Architectural Landscape Design Blog

Archive for the ‘Minnesota Garden Plantings’ Category

Cooking Outdoors: Outdoor Summer Kitchens Delight All!

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Everybody loves food cooked outdoors, it tastes better! You can make a space in your backyard for cooking that’s efficient and makes cooking and entertaining outside a real pleasure!

It’s like buying a house; it’s location, location, and location. When planning an outdoor kitchen you get to pick the perfect location for you. Locating grills and workstations out of the traffic patterns and access routes to your house makes a big difference. You also get a chance to determine where you want the smoke to go, instead of into having to shut the windows to your house when grilling!

An outdoor kitchen can be as big and expansive as you want it or it can be right-sized for you. You can build a summer kitchen with outdoor cook tops, ovens, refrigerators, ice machines, bread baking ovens, fireplaces, fire pits, outdoor lighting,  etc. There are endless options. Our landscape designers and architects delight in helping people plan their vision of an outdoor kitchen.

We can build patios, decks, gazebos, arbors, and pergolas to accompany your kitchen. The best outdoor kitchens have plenty of weatherproof storage as well as enough counter space to prepare and serve meals. Arranging your outside kitchen is a lot like arranging one indoors. If your family and friends like to cook together you may need some extra countertops to accommodate everyone cooking together outdoors. In addition, to weatherproof storage, we can help you look at the different options for weather resistant countertops like marble, concrete, metal or tile. We’ll also plan if you want it to build your countertop big enough to have a 15-inch plus overhang so you can use it for a buffet or a bar also. Working to insure there is the necessary gas and electric lines and that all zoning requirements are met is another benefit.

Your outdoor kitchen will become a favorite outside dining room, let our Minneapolis, St. Paul landscape design team help you call 952-292-7717 today

 

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Borrow Scenery Beyond Your Boundaries: Plan Now To Make Small Yards Appear Larger

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

A small space doesn’t need to have the feeling of being confined even though obvious boundaries can make a space appear restricted. We can help by building fences, retaining stone walls, and plantings with imagination that do both the job of defining your space or yard and expand it. You can obscure boundaries and give a larger feel by several methods. Simple masses of green in your landscape plan can easily blur the distinction between your garden and the neighboring properties when your carefully crafted plan includes the right trees, shrubs, or vines.

If you have boundaries that are really obvious, like all the lots on your street are the same size or the houses are a variation of the same style, you can obscure the boundaries by implying that more lies beyond. You might want to construct a stone walk or pathway that disappears around the bend by a corner of the garden. The path might actually be ending just out of your line of sight behind the shrubbery, but the feeling that it still seems to lead to some part of the garden won’t immediately be seen.

Borrowing scenery is another way our landscape designers at Architectural Landscape Design can expand the borders of your Minnesota garden visually. We’ll use the attractive structures or plantings of your neighbors next door or the views in the distance, and incorporate it in your landscaping plans. If there is a grove of trees or a rolling hillside, we’ll frame that with plantings so it becomes part of your yard and extends the view. If there is a majestic tree that promises beautiful fall color year after year, we’ll maybe plan to plant smaller trees in front of it so that the entire planting appears to be in your garden.

If you are interested in expanding your boundaries call our Minneapolis landscape design group today on 952-292-7712 today!

 

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Creating Winter Interest in Your Landscape

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

When it comes to planning winter landscapes the focus is to create winter interest outside. A good start is to locate the places in your yard that are mostly sunny and sheltered from the wind. Next take an inventory of your current plants and trees. What do they look like in the winter? Are they doing well in their current locations?

Take a shortcut here and involve Architectural Landscape Design. Our professional design team will create a winter landscape plan with your input that maximizes all four seasons. We can protect your investments and promote the health of your landscape by recommending trees that are hardy in this climate, aren’t crushed by wet snow, and can survive winter wildlife.

We can help promote winter interest throughout your landscape by clustering plantings of evergreens, red twig dogwoods, and rhododendrons to name a few. Also, we may add plants that have decorative red fruit that holds throughout the winter like crabapples. Some perennials that you may want to leave up for winter interest in the garden are grasses, astilbe, blazing stars, coneflowers, liatris, russian sage, and hydrangeas. Our design process starts with what your personal needs and tastes and incorporates your total property in the design.

If one of the things you identified was that you wanted a gazebo we’ll incorporate that with the full master plan for your property. In addition, our winter landscape design will include a focus on plant textures and their interesting forms and foliage. We can also integrate into your landscape plan our custom designed for your home Holiday Lighting. We design, install, disassemble and store your custom designed holiday lighting.  In addition, we offer a Winter Seasonal  Container Garden. Let us help you tie up your winter landscaping plans today. Minnesota’s Architectural Landscape Design offers professional landscape designs in Lakeville, MN and all of the areas surrounding the metro. Call 952-292-7717 to set up a meeting at your location.

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ALD Featured Exhibitor at Minneapolis Home and Garden Show February 29-March 4, 2012

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Stop by Booth #750 and talk to us about your bringing your landscaping dreams to life! ALD is a featured exhibitor at the biggest show, the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show. Come to the show to find out what’s new in home, garden, landscaping, remodeling and much more!

Every project we do is unique since it starts with a review with our customer of their project ideas, needs and desires. Each customer gets want they want as they work with our talented licensed design staff. Our desire is to have your home and surroundings express your unique taste and personality. We’ll work with you to plan great outdoor space at your house!

ALD, a multi-speciality landscape company offers a full range of offerings:

  • Pools & Spas
  • Outdoor Fire Places andFire Pits
  • Landscape Design and Installation
  • Low Voltage Lighting
  • Waterscaping Excavating & Grading
  • Custom Boulder/Stone Work
  • Outdoor Living Spaces and Kitchens
  • Unique Garden Plantings
  • Hardscapes Stone and Rock Work
  • Holiday Lighting Installation Services

Landscaping services, when done well, are an integral part of maintaining your investment. Our passionate dedication to our clients’ needs as well as professionalism, creativity, and craftsmanship.

We make your vision a reality with your crucial input. Our promise is to provide efficient, exceptional landscape work done meticulously for you and your home. We pride ourselves on our ability to listen and cater to each client’s specific needs.

Ask about the Ten Star Guarantee we offer; it is unprecedented in the landscape industry. We’re known as Minnesota landscape design and installation contractor that provides unique plans and a superior experience to our customer. Stop by Booth #750 and share your dreams or call us 952-292-7717 today! We bring your dreams to life!

The Home and Garden show hours are:

Wednesday, February 29, 12:00 pm-9:00 pm

Thursday, March 1, 10:00 am-9:00 pm

Friday, March 2, 10:00 am-9:00 pm

Saturday, March 3 9:00 am-9:00 pm

Sunday, March 4 9:00-6:00 pm

 

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Start Your Landscaping Project at the Home Improvement & Design Expo Shakopee Saturday, March 17th 10 am-5 pm

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

This year plan to attend the Home and Design Expo scheduled March 17th in Shakopee at Canterbury Park. It’s the smartest place to start any home improvement project. It’s also a great time to start planning your landscaping projects.

Come and share your landscaping dreams and desires with the ALD landscape design team at our display booth. Our MN landscape company only does unique projects. That’s because all of our projects and work begins with a review with you. Our customer’s project ideas, needs and desires ensure that each customer gets want they desire when they work with our talented licensed design staff. Our landscape company has a four step process:

Step one – Initial Greeting, “Ideas are the root of creation.”- Ernest Dimnet.

Step Two- Visualizing, ”We believe that our clients are as unique as a fingerprint…. No two are ever the same!” So we review your ideas, needs, and desires with you.

Step Three – Creation, “An artisan’s eye does not cease with the design, our creativity is meticulously woven into the final creation.” We create, build, and install your landscape plan that is unique

Step Four – Continuing Support
“You can count on us to be your chosen and loyal landscape company for years to come.” Architectural Landscape Design, Inc. is dedicated and committed to walking you through the previous steps with ease.

We also offer our clients an industry leading, unprecedented 10 – STAR GUARANTEE!

ALD, a multi-speciality landscape company offers a full range of offerings:

Landscaping services, when done well, are an integral part of maintaining your investment. Stop by our booth and share your dreams or call us 952-292-7717 today! We bring your dreams to life!

 

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Planting Minnesota Deer Resistant Plants, Building Deer Resistant Fences and Barriers

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

You can reduce your garden’s vulnerability to deer by putting up some natural and physical barriers in your yard. It’s generally agreed upon that deer are beautiful when they are viewed from afar, and hopefully that means in someone else’s yard. So how can you keep them at bay?

Keeping them out of your yard in the first place is one of the key points. The longer they have been visiting and munching on your shrubs and plantings the harder it is to dissuade them. Our landscape designers and architects can help you design and implement a plan including plantings and installing physical barriers to minimize the deer exposure in your yard.

If deer are hungry enough they will eat what is available. But planting shrubs and plants they don’t like is one of the best lines of defense. They don’t like shrubs or flowers that are prickly, pungent, have thorns, fuzzy textures, or believe it or not, gray leaves. Some of the plants that fit that bill include: rosemary, maiden grass (miscanthus), viburnum, foxglove (digitalis), rugosa roses, false indigo (baptisia).

There is no assurance that the deer won’t even nibble the plants that are on the deer resistant lists. But you’ll increase your success by starting with them. Some other deer-resistant plants that are worth planting are: bee balm (monarda), butterfly bush (buddleia), catmint (nepata), fescue grass (festuca), fountain grass (pennisetum), lavendar (lavandula), ornamental onion (allium), Russian sage (perovskia), salvia, summersweet (clethra), and wormwood.

In addition they like to rub their antlers on trees because of the bark. This can cause damage to the tree as it exposes it to insects and disease. We can help you protect your trees with wire mesh barriers, and landscape wrapping. We can also plan and design fences that serve as barriers for the deer’s entry to your yard.

Contact us on 952-292-7710 to design your deer resistance plan today.

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No Lawn, No Mow, Rain Gardens: Some Recent Trends

Monday, July 18th, 2011

We have assisted homeowners in planting all of their front yards, becoming a “no lawn” landscape, installing “no mow” zones, “monthly mow zones” and rain gardens to name a few plans. A small sampling of some of the things that MN Architectural Landscape Design can help you with are some of the recent trends or practices that include:

Planting the front yard - Some homeowners have decided to “plant” their front yard. They have planted their yard, their boulevard with native plants and gone to a more natural feel.

No mow zones – Some have decided to try for a “no mow” yard and have planted their entire landscape peppering it with walking paths and sitting areas.

Buried Drip-Irrigation - Buried drip line irrigation has really taken off as the lines take moisture directly to the plants without any surface evaporation. Plants get started faster.

Rain Gardens and Barrels - Diverting the rain runoff from going into the streets and down the gutters and into water lands or wetlands has become very popular. Creating a rain garden and planting it with native plants decreases a home’s runoff. The likelihood that the garden will be healthy is very good because native plants are naturals for the environment they are being grown in and have a higher success ratio. Rain Barrels are used to supplement watering and help lower water bills.

Timers and Sensors for Irrigation Systems – Nothing is worse than sitting in your house and watching or hearing the sprinkling system come on during a heavy downpour. The last thing you want to do is go out in the weather to turn it off and who wants to waste water on soil that is already moist or put plants and trees and shrubs at the risk of too much water.

We’d be happy to discuss any of these or other projects that you might want to consider call us on 952-292-7717.

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Butterfly Gardens Adjacent to a New Deck or Patio

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Butterflies are an ancient symbol for the soul and transformation. Creating a butterfly garden in a sunny sheltered area of your yard can provide a nurturing area for the butterflies and you. All you need is to find a sunny spot, plant nectar producing plants, and create a special space like a patio or deck for you to sit and watch the butterflies!

The most successful butterfly garden has plants that meet the needs of butterflies in all the four stages of their life cycle: eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis, and adult. Female Butterflies look for the best plants to lay their eggs. The Monarchs love Milkweed. The Swallowtails love Parsley.  In a few days the caterpillars emerge and eat only one kind of the plant; the one on which the female butterfly laid her eggs will ensure their survival.The caterpillars mature in a couple of weeks; they shed their skin several times and change into the chrysalis. The adult butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and looks for nectar-rich flowers to feed on.

If you’d like a deck, patio, or an outdoor living space with butterfly specific plantings our landscape designers can help you create a soulful place to commune with nature.

Annuals: Cosmos, French marigold, heliotrope, impatiens, Mexican sunflowers, verbena, zinnia, lantana, and penta.

 Perennials: New England Aster, purple coneflower, butterfly weed, monarda, Queen Ann’s lace, yarrow, scabiosa, violet, milkweed, phlox, thrift, sedum, vervain, and pineapple sage are a few.

 Shrubs: Azalea, butterfly bush, glossy abelia, lilac, and spicebush.

 A birdbath will give them a place to drink and wash. Butterflies do wash! Flat rocks placed around the garden will give them a sunning place to spread their wings and dry off. They will also offer you a place for butterfly watching. If you’d like to create a place to  watch them flit and float give us a call on 952-292-7717.

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Floral Displays at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and in Your Garden

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

A celebration of “Sensing Spring” was the theme for this year’s “Art in Bloom” held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art from April 28-May 1st. Exploring our natural gifts, the five senses, which bring balance to our life was the focus. This was the twenty-eight year for “Art in Bloom” at the MIA. Over 160 volunteers created their floral interpretations of 160 pieces of art in the MIA’s collection.

 The hope was that breathing in the wonderful aroma of room after room of floral displays would awaken all of their senses as visitors viewed the interpretations and the art side by side. This idea was the underlying philosophy of the honorary chair, Ruth Stricker Dayton who feels that experiencing wellness and healing needs to be “multi-sensory…appealing to all the senses.”

 Designing your own outdoor living space can be much the same journey as you determine what your own private art will be on your property. As Spring and the celebration of it comes to the Institute of Art’s “Art in Bloom” each year the arrival of spring and summer in your own yard allows you to experience the wonders of nature with all the five senses in your own outdoor space.

 The signature object for “Sensing Spring” was the still-life painting “An Arrangement with Flowers” by Georgius Jacobus Van Os, a Dutch painter. Your yard and landscape can offer you a still-life painting each day in every season. It is apparent in looking at the painting by Van Os that he loved nature. He may have intended symbolic meaning with the purple-edged parrot tulip, which exudes showiness and nobility, the delicious pink garden rose, representing love. The light-blue delphinium designates friendship, and the scarlet dahlia exemplifies dignity and elegance.

The experienced horticulturists at our landscape company can help you develop a landscape that serves all the five senses. Flowers that offer wonderful aromas and signify love, affection, dignity, patience, and friendship. Hardscapes like walking paths built out of natural stone leading to different areas of your outdoor spaces that like still life paintings offer a unique picture daily. Take some inspiration from art and nature and plan your outdoor space call 952-292-7717.

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Do You Have Problems With Your Soil? | Architectural Landscape Design MN

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Great soil makes great gardens and lawns. Rich soil that has good drainage and consistent moisture results in healthy lawns and plants. Gardens or lawns that quickly dry out most likely have soil problems. Even the healthiest plants and sod won’t flourish without good soil. All plants depend on it  for their water, nutrients, and oxygen. Soil is composed of 50% solids; sand, silt, clay, and organic matter, and 25% water, and 25% air.

 

A quick test to determine how good your soil it to take a handful of it, compress it into a ball in your hand, and then flick it with your finger. If it has a good texture it will shatter or flake off easily. It should smell slightly sweet.  A new planting bed should have 18 inches of good soil. If you are laying sod in your lawn a layer of good soil should be used generously under the new sod. A rule of thumb is 4-6 inches.  If you purchase soil, you want to see dark material with a consistent texture that doesn’t have rocks, wood chips, or large clumps of plant debris. You may want to amend it with coarse sand and or composted manure to improve the drainage. The composted manure will also add fertility to your soil. Coarse or sandy soil is soil that drains quickly, doesn’t hold water and is low in nutrients, especially nitrogen and potassium. Clay or fine soil is heavy soil with a high nutrient and water holding characteristics but very poor drainage. It is also the most difficult to manage.

If you need help evaluating your soil, call the MN Landscape Designers at Architectural Landscape Design. As part of your landscape plan they can evaluate your soil and determine what amendments are necessary for it to be healthy and the base for the best garden or lawn. The secret is in the soil, if you have good moisture retaining soil it will maximize the moisture content. Their assessment and amendments can save you time and money as you won’t have to spend as much time watering or money on water. Plus it will help if your community comes up with watering restrictions.

 

Contact Architectural Landscape Design serving Minneapolis and St. Paul and surrounding communities at 952-292-7712 today to get your soil assessment and start on your landscape plan!

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