Houston Area Landscaping

Houston Area Landscaping Services by Exterior Worlds have been improving the Houston Landscape for the past 20 years. Our landscape design professionals focus on helping people who have always had vision of a landscape that speaks uniquely to who they are, but who lack the resources, materials, time, and skills to build that landscape on their own.

Our experts do more than garden and lawn maintenance like many of the companies that advertise themselves as landscaping outfits. Our employees are degreed professionals with training in botany, irrigation science, construction, and outdoor lighting techniques.

These multi-specialists often devote up to seven years of their lives in undergraduate and graduate school in order to master the skills necessary to create truly luxury landscape designs. They realize that there is a lot more to Houston area landscaping than planting colorful gardens and developing innovative softscape designs.

True luxury living is created when homeowner fantasy becomes outdoor landscape architectural reality.

Only then can we claim that we have truly developed a unique and highly personalized residential landscape design.

This process begins with designers sitting down with Exterior Worlds clients and helping them to articulate ideas that come in the form of visualizations and epiphanies. Sometimes such ideas may come from something as elementary as a picture cut out from a magazine.

In other instances, people may have originally seen something online that looked like a workable do-it-yourself project—only to realize at second glance that if they hire us to do it, they can have an even more magnificent outcome that will transform the entire aesthetic of their front yard and back yard, and also add value to their home itself in the long run.

The intention behind such a systematic approach to consultation is to make Houston area landscaping highly personalized to the homeowner and appropriate to the individual neighborhood in which the home is located. We want the home to stand out in the neighborhood as a premier example of what that neighborhood is known for, but we never want the property we work in to clash with surrounding themes in a harsh or contradictory way.

In a part of town like West University Place, for example, Houston area landscaping may take on the dimensions of creating special sanctuaries such as morning gardens in quiet corners of the yard. We may also use a skillful selection of plant material in order to create a very clear boundary between one home and another, but organic at the same time in a way that makes the two properties look aesthetically balanced when viewed from the street.

In a neighborhood like Bellaire, on the other hand, we may focus extensively on building a custom swimming pool surrounded by an elaborate custom patio, an outdoor kitchen that compliments the home, and an arbor to compliment the stately trees that Bellaire is famous for throughout the Houston area.

Houston Area Landscaping in Tanglewood and River Oaks is always going to speak of discriminating high quality and refined taste, whether it be in garden designs, courtyards, entry gardens, or even graded motor courts that allow parked cars to actually blend a bit into the landscape.

Similar strategies and aesthetic qualities are also applicable to all other Houston area neighborhoods services by the landscaping designers of Exterior Worlds.

Tanglewood Landscaping

One of Houston’s most prestigious neighborhoods, Tanglewood is a lovely area of Houston covered in majestic oak trees and other wooded areas. More than 1,200 homes in 11 separate subdivisions make up this affluent part of the city.

Lot sizes run from about 8,000 square feet to two-plus acres, creating wonderful opportunities for Tanglewood landscaping. So, what makes for a distinguished landscaping in such a distinguished neighborhood?

At Exterior Worlds, our philosophy is that a regular, meticulously-executed landscape maintenance plan is the best way for you to protect the investment that you’ve made in your Tanglewood landscaping. Luxurious gardens provide a sense of pleasure, a feeling of well-being that is possible whether you’re looking out the window at a playful outdoor water fountain or entertaining guests in a custom outdoor kitchen.

Additionally, gardens can be quite helpful. When it comes time to sell your property, a distinctive and well-maintained landscape makes your home stand out, giving you an edge over other houses in your market.
A Houston landscape service company like Exterior Worlds can make sure your landscape develops as planned. We provide the level of intricate care that a multi-faceted landscape needs and deserves.

Some examples of the professional care that Exterior Worlds provides for Tanglewood landscaping include:

• We only use premium mulches bought from the best vendors in town. We generally mulch twice a year taking the time to install mulch so that there is no unnecessary build-up, even if it requires spreading it by hand. We are careful not to cover the weep-holes in a house’s foundation since mulch in weep-holes gives termites easy entry into your home.
• For utmost vitality of your garden, we think we can best perform the necessary tasks of clipping, pruning and trimming. As professionals, we understand plant form and use best practices for maintaining your plants’ appearances. We also recommend to our clients that flowers be feed and fertilized every six weeks.
• We pay close attention to the intent of the original design. Many of our clients have gardens done in a particular style, such as a Japanese garden, Mediterranean landscape design or modern landscape design. We understand how to care for different garden styles over the long term.

When Tanglewood was conceived in the 1940s, the developer named it Tanglewood after the collection of Greek myths that Nathaniel Hawthorne re-wrote for children. How appropriate that this title was chosen as the name of a neighborhood in a city famous for people who have the freedom and ambition to write their own myths of themselves.

Along those lines, Exterior Worlds recognizes that everyone is unique. Therefore our Tanglewood landscaping services can be customized for your specific needs. If you want a single element added to your landscape design, say, a custom fire and water fountain, we can do that for you. Or you may need only ongoing garden services. Combining our garden services with a pre-existing turf crew is often cost-effective for you. If so, we can customize a maintenance contract just for those garden chores.

Call Exterior Worlds for a private consultation to discuss your landscaping needs.

Landscaping Services Houston

Professional landscaping services in Houston, Texas are a coordinated blend of traditional landscaping design methods and special methods of landscaping that specifically address the many nuances and eccentricities of the deceptively simple Houston landscape. Our ultimate intention is to put cash value back into the yard, improving the resale opportunity of future possibilities and creating a sustainable, superior living environment in the present moment. The genius of our value is to bring top-quality functionality to the table, then make it disappear quietly behind the backdrop of the landscape with unique and proprietary services developed after years of experience working in the Houston, Texas area.

One of the many ways our landscaping services differentiate our firm’s uniqueness is an intentional avoidance of bold paving. The land throughout Houston, Texas appears completely flat to the naked eye, and many people who move here from higher elevations consider it outright boring. Hardscape design characterized by bold color or eccentric patterns can quickly backfire aesthetically. By drawing they eyes down to the ground, they force you to look at land that is as flat as a tabletop in most places. To counter this negative, we lean toward more neutral colors and basic geometry when paving areas like driveways and motor courts. We want you to see them as functional elements, and no more. In order to add a vertical dimension to the property, we take emphasize bold organic elements. A wide range of flowers, tropical plants, hedges, and tree species all contribute to a robust sense of upward mobility, diversity, and growth.

Another important methodology we use that is highly unique in the landscaping services industry is planning and layout of custom, concealed drain systems. We seldom install a simple, single drainage network on the properties we develop. The deceptive simplicity of the Houston landscape and the surrounding part of Texas in general, requires a much more complex engineering of drains than face value analysis would lead you to believe. While the terrain looks flat, it really is not actually flat. It is replete with twists, bends, depressions, and rises in elevation that hide from even the steady gaze of the eye, but become all too obvious—and all too problematic—when the rain water begins to follow their contours. This can cause a yard that appears to be higher than the street and surrounding properties to suddenly form streams and pools of water in the worst possible places. Patios can flood and gardens can be destroyed if these sudden mini-catastrophes of Houston seasonal rains are not anticipated and headed off by proactive landscaping services professionals

To do this, we almost always engineer and install two drainage systems. One is for the house itself, and is designed exclusively pull water as quickly as possible off the roof of the home and away from doors, windows, porches, and patios. This system will either then drain directly into the Houston storm sewer system, or it will be siphoned temporarily into the drain system of the landscaping itself. There are a number of water delivery mechanisms we can use in the creation of both types of drainage. However, the distinguishing mark of our landscaping services in this crucial are of property development is concealing these mechanisms behind the carefully cultivated forms of gardens, the meticulously constructed structures of outdoor buildings, custom patios, stone work, and custom swimming pool design.

At the end of the day, we spend a great deal of time, energy, and money developing a system of detailed plans, documents, and drawings that will allow our team and our subcontracted partner teams to take the conceptual essence of landscaping services we have intuitively envisioned and make them concrete, applicable, and impeccably workable in any property we service in Houston and surrounding Texas counties.

Houston Landscaping

Houston residents can expect a wide range of landscaping options when it comes to beautifying their properties. Houston’s near-tropical climate provides an ideal growing environment for a plethora of seasonal and perennials that can make any yard vibrant and colorful. Different styles of landscapes can be developed in each of Houston’s main areas that reflect both the architecture of neighborhood homes and the lifestyle activities of its residents.

West University, Southside Place, Southampton, and Rice Village and Bellaire
These areas are definitively urban neighborhoods characterized older homes and strict codes. Most of the lots in these areas are smaller than lots in other parts of the city. Houses are consequently much closer together and require innovative designs to differentiate them from surrounding properties.

The best way to accomplish this is to make homes and spaces look bigger by using smaller hedges, symmetrical patterns, and shrubs with smaller leaves. This helps to magnify the actual size of the house, and it helps make the home look more set apart from the street. Backyards can be made to similarly appear larger by screening off neighboring properties with hedges and/or alleys of trees.
A similarly older, but very different part of the city is the Tanglewood area.
Homes here were built in the 50s-70s on large-scale lots. Space is not an issue here, so there are many different opportunities for outdoor design in this part of Houston. Landscaping can range from a series of gardens and alleys to creative motorcourt and flower garden designs. Most residents here want their properties to feel park-like due to the size of their lots, so an equal blend of outdoor structures, trees and hedges, and flower gardens is typical for this neighborhood.

In the Memorial area of Houston, landscaping takes on a very definite feeling of countryside.
With all the large oak and pine trees that line Memorial drive, it is easy to forget sometimes that you are driving through an urban environment. People living in this part of Houston prefer landscaping that emphasizes outdoor living as an experience equal to that of indoor living. Outdoor structures and swimming pools that are designed to host gatherings of family and friends are very popular in this area. Shade-resilient gardens underneath towering trees are very popular in these neighborhoods, as are custom and modern garden designs.

River Oaks is the most exclusive and wealthy neighborhood in Houston and it is also one of the oldest. Homes began to be built here in the early 1900s.
Landscaping here is characterized by very formal forms that mirror the Old World architecture of the houses. French gardens and Italian gardens are very popular landscaping styles in this part of Houston. Property borders are commonly decorated with linear gardens and hedgerows, and lawns and flower beds are painstakingly manicured to maintain a formal, aesthetic presentation. These Houston landscapes are further magnified with ornate outdoor structures such as custom fountains, unique patios, and highly custom and innovative swimming pool construction.

Excavating any River Oaks yard can sometimes feel like an archeological dig because of the many layers of landscaping history. Structures uncovered are often intertwined with tree roots, so removing old pipes and buried cables should only be done by a professional with tree-friendly experience and equipment.

Running Bond Brick Walkway Built in Tanglewood Front Yard Landscaping

We were contacted by a Tanglewood resident who was unhappy with the way her front yard looked. The existing drive was nothing more than a massive concrete slab that took up almost the entire front yard, leaving almost no room for vegetation other than small patches of San Augustine grass. For at least six months out of the year, the grass would die and turn brown, giving the front yard a drab appearance that diminished the Old World architecture of her home. Another major problem with this front yard was a small Magnolia tree growing next to the back wall. If it continued to grow at its present rate, it would begin to push against the bricks and crack the wall over the next few years. The homeowner wanted us to completely change the vegetation and trees in her front yard and replace the bulk of her driveway with a brick walkway. She wanted something more classically European--reminiscent of the horse and carriage days of past centuries.
After careful study of late nineteenth century photographs of brick roads and sidewalks, we decided that the most appropriate pattern for arranging the bricks would be that of a running bond. This pattern involves laying the bricks on their sides so that the narrow parts face upward. It is a very practical style for creating curved walkways that wind in front of homes or bend through gardens. We used some unique construction methods to create this structure and to make it look as historically authentic as possible. We laid down a concrete foundation first in the general shape of the walkway. We did not want to ruin the illusion of antiquity by placing mortar or grout between the bricks, so we spread the mortar over the concrete, and set the bricks with only sand to fill the spaces between them. We sealed the sand with paver seal, so that when it set it created a smooth surface with no cracks or gaps.

Removing the bulk of the driveway had now given us a golden opportunity for landscaping all along the outer edge of the brick walkway and portions of the front yard that were previously dominated by San Augustine grass. The first thing we remove the magnolia tree and plant a line of Japanese yew trees that goes from the street all the way to the wall in the back. This stops the eye from wandering into the neighbor’s yard, and it frames the south side of the landscape with a lush backdrop of dark green. We then varied the color scheme by planting plum delight in front of the Japanese yews. This is a burgundy bush that is very hearty, and maintains its color throughout the year. Boxwoods planted just at the edge of the running bond walkway formed a third layer of vegetation that worked to highlight the bricks like a portrait frame accents a picture, forcing the eye to follow their intricate patterns around the curve to the front of the house. Using boxwoods to frame all or portion of a front yard is a common technique in landscaping. Boxwoods can be used to enclose everything from shrubs to decorative sculptures. When curved, boxwood frames help draw the eye around structures as it did here, where the vegetation keeps the eye moving down the walkway until it lands just square in front of the home.

We then introduced dwarf monkey grass to hide the stalks of the boxwoods and to further frame and highlight the bricks in the sidewalk. We replaced the San Augustine grass throughout the front yard with more drought-resistant zoysia grass. For small front yards, it creates a much plusher lawn that requires little maintenance or rainfall to sustain its emerald color. It also features a much finer blade that encourages you to walk on it.

In the back, on either side of the walkway, we completed our project with a few additional plantings. We introduce camellias to give the home flowers in the winter time between December and February. On the north side of the property, we kept a portion of the original driveway for parking. This left nothing but a small strip of San Augustine between our client’s home and the neighboring property. We planted a linear row of boxwoods and mondo here, and added a row of crepe myrtles to create a natural boundary equivalent to that of the Japanese yews on the other side of the yard.

We completed the project with a full-grown tree on a truck to plant in the very back to balance the expanded front yard and the multiple layers of vegetation that now shaped and contoured the landscape around the running bond brick walkway.