have to take steps to minimize the impact of mold and fungus on gardens by altering irrigation methods and sometimes chemically treating gardens with anti-mold and fungal agents. Such treatment should never be attempted by anyone other than a trained botanist who knows the effects of such treatment on each species of plant within the garden, and who will be able to anticipate the impact that irrigation changes may have on the garden as a whole.
The Houston landscape is also characterized by heavy clay soils that present all sorts of challenges to gardeners and landscapers. Houston soil often holds a great deal of water when it rains. Special drains have to sometimes must be constructed beneath gardens in order to keep standing water from accumulating around plants and killing more sensitive species. One way we do this is by aerating the soil so that water will percolate in far enough and be absorbed by plant roots. Aeration also allows water to filter below the harder layers of clay near to the surface. At times, it may also be necessary to take the clay out to some degree and replace it with bedding soil. Very large gardens or more elaborate Houston landscape projects may require routing water to retention ponds and curbs.

Because rain water will not always easily filter through clay soil, plants may not always get the nutrients they need. Depending on the species of plants we use to populate the garden, we may need to amend the soil to ensure it properly supports the diversity of life it hosts. The inconsistent moisture content of the earth here can also cause the ground to shift and move. During summer months, soil dehydration reaches the point that cracks begin to appear in the ground. When rain later falls, water fills these cracks and causes the ground to shift. Structural foundations are strained as a result, even in the largest of buildings and outdoor decorative structures.

We use several innovating construction techniques to protect your investment in exterior design. We build patios and pool decks using piers and beams concealed underground. We make pools and coping out of thicker concrete and thicker rebar. While these materials and techniques do not stop Nature from following its own will, they do provide enough stability to prevent natural forces from ruining the ornamental and functional keynotes for which Houston landscapes are renowned.

Home Landscape Design

How does home landscape design effect you project?

Landscaping design for you home or “exterior home design does matters. A study commissioned by the Professional Landcare Network states it in monetary terms: Homes that have been professionally landscaped bring 15-20 percent more upon resale than those with no home landscape design. From an aesthetic perspective, it delivers pleasure. “The significance of home landscape design is that it creates an experience and evokes emotion as you come up to the house,” says Jeff Halper, home landscape design specialist with Exterior Worlds. “Additionally, it supports and enhances the architecture of the home.”


Here are some steps to starting you home landscape design phase:

• • Planning. This phase is where you get to dream. While you dream, you want to factor in how you and your family live in the space. Will your landscape design fit your desires, whether that means a swimming pool for the children, an vegetable garden or seating space for lots of guests? Would you like a outdoor kitchen for entertaining or the visual and auditory pleasures of a water feature? What qualities do you want to bring to your landscape—do you prefer lots of color, variations on one color theme or the more subtle effect of different textures of green? Perhaps you own an outdoor sculpture that you want to spotlight or have a garden type in mind, such as a Japanese garden design or an English garden design. Professionals, such as landscape designers and landscape architects, can help you make the best decisions.

• Financial. During this phase, the scope of the work is defined, including phasing in the different landscape elements. Cost elements include the hardscapes items like patios or decks; surfaces (cement, stone, brick) and walkways; fences, gates and arbors; outdoor kitchens; swimming pools and other water features. Also night lighting; irrigation systems and landscape drainage systems; and types of grass, shrubs, trees, perennials and seasonal color.
• Installation. The installation of your home landscape design is critical and takes into account the features you want to preserve and highlight—and those you don’t. In particular, tree protection is crucial. It involves constructing barricades around trees you want to keep so that roots don’t get damaged during construction. “Trees are large organism and don’t die immediately from the stress caused by construction. It may take them several years to die and many homeowners don’t realize that the damage actually happened during the construction phase,” explains Halper. Other aspects of the landscape installation involve setting up temporary drainage, preparation of the soil and garden beds, and installing irrigation, drainage and lighting. Then comes planting the trees, shrubbery, groundcover and any seasonal color. The final step consists of mulching and cleanup.
• Landscape Maintenance. From mowing to watering, regular landscape maintenance protects your investment, preserves the quality of the space and enhances your enjoyment of a lush, healthy landscape. It includes regular lawn mowing and trimming, shrub and tree pruning, fertilization, putting down rye grass, and management of pests and diseases. Exterior Worlds offers a menu of home landscape maintenance services: full service (52 or 42 visits a year), monthly or quarterly. “Our standards go way beyond most homeowners’. You don’t have to micro-manage it or worry about it. We do everything for you,” says Halper.

If you are interested in any high-end landscape services, Exterior Worlds has been providing the excellent residential landscape services and garden design services discussed above for the Houston and the surrounding areas including The Memorial Villages, Tanglewood, River Oaks, West University and the greater Houston (Hou), area since 1987. Contact us at 713-827-2255