Thursday, July 12, 2012

NEWSLETTER – Summer 2012

In The News


 Summer is here and the heat is really starting to get to me – ugh it is HOT!!! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and hopefully going someplace fun!

Our Family went to Legoland and Disneyland/California Adventure Park and we had a blast! Disneyland is truly the happiest place on earth. Luckily we went early enough to avoid the heat and some of the crowds – but it was still plenty busy!!! It was a lot of fun to walk Downtown Disney at night and enjoy the multiple late night activities like the Fireworks (Disneyland), World Of Color (California Adventure Park) and Fantasmic (Disneyland)!!!


Enough about my Family vacation (I know I could go on and on, but that is for a different Blog), now it time to talk landscaping!! I am sure that you are aware that we have several sites that we are featured on. I would like to share with you some of the new elements we added to each site.


• Houzz:
    o Added Landscape Design page
    o Updated the Curved Deck Project
    o Updated the Hillside Waterfall Project


• YouTube:
    o Added 4 animations for The Brookwood Residence
           Concept 1
           Concept 2
           Concept 3
           Concept 4

    o Added the Boise Foothills Residence Animation


• Residential website:
    o Added images to our Residential Renderings

 
In our summer Issue we are going to talk about one of my favorite roses, the Chateau Merlot Shrub Rose. In our project spot light we will review the Woods at Riverside Village Residence, which details a back yard remodel. In our Contractor Spotlight we will highlight a local Landscape Construction Company – LCG. I will also share a couple of websites that I like to visit which deal with unique hardscape items, plant materials and design elements. I hope you sit back and enjoy the Summer issue of “Sense of Place” - and hopefully stay out of the heat!




Contractor Spotlight – LCG


LCG, or Land Construction Group, Inc, is one of Valleys premier landscape and Maintenance Companies – I think the following pictures of projects installed by LCG speak for themselves.



 
The Company is headed up by Tom Morton and is headquartered out of Nampa, Idaho. LCG can handle all elements of landscape installation from Water features and paver patios to outdoor kitchens and lush plantings. Tom take great pride to make sure the project is installed correctly the first time and that it exceeds your expectations.




LCG handles all aspects of Landscape Maintenance, in fact they typically do such a great job installing the project, 95% the homeowners that had Tom install their project, hire his company to maintain it as well! LCG can handle your typical mowing and fertilization service to more detailed services that includes annual color planting, Holiday light design/installation and more.




If you are in need of some landscape construction or maintenance services, please feel free to contact Tom at LCG today!



 

Focus on plants - Chateau Merlot Shrub Rose

Chateau Merlot Shrub Rose


One of my favorite shrub roses has to be the Chateau Merlot Shrub Rose. This is a color plant for the background of your planter bed. The double red flowers add lots of color during the summer, while the orange tinted rose hips add interest in the winter months. This rose also has great from, which will grown to a mature size of 2’ high by 3’ wide and will have a natural/informal globe shape without the long arching canes that can take over (like the flower carpet roses). The rose can grow in full sum to part shade, in fact I have 2 in my front yard under a River Birch that are lucky to get 2 hours of full sun! As with rose, placement will be key (because of the thorns) – ideally in the middle to back of a flower bed and not close to paths or play areas like pools – beach balls and thorns do not mix!! If you are looking to add lot of summer color without a lot of work, why not try the Chateau Merlot Shrub Rose!


Project Spotlight - Woods at Riverside Village Residence

This Woods at Riverside Village Residence had a typical “builder special” landscape patio that was too small to hold your typical patio furniture.


My clients we looking for more additional patio area, and shade in the back yard and also wanted to incorporate a hot tub and a fire pit area. We initially came up with 4 concept plans for the yard.


Landscape Master Plan (2008)



Concept #1 – Key Points
• An outdoor fireplace acting as the focal point for the back yard
• New and expanded concrete patio
• Raised Trex Deck for hot tub with screen fence for privacy
• Timber shade structure with stone base for shade by new outdoor fireplace
• Flagstone stepping stone path to connect front and back yard


Concept #2 – Key Points
• A New raised Trex deck to be level with Threshold of residence
• Spa built into deck with screen wall for privacy
• Timber shade Structure with stone base to add shade to Deck and spa area
• Lower concrete patio with fire pit and seat wall



Concept #3 – Key Points
• Linear fire pit with trellis
• Large concrete patio with built in spa
• Private fire pit patio



Concept #4 – Key Points
• New curved Trex deck with Built in spa
• Lower curved patio with seatwall and solid roof shade structure
• Path to fire pit area
• Secluded fire pit patio with seatwall
• Flagstone path connecting front and back yards

 
After presenting the 4 concepts to our client, they gravitated towards concept #4, but they also like elements from the other concepts. The final concept was designed and approved


Final Concept– Key Points
• Curved Trex Deck with Hotsprings Spa with Spa Stone Surround
• Timber Shade Structure with cultured stone base
• CMU seatwall with cultured stone and concrete cap
• Arizona Falgstone path
• Fire pit
 The client loved the final concept and we went on to our next step, construction documents.




• Materials Plan – to illustrate, note and detail all hardscape items like, composite deck, shade structure, concrete patio, flagstone path…..



• Planting Plan – to illustrate all plant material proposed for the project

Now that all the drawing was done, it was time to get bids from All Wet Landscape and Sterling Landscape. After reviewing the bids, the client decided to go with Sterling Landscape.

The first step of construction was to remove the grass in the back yard and dig for the footings for the seatwall, shade structure and curved deck. The base was then prepped for the Concrete patio, flagstone paths and the concrete slab for the spa.





Arizona Flagstone was then installed with saw cut edge and joints for a more finished look. Concrete was then poured for the circular patio and spa base. CMU blocks were added to make the foundation of the seatwall. Cultured stone was then added to give the wall a finished look.





The next step was to set the spa and start framing for the curved Trex deck. The Trex decking was then added and the posts and beams were installed for the timber shade structure. At the same time plants and bark were being installed. Concrete caps were then added to the seatwalls and the overhead members were added to the shade structure. Color was then added to the concrete patio and caps.





With the project complete (minus some additional plantings that the Home owner was planning on doing later), I feel this back yard was transformed for a plain/boring and hot builder special (small patio and Grass) to an exciting back yard adult entertainment area. A special thanks to Sterling Landscape, Boon LLC and Alison Concrete by Design for making this project looks so good!










Here is a sneak peek at the project we will highlight in our Fall issue …..


Vendor Spotlight – Hunter Industries



Image courtesy of Hunter Industries

“Hunter Industries is a family-owned global company that provides high quality, efficient solutions for the irrigation, outdoor lighting, and custom molding industries.” This statement from Hunters web site is almost an understatement! Hunter is a leader in the landscape world of Irrigation technology and Landscape lighting (FX Luminaire Lighting).

Here at Breckon Land design we have Specified Hunter/FX Luminar products on several of our projects. We have great faith in the quality and craftsmanship of their products!  We know, once the project is installed, it will look/perform great, for years to come. If you are looking to add a new irrigation system or update an existing system, please consider Hunter Industries for your next project!


 Image courtesy of Hunter Industries



One of the more exciting products in the Hunter Line is the MP Rotator – which could reduce your water usage by 30% over traditional Spray head….click here to read more!


Cool landscape/design related web site from around the world

Cool landscape/design related web site from around the world



Trying to stay up on the latest trends in plants, hardscape items and design elements, has kept me busy searching the Web. I will pass on a few of my favorite site to visit:

Plant site – Northscaping A great Site dedicated to garden plants of the North!

Hardscape site – Galvacore – easy use, low cost, structural Panels that can save time and money on hardscape installations!

Design site – Garden Design  – A great design site the features articles, photos and how-to segments on everything Garden related!

Summer Newsletter Partners 2012

I hope you enjoyed our 2012 Summer Newsletter. I would like to thank our partners for their help to make this newsletter possible. Please visit their web sites to review their products and services. Thanks!!


Our Main Partners are:















 



Our associate partners are: