fences

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Posts Tagged ‘fences’

Hide the “Uglies”~ Air Conditioners, Garbage Cans, Recycling Bins, Utility Boxes, Plus More!

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Do you have any of these standing out in your yard or taking up needed room in your garage?

Garbage cans
Recycling bins for paper, aluminum
Compost bins
Air Conditioning units
On-ground electrical boxes
Well pump structures
Swimming pool equipment
Utility boxes
Potting bench
Out door sports equipment or gear

Most of these items are not known for their beauty, but you have to have them for the utility and functions they provide on a daily basis. Many of these eyesores aren’t something you can easily move. But you can hide them from you and your neighbor’s views by putting them behind attractive fencing, lattice screening, and plantings. Another option is to install stone walls or brick walls that block these “uglies” and stop the breeze to a nearby patio or deck. Retaining walls can also serve the dual purpose of minimizing the possibility of bad aromas from days-old garbage. On the flip side pleasant possibilities are to build a potting bench inside the enclosure, which can serve the dual purpose of a staging area for entertaining outside. You can also use this space as a locked area to keep out door sports equipment or gear. The flooring can be concrete, brick, gravel, pavers, etc.

Our landscape designers and architects can discuss your specific needs with you and design attractive alternatives that work for you and your family. One of the many solutions we offer including fencing, retaining walls, and lattice screens that have flower boxes on top. This option could if necessary make this a front yard option by placing it next to the garage doors. This option offers a great design feature as it can provide a real contrast to a solid set of garage doors!

If you are interested in creating a separate space to keep the “uglies” give us a call today for your free one-hour consultation at 952-292-7712.

Tags: backyard garden minnesota, fences, garbage cans, outdoor living, potting benches, recycling, retaining walls, stone walls
Posted in All, Hardscapes Minnesota, Landscape Design Minnesota, Minneapolis Landscaping | No Comments »

Blending A Child’s Outdoor Room with Space for Adults: Swings, Play Gyms, and Sandbox

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

Installing a play gym or a swing set in your backyard doesn’t mean they have to become the most dominant objects in the yard. Our MN landscape designers and architects can work with you to create a child’s outdoor room that blends into your landscape as opposed to overtaking it. We can help create outside space that blends children space and adult space.

Even small yards can handle a designated children’s outdoor space of at least 6” by 8”. Corners make a good space where fencing can make children feel there is a “no parent” allowed space. Looking to safety, plan so the children’s play space is visible from the house. But make sure that the space is not visible from the street. You can add things like a gazebo that during the night is adults only and doubles during the day is a play house for children. Building and installing a pergola can double as a swing set when you add the the height-adjustable swings and the climbing rope. A sandbox either built from natural stone or wood can become a garden focal point when the attractive sturdy cover goes down it can be a stage or used for the base of a bar when adults entertain. Implementing a garden plan around the play gym or dollhouse can be totally charming. It also provides a place to teach the children to plant and grow things like flowers, sunflower houses, beans, etc. Planting grasses and a garden around a big play gym can soften the look and make for an interesting and exciting play area. Installing a short retaining wall built wide enough to walk on can be a great rock wall to climb for a child and fulfill privacy needs for adults.

If you’d like to focus on blending the outdoor space in your yard for children and adults contact us on 952-770-7717.

Tags: backyard garden minnesota, children's outdoor rooms, fences, garden design, gazebo, landscape design, landscape designer, landscapers minnesota, play gyms, Retaining Wall Installation Minneapolis, retaining walls, sandboxes, stone walls
Posted in All, Landscape Design Minnesota | No Comments »

Building an Outdoor Office on Your Deck or Patio; A Spring, Summer, Fall Office

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

Have you ever been working inside and thought about how great it would be to do your work outdoors? Do you have a space that just calls to you to come outside when you should be working inside? Why not build an outdoor office on a deck or a patio?

Set up your office headquarters on a deck or patio outside. We can help you bring your work outside by installing a deck or patio for the foundation of your office. Topping the office with a 4” by 10” feet pergola or arbor overhead can provide partial shade and give the sense of an enclosed area. A work surface or desk can be made out of either wood or stone. Adding waterproof connections for electricity and lighting rounds out the basics of what is needed for setting up your work outside. If you like we can make “outside” walls with fences and retaining walls that will afford you partial or complete privacy.

In addition our landscape architects and designers can also plan and install koi ponds, waterfalls, and year round interest plantings to further mix business with pleasure. We can round it out with outdoor fireplaces and fire pits, grills for entertainment and business pleasure.

Spring, Summer, and Fall your office can be headquartered on the deck. When the office is closed for the day or the winter the deck can be available for other deck activities. The desk can serve as the place to set a buffet, bar, or add pots of greenery to view throughout the winter complete with lights from the waterproof electric connections.

It’s the coordination of the elements of the arbor or pergola, the desk, the patio or deck, and waterproof electrical connections that can transition space into a practical and attractive outdoor office headquarters.

We can help you develop your outdoor office call 952-292-7712 for a free one hour no commitment consultation.

Tags: decks, fences, fire pits minneapolis, minneapolis patios, outdoor lighting, Outdoor Living Space Minneapolis, reflecting pools, retaining walls, waterfalls
Posted in All, Fire Places and Fire Pits, Outdoor Living Spaces, Patio Decks | No Comments »

Night lighting: Light your Yard for the Pleasure of Increased Outdoor Entertaining and Family Time

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

A light above the door and a post lantern in the front yard with a floodlight in the back yard used define outdoor lighting. Now there is no limit to the types of lighting for yards. The best systems for lighting your house at night provide three things: safety, security, and ambiance or mood.

Take an inventory with these three requirements in mind. Our MN landscape designers and architects at Alternative Landscape Design can offer advice and show you how they have incorporated night lighting plans in multiple landscapes.

Safety is critical, look at both your hardscapes and yard. Whether you are entertaining or just stepping outside you need to be able to see well enough to avoid injuries. Start by walking from the street up to your front entry, walk around to the back of the yard. Try any stairs; look for blind spots, any uneven or broken walkways. Is there any place on your landscape where someone could run into an object or possibly due to the drop offs take a tumble? We can light up stairs, retaining walls, fences, patios, decks,and sidewalks by installing low-voltage fixtures such as path lights, or riser lights. This type of lighting also directs traffic keeping people in lit places increases safety.

A well lit yard discourages burglars and intruders increasing security. We can help install lighting that is well shielded so it doesn’t disturb your neighbors or you.

Mood lighting through up-lighting, down-lighting, and side-lighting can add a magical relaxing feel to your yard. It also increases the time you’re able to use your backyard and makes it safer.

Install points of light that provide security and safe passage in your yard while protecting the mood. If you are interested in night lighting don’t hesitate to call us today on 952-292-7717.

Tags: backyard garden minnesota, decks, fences, garden design, landscape design, minneapolis patios, outdoor lighting, Outdoor Lighting Contractor Minneapolis
Posted in Designing Minnesota Gardens, Hardscapes Minnesota, Landscape Design Minnesota, Minneapolis Landscaping, Outdoor Living Spaces | No Comments »

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!

Tags: backyard garden minnesota, fences, fire pits minneapolis, minnesota landscaper, retaining walls, Stone Walks Minneapolis, stone walls
Posted in Designing Minnesota Gardens, Landscape Design Minnesota, Minneapolis Landscaping, Minnesota Garden Plantings, Outdoor Living Spaces | No Comments »

A Private Yard Equals Peace of Mind

Friday, November 18th, 2011

The peace of mind a yard offers is often a result of how much privacy a yard affords the homeowners. Start by being your own private eye, look around your yard. What do you want and need for privacy? Check it out from all angles. Go inside and consider your needs from that vantage point. When you stand at your kitchen sink, are you looking into a neighbor’s window or looking at their siding? If you need privacy at a window, planting evergreens won’t leave you exposed even in the winter. Window boxes can also screen your window from onlookers plus improve the view.

Go out into your yard sit in different locations around your yard, are there intimate and open spaces? Is the neighbor’s noise bothering you? Think of what will make you feel most comfortable in your yard. If your needs for privacy are met you will spend more time outdoors, enjoying all your yard has to offer.

Making plans? Our MN landscape designers and architects can help create the privacy your yard requires. We can help you in deciding the fence type, location, materials, and height that could work. Solid backyard fences offer complete privacy, but sometimes all that’s needed is a privacy screen for sunbathing, or a partially screening fence for fountains or seating areas. Where you only want to screen some views, say the air conditioner unit, we can offer solutions that include tall ornamental grasses, lacy bushes, or latticed panels or fences.

Solving the problem or noise nuisance from the street or other neighbor’s yards can be resolved with adding trees or shrubbery that add insulation or windbreaks. Or adding water features like waterfalls, streams, and fountains that through the sound of splashing water help mask the noise.

We can help you develop your privacy plan to create complete or partial privacy, set aside areas for different uses, conceal unattractive areas, and minimize noise and wind. Call 952-292-7712 for a free one hour no commitment consultation.

Tags: backyard garden minnesota, fences, landscape design, Minneapolis Garden Design, minneapolis landscaper, outdoor living, water features, waterfalls
Posted in All, Hardscapes Minnesota, Landscape Design Minnesota, Minneapolis Landscaping, Outdoor Living Spaces | No Comments »

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.

Tags: backyard garden minnesota, deer resistance, deer resistant plants, fences, garden design, Minneapolis Garden Design, minneapolis landscaper, St Paul Landscaping Company
Posted in Designing Minnesota Gardens, Minneapolis Landscaping, Minnesota Garden Plantings | No Comments »

Add Landscape Pizzazz with Garden Structures: Fences, Trellis, Gazebos, Arbors

Monday, August 15th, 2011

If you want to add some landscape pizzazz to your yard nothing beats knockout flowering shrubs like hydrangas and annual and perennial flowers! But, to set off the plants and give your garden some shape you’ll need some garden structures. A partially enclosed garden structure can be a refuge and provide shade during the day and a quiet respite at night.

Fences and trellises can be used to create seperate outdoor living rooms in a backyard. Low wide walls made of natural stone or concrete can provide seating. Spas or hut tubs, outdoor kitchens, decks, or a series of decks and platforms can bring the comfort and ambience of indoor rooms. Garden structures are some of the most costly parts of any garden so you want to plan them with care.

Gazebos, arbors, and overheads arches help by adding shelter, privacy and support for beautiful climbing vines. Arbors are lattice work covered by shrubs or vines. They can be attached to a house wall or roof, or be freestanding.Gazebos are free-standing roofed structures that are usually open on the side or screened. Some have glass wall inserts so they double as conservatories for part of the year. They are usually six or eight sided and have sloping rafters that join in a central hub at the roof peak.

There is a wide range of materials to choose from that offer a lot of flexibility in terms of your taste, needs, and budget. At Architectural Landscape Design, our MN landscape designers can help you make the right choices that are perfect for you.

If you are interested in a garden structures to enhance the beauty of your plantings don’t hesitate to call us today on 952-292-7717.

Tags: fences, gazebos, landscape design, landscape designer, Outdoor Living Space Minneapolis, trellis
Posted in All, Landscape Design Minnesota, Minneapolis Landscaping, Outdoor Living Spaces, Patio Decks | No Comments »