Small Gardens

Why should I consider a small garden?
If you do not have a lot of space around your home because you live on a small lot, this form of garden design creates interest and variety regardless of your actual square footage. It is a particularly useful form around townhomes and patio homes.

Many people with Italian style two story homes also like this form because it is an excellent way to decorate a balcony.

Where are small gardens normally planted?
They can be planted near any form in a yard. Their primary purpose is to accent another form. Examples include gazebos, summer kitchens, architectural walls, small arbors, and iron gates. Adding a small garden to any of these places brings color, dimension, and a sense of organic framing to the scene.

What plants are best to use for this form?
We choose plants whose color, sizes, shapes, and textures create an illusion of enlarged space. One technique we heavily rely upon is to use several different shades of green. This layers the design and keeps it from looking like a monotone patch. In most cases as well, we use more than one color of flowering plant for the same reason.

Do you use exclusively small plants?
No. The actual size of the plants themselves will vary based on where the garden is planted. If we are installing plants near a very tall wall, for example, we want to use something that will compliment the vertical impact of the structure. On the other hand, if we are lining the circumference and radiuses of a small circular courtyard patio, we want to create a border around the hardscape that will enhance its appearance without overpowering its appeal.

How can illusions be used?
Small garden design is all about illusion when you think about it. This is especially true in contemporary garden design where the avant garde is the norm and anything normal is challenged or diminished. Gardens here have more inorganic elements like stone, white walls, black rocks, mirrors, decorative glass, and even stainless steel. Minimalist plantings of greenery then create a complex interplay between non-living and living elements that challenges one’s ideas about what life itself is and the true nature of thought and its place in man’s evolution.

Is water an important part of small garden design?
It often is. The morning garden fountain, for example, is an excellent form to add to any landscape as a private island of tranquility or meditation. The amount of vegetation needed here does not have to be very much at all. It is best to use multiple shades of green to prevent the sense of monotony, but the colors of the flowers can be singular if that contributes to the design and size of the fountain itself.

Can small gardens be planted within a patio itself?
Yes. Any style of patio can have a portion of its surface removed to work as a planting area. In contemporary gardens, dark green bushes or small trees bordered by gravel are popular. In more traditional forms, everything from special grasses to tropical plants are frequently used.

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.

Outdoor Kitchen and Pool

A family named Pesek decided that their swimming pool had too much of a “1970s look.” They wanted an entirely new swimming pool designed for them, and they wanted an outdoor room built that would allow them to enjoy a view of the surrounding Houston landscape.

After carefully surveying their yard, we recommended a design based on classical geometry and proportional right angles. This would add a touch of elegance that would uphold the conservative design of the home and distinguish the property as a unique keynote in Houston landscaping design.

The house itself spoke of a simpler, more absolutist time in history. The fixed constants of the 1950s were clearly evidence in its architectural motifs, which provided us with a template of linearity and deliberate movement true to Classical design principles.

We began by rebuilding the swimming pool near the rear entrance of the house.
We completely abandoned the original lagoon-pool design. Not only did had it clashed from the beginning with the architecture of the home, but it looked cliché, to say the least, in relation to the greater Houston landscape in general.

The new swimming pool was built as a perfect rectangle distinguished with an innovative type of coping that raised perpendicular to the stone patio surface. We used the natural surface of the Houston landscape to create another perpendicular right angle at the end of the pool, where we installed a waterfall that spilled into a heated spa.

The spa was built with something of an optical illusion in mind. Though the water came from within the spa itself, it appeared to be coming from within the pool. This generated a new sense of visual “ebb and flow” that causes the earth to appears to rise up first into an illuminated pool, then onward into the steps of the home.

We built an outdoor room at the end of the pool opposite the home. We followed the same principles of simple conservatism and right angles that distinguished the home and the pool. This is not to say that we abandoned modernity by any means. Within the conservative linearity of its framework we created a fully functional outdoor kitchen complete with a smoker, a refrigerator, an ice maker, and a water heater

There was even special seating with a flat-screen plasma TV that provided state of the art fun for adults and children alike. When we were finished, there was never any need for the Peseks to return to the house once the party begins. Every amenity is available in a simple, yet also very sophisticated outdoor building. Pure luxury and a serene view of the Houston landscape are just a few steps away in a luxury pool and spa.

Landscaping Ponds

Where should I have my pond built?
A landscaping pond should be built in full sunlight so that aquatic plants will get enough light to flower. It is also best to have it built in an area of the yard that, from any vantage point, appears equidistant from major points of interest. By this we mean that if you are standing in the doorway of your summer kitchen located at the back of the yard looking at your landscaping pond located more toward the center of the yard, that your pond will appear proportionally related to nearby gardens, trees, fountains, your swimming pool, and your home in the far background of the scene.

What you do NOT want is a pond that appears to be crowded up against another landscape element or outdoor building. If a pond is part of a larger garden design, then an exception to this rule applies, but you will need a professional landscape designer to develop it in order to make it work with the surrounding landscape.

Does the shape and design of the pond matter?
Yes. A landscaping pond is part of a master landscape plan that is based on several things. The most important factor in the creation of this plan is the style of your home architecture. Since the intent of professional landscape design (not to be confused with rudimentary basic lawn services) is to create an outdoor living space equivalent in the quality of life to the interior comforts of a home, there must be a sense of reflection and congruence between the two realms these two realms blend into a singular expression of personal lifestyle.

You should therefore be aware that a pond can be a beautiful addition to your landscape regardless of the size of your home and your property. However, the size and shape of that pond will need to be designed proportionally as one of many elements in order to create the feeling of harmony and freedom you seek in Houston outdoor living.

Should I have lighting installed in my landscaping pond?
Yes. Without lighting, your pond can only be enjoyed during the daytime. Special lighting fixtures will transform it from a dull shadow on the nighttime Houston landscape into a magical realm of color and dancing shadow. Both general lighting for visibility and special effects lighting are now possible with underwater, low-voltage LED lights that are very cheap to operate and safe to use in submerged locations. They will not harm fish or aquatic plants and pose no threat to humans and pets when installed correctly by a licensed professional.

If you plan to stock your pond with fish, the most important kind of plant to install is oxygenator plants. You must be cautious not to install any plants that are toxic to fish. The list is too long to enumerate here, but just a few of these include amaryllis, bottlebrush, boxwood, caladium, dapne, hydrangea, and bird of paradise. If you have any questions about what should or should not be planted in your landscaping pond, it is best to confer with your landscape designer and let him or her recommend aquatic species with aesthetic value that will also be good for your fish.

What species of fish can I have in my pond?
That depends on the size and depth of your landscaping pond. Koi are a favorite fish, but they may not do well in just any type of pond. You may need a more formal koi pond like we often build in order to give them an appropriate environment. Goldfish and other species of carp will live in almost any type of water. If your property is big enough for a large landscaping pond of significant depth, you can even have it stocked with sun perch, catfish, or bass.

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.

Three-Level Pool Patio

When they work only with softscape elements like lawns, gardens, trees, and shrubs, it is sometimes very challenging for Houston landscaping design specialists to create special zones of comfort and interest. Vegetation is good for magnifying space, but to build a sense of structure into the landscape, architectural structures and custom hardscapes have to be introduced into the master plan that will scale down the Houston landscape into deliberately proportioned spaces that create a sense of amenity for people.

One phase of a multi-phase Houston landscaping project recently done for the Friedman family illustrates this truism. The home and yard were of such monumental proportions that outdoor elements had to be designed in proportionally large dimensions. Along with a custom swimming pool, we had to build a 2,000 sq. foot patio pool deck that could host events number up to-50 people. The challenge was to design the patio with an aura of uniqueness and significance to avoid generating too much of a stage effect.

Houston landscaping designers eventually determined that three elevation changes could be built into the hardscape that would effectively create three distinct areas of interest and assembly. One area would surround the pool itself. A second area, higher area connecting to the summer kitchen of the home would overlook the pool fountain and the spa. A third area at the opposite end of the pool would lead up to an arbor that offered a superb vantage of the surrounding Houston landscape.

We constructed the patio out of Pennsylvania blue stone. Using a dark colored stone like this is one way to scale a large property down in perspective. It creates a focal point that draws the eye away from the vastness of the Houston landscape and draws it into a new realm of refined poolside comfort and special water effects.

Houston landscaping experts designed the patio with custom drains and special water jets that helped create these water effects. At night, water shot out from these jets into the lighted depths of the pool.. Stairs leading up to the terrace were built broad and wide so people would feel like they were gradually descending to the water or ascending into a higher realm.

We also used Pennsylvania sandstone to continue the aesthetic theme of the patio. This terrace offers first time visitor and returning guests alike a superb choice between the spa and the arbor above. Rocking chairs provide comfortable seating from an ideal vantage point just in front of the arbor. A retaining behind the terrace built to hold back the grade of the soil also serves a decorative function by framing the entire upper patio with border and emphasis.

Houston Swimming Pool Contractors

Are you dreaming of new landscape plans, one that includes a swimming pool in your back yard? If so, Exterior Worlds is one of the best regarded Houston swimming pool contractors and we’d be happy to help with your project.

The process starts with the design. As longtime Houston swimming pool contractors, we are experts in the design aspect. Your choices range from lagoon pool designs to waterfall landscape designs to site-specific designs—and just about everything in-between.

Our swimming pool discussions always include safety. Areas for your consideration:

• Non-slippery surfaces in the immediate wet area.
• Depending on your lifestyle, a pool fence to safeguard who has access to the water, such as an ornamental iron fence.
• Night lighting. The lighting for your pool should be viewed as part of your overall residential landscape lighting plan with the intention of making it seamless with the whole.

If you are landscaping for entertainment, you might want to think about putting in additional water elements that elevate the design impact. Examples of these head-turners include pool water fountains and fire and water fountains.

For those of you considering landscaping remodeling, Exterior Worlds is a particularly smart choice as your Houston swimming pool contractor due to our willingness to go the extra mile in getting the job done right. While a swimming pool remodeling project certainly can be done and often is something that needs to be done, it is a complex job that requires the most from your swimming pool professionals. In other words—no time for a cookie-cutter frame of mind.

Once the design is nailed down, then as your Houston swimming pool contractor we will do the following:

• We schedule a pre-construction meeting to let you know what to expect, when and by whom.
• Simultaneously, we will begin the permitting process.
• Once the necessary approvals are in place, then comes the grading and excavating of the site.
• Rebar is then installed in the shell, as well as the plumbing and electrical work is completed.
• The pool will be sprayed with a concrete-like substance called gunite.
• After the gunite cures, comes the installation of the coping, specialty features such as outdoor fireplaces or retaining walls, and the pool deck.
• As the last step, the gunite is plastered, often using upgraded materials such as quartz finishes in a wide range of textures and colors.
• Then add water and the fun begins.

As you can tell, it is no small task to undertake the building or restoring of a swimming pool. Therefore, it may be in your best interest to hire us as general contractor, also known as a project designer. In this capacity, we bring two important assets to the table. The first advantage is that we can look at your entire landscape design to ensure that the pool integrates with the total picture and that all your landscaping zones flow together.
The second benefit is financial—we will schedule the different subcontractors, thus keeping the work progressing in a logical and timely manner, which, in the end, saves you money and aggravation.

Since 1987, Exterior Worlds has provided upscale landscape services, including project management for swimming pools construction and remodeling to the Houston area. Call 713-827-2255 for a consultation.

Infinity Pools

An infinity pool is a swimming pool or reflecting pool with a negative edge. It is also called a zero edge pool or disappearing edge pool. The intention of this design is to suggest that the water extends beyond the horizon to and vanishes into an indeterminable point beyond—literally into infinity.

Infinity pools are among the most challenging elements of landscape architecture to construct. It requires a great deal of skill on the part of the swimming pool design specialist to create the effect of vanishing water. It also requires adapting the pool to geological formation surrounding the structure. In the Houston landscape this can be particularly challenging due to the fact that we have such flat terrain.

Infinity pools here must be constructed at a high enough elevation to allow water to drop into the unseen realm at the edge of the structure. In actuality, this so-called unseen realm is really a concealed catch basin hidden beneath a weir over which the water flows. The water pours into this basin and is recirculated into the pool by silent pumps.

In order to generate the flow of water necessary to create this silent disappearing act, we have to build the weir at least one-half to one inch lower than the required water level. We also have to build a separate circulation system for the edge flow. Sufficient momentum must be present in the water in order to cause it to run over the weir into the catch basin below.

We also have to be very careful to take into account inconsistencies in flow caused by swimmers. When people swim in an infinity pool, they will naturally displace more water into the edge than normal flow will produce. The catch basin must large enough to withstand this displacement, and the pump must be sturdy enough to return the water to the upper pool.

Without exception, edge pumps in infinity pools are larger and more powerful than the main pool pump for this reason. They also feature very sophisticate filtration mechanisms to prevent the debris that flows over the weir from clogging the pump. A great deal of mathematical calculation goes into designing these edge pumps and catch basins, which might be another reason that the word “infinity” is used as a descriptor for these very special water features.

Beyond the sophisticated engineering they feature, infinity pools create some of the most magnificent scenery in all of landscape design. This is because they are always built in relationship to other points in the scenery. They can function as giant mirrors reflecting the overhanging branches of trees. They can point toward a pond or natural stream, or they can stretch toward open sky and appear to blend blue vastness with water and fluid movement with rainbows and clouds.

Small Swimming Pools

Small pools are very popular in urban areas where there are very small lots and little room for landscaping. Many of these lots have exceptionally large houses on them and tiny backyards. Others have patio homes and townhomes with a predominantly hardscape backyard landscape. Garden designs must be highly customized to home architecture and proportional to the limited space at hand. Swimming pools must be smaller but still provide the amenities and comforts of their larger equivalents on more expansive estates.

This is not as difficult as it may seem to the experienced expert in custom swimming pool design. Small pools are no different than large swimming pools or custom swimming pools. They are shaped just like other pools but are built to a much smaller scale. They can look like luxury spas, geometrically proportional forms, or even giant fountains. The benefits that they offer are anything but small, however.

A small pool can be heated so people can enjoy it year round. Many doctors recommend that arthritis patients invest in these pools because it helps soothe aching joints. Physical therapists also recommend them to patients in recovery from knee injuries and back injuries. Although a small pool may lack the area of a custom swimming pool or luxury swimming pool, it can nevertheless be constructed in a manner that facilitates good, hardy exercise.

The way we accomplish this is to construct small pools with swim jets that create strong currents in the water. The swimmer can face into the current and swim half-laps to the other side, then return to the other side to repeat the process. In fact, many people find that they get better exercise in a small pool than a larger one due to the pressure of the water and the challenge it presents to their muscles.

Small pools are also very decorative additions to a small backyard behind a cottage or townhome. They look tranquil and idyllic when surrounded by a custom garden design or small custom patio. Adding a water feature to an otherwise limited amount of greenery predominated by hardscape is typically all that one needs to alleviate the sense of having too much inorganic form in one’s yard. Water, though not technically organic, is the very stuff of life whose fluidity conveys a sense of movement, dynamism, and even mystery at times.

One way to enhance all of these unique attributes of water is to add a fountain features to a small pool. A custom fountain of any style can be built in a pool provided its dimensions remain in proportion to the pool itself and surrounding structural architecture. One of the most popular styles is the waterfall fountain. Waterfalls can be constructed in any number of forms ranging from the traditionally natural to the deliberately contemporary and modernesque.

They can also be built either at the end of a pool or along the sides. Building a waterfall along the side can actually add a safety factor to your small pool. Since we discourage the use of diving boards due to the hazards they have been known to create, a diving rock can be substituted next to a roaring waterfall that gives a swimmer a much safer way to get into the water and also allows him or her to directly experience the falls firsthand. This can make a small swimming pool look and feel much bigger, and in many instances, magnifies the dimensions of the backyard as a whole.