Exterior Worlds Blog

Landscape contractors, general contractors and Landscape Installers in Houston Texas

2008-09-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Why hire a landscape contractor?
At the installation phase of your landscape project, it is vital to put together the right team of people to implement a seamless project that is cohesive and enhances the beauty and overall value of your home. This team might include the designer, a general contractor to oversee everything and several sub contractors depending on the complexity and number of elements of your project. A landscape contractor will have elements that their own crews will install and elements that will be implemented by subcontractors that they will hire. It’s very important to ask the landscape contractor, “are there elements that you are using a subcontractor on? If so, how closely will you work with that individual?” Its common practice in Houston, even on small landscape installations, that the landscape contractor will sub contract hardscape, drainage systems and irrigation systems. “In our experience,” cautions Jeff Halper, “unless the volume is there it very difficult to be a jack of all trades installation company and do a high level of quality work.” It’s vital you hire the right landscape contractors for your specific construction application and a competent individual who knows project management, scheduling and all the subcontractors to complete the work.

What should a great Landscape Contractor Do?
Hiring a landscape contractor to determine who is the best qualified should be based on skill sets, project management, scheduling and probably LEAST important price. Price is always relative to quality and expectation for the performance of materials, aesthetics, long term value, is this really were you want to cut corners? A good landscape contractor has in-depth experience and knowledge in:

• Understanding the trade terminology
• Understanding all the trades involved in the scope of work and landscape plans
• Has a relationship with other trades that can help in getting work scheduled quickly
• In project management knowing what the work flow needs to be and when various contractors scheduling conflicts, order, ect.
• With a personal relationship to other trades people, knows how to get the job done (possibly be tough if need be!)
• A landscape contractor will have an eye for the work. If something needs to be fixed or redone they will call the shots. Here is the power of having a professional that becomes the personal representative for you. It is our experience that hiring a landscape contractor is “the ideal” scenario to creating the best project.

Interviewing Landscape Contractors
In interviewing a landscape contractor, be sure to get vital information such as a reference list of clientele, a portfolio of work and proof of liability insurance. All these materials should be obtained even if they were highly recommended to you by a friend. They should also be able to generate a professional bid proposal for the work that includes a warranty for labor and materials. This way you have a record of what was promised for price and have agreement with the contractor over services rendered. An itemized estimate will show what is included and what is not included. The top five must haves from the landscape contractor are:
• Portfolio of work
• Delivery of Material Samples
• Reference List
• Years of Experience
• Proof of Insurance

Landscape Maintenance
If you have a great working relationship with your landscape contractor you may want to hire them to perform landscape maintenance on your job. A high quality landscape contractor that has several maintenance crews will have the ability to maintain the gardens as they mature and grow in over time and possibly provide other services such as power washing hardscape surfaces, fertilization, seasonal color, pruning, pest control may all be elements of the landscape maintenance program.

Garden Design in Houston Texas

2008-08-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

How do we create a thorough garden design?
If garden design is a master piece painting; the clients program, the architecture of the home and the site context are the composition of the painting. The clients program are the wants, needs, wishes, likes dislikes, functions and uses for the space that they intend to see. A great garden designer treats the home as a living anatomy that is in relationship with it’s site-never as a static lifeless building. The architecture of the home may dictate the structure of the gardens, selection of materials and there arrangements, continuations of axial views and experiences extending form inside the home to the site. The context is the potential of the site to include lot size, utilities, views, obstructions, accessibility, and sun patterns, zoning restrictions basically the sum total of what is possible or not possible in response to the clients program before the design has even begun.

The Garden Design process After the initial meeting a garden designer’s intuitive function automates and an initial diagram, concept, or concepts emerge. “In response to our customers needs” says Jeff Halper of Exterior Worlds, “we have a creative process that involves the client from inception. Through email and informal phone meetings, we move though an assemblage of drawings and rough sketches so clients are very involved with design decisions rather than showing up with the final design all at once dictating the whole thing.”

Garden Design Elements:
Swimming Pools and Outdoor Fountains - these represent the most significant part of the overall garden design, especially the relationship to the house and the outdoor use areas. Great garden design is essential to a positive out come regardless of pool cost. We have found being involved with the architect and builder at the earliest stages allows a cohesive transition from house to swimming pool.
Hardscapes - (including patios, decks or walkways.) These use areas are essential to the extension of the home. Patios, decks and walkways need to accommodate specific uses. A landscape designer must to be very in tune with the functional requirements for these areas.
Gardens - trees, shrubs and plantings may extend the relationship with the homes architecture, serve as a transition from the home to the site, or address specific problems in the sites context such as screening neighbor views, an unsightly telephone pole or create a dramatic backdrop.

The Final Painting. Jeff Halper adds: “Continued from the inception of the concept and general layout of project elements to the final built work-we work closely with the customer in the continued refinement, selection of materials, there overall suitability and performance.”

What is great Garden Design?
Dan Kiley, one of the greatest landscape designers of this century explains: “the strongest artists and designers are in search for the mystery of who we are-the best work comes from that search-the mystical dimension joins with our faculties to prepare us for further growth.” The great Roman architects described it as finding the “Genius loci” or the “spirit of place” that transcending experience we may find in life from nature, visiting a place of worship or a favorite vacation spot.

Call Exterior Worlds at 713-827-2255 to set an appointment to discuss your garden design. They have been serving the Houston area including River oaks, West University, Bellaire, Memorial, Tanglewood since 1987.

Butterfly Garden Design and landscaping

2008-08-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

Butterfly Garden Design and installation at Hunter Creek Elementary School in Houston

As a celebration of Life and Love for the children at Hunter Creeks Elementary, we at had the great honor of donating a landscape design for a new butterfly garden in memory of Mrs. Kellie Sewell.

The challenge in designing a butterfly garden for schools is always one of maintenance and durability. By using durable materials such as gravel, stone, boulders and native drought tolerant plants we created a garden that should survive the rigors of drought, minimal maintenance, and hard play. The final garden composition consists of a circular flagstone entry beneath a beautiful scenic mural serving as a backdrop to two seated courtyard gardens. Large boulders and long benches create opportunities for two outdoor classrooms as well as intimate seating spaces for teachers and students between classes. Multi-truck trees such as Bottle Brush are planted for vertical interest and shade. Miscanthus grasses and butterfly attractors such as Butterfly Bush, Butterfly Iris, Milkweed, Russelia and Turks Cap are grouped throughout the garden. The entire garden is planted in gravel for easy weed maintenance and completely eliminates the need for annual mulching, which greatly reduces the landscape maintenance demands.

Exterior Worlds', hopes the garden will inspire creativity, imagination and be a source of inspiration and renewal for years to come. Special thanks also to the many parents who have donated their time, energy and finances in making the beautifully painted wall mural a reality.

Classic Landscape Design and Traditional Landscape Design

2008-07-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Want to design a great Classic or Traditional Gardens:

Rustic classic garden design. Arcadia was a legendary place in Greece known for its quiet garden beauty were Virgil, the Roman poet, described as the home of pastoral simplicity. Natural woodland trees weaving into weathered stone columns and colonnades covered with Wisteria vines and English ivies is the rustic beauty of the classic garden. These ideal and romantic garden settings of the past are a cross between formal garden design forms, English garden planting design and have an arid feel likened to Mediterranean gardens.

Classic Garden Design in Houston.
We can look for inspiration in the painters of the 18th century -Ruins of Greek and Roman architecture with garden statues, grottos, temples, water, winding paths, and the surrounding land. The look is natural yet the positioning of every tree, rock, and planting element was placed to present a balanced, harmonious and timeless mood. First, set up the axial paths and open spaces that create structure in the garden. A rustic patio of limestone gravel, step stones, and groundcovers for relaxed entertaining and European contemplation. Elements such as an antique concrete bench weathered or chipped with moss or ferns on it for nostalgia or concrete plinths that terminate at a Texas Mountain Laurel or Olive tree in a rustic Gardiner. A natural effect utilizes plants such as Wisteria, agapanthus and lace ferns. At its smallest scale create a weathered vase with a sphere of dwarf yaupon and creeping rosemary and fig ivy covering its curves.
The Rustic Swimming Pool - an understated square pool with a Tuscan tan shell. At the waters edge; a simple mixed tile of greens, blues, and browns accented with a bold coping of thick chiseled stone.
Outdoor Water Fountains of Antiquity - An old stone basin that spills into a pool or recirculates as a fountain with a vine trained up its edge echoing the Greek drama.
Arbors, Pergolas, Colonnades and Grottos - similar to English gardens is the opportunity for an arbor or pergola. Concrete pillars covered with a wood pergola, rambling wisteria and star jasmine vines.
Landscape Lighting - a fantastic opportunity to add ambiance and accent statuary for evening drama.
Landscape Maintenance - classic garden maintenance will be critical in keeping the natural yet orderly feel of your garden in check on a regular basis. Regular trimming of vines, fig ivies, and dead heading of roses is a weekly necessity in the

English Garden Design

2008-07-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

What is the English Garden Design?

The English Garden design derives from the unpretentious landscape ideas of the rural farmsteads and country sides of Europe. Rolling meadow vistas with homes built of local materials-wood, stone, and stucco surrounded by woodlands, brambles, grasses and perennials weaving in and out up to the homestead. Curvilinear paths of local gravel or just a mowed strip might indicate a pathway between the natural and the slightly cultivated with simple shade trellises and benches built by the local artisans of the time. Unlike formal garden design and modern garden design, English gardens use a scattered “quilting” plant design approach to grasses, perennial, herbs and flowers.

How did this simple and natural English garden design style become popular? It was most likely the first impressionist painters of the 1850’s such as Claude Monet. As these paintings were purchased through private shows or commissioned for the wealthy, a desire for the natural English garden at the countryside estate became popular. Beauty, simplicity and the untamed world of the natural represented a simple way of life away from the rigors of the city.

How does one design or layout an English garden? Even in this wild setting it’s important to have definition of space or pathways which can curve around the house defining various gardens-pathways, seating areas, and large open meadows or lawns. Reminiscent of the English garden design are arbors, pergolas and lattices for vines. “Think of your planting design as a patch work of plants,” says Jeff Halper of Exterior Worlds, “spread out and mixed in natural associations.” If you have plenty of sun, dot in Ornamental Grasses such as Miscanthus followed by tall perennials like Hibiscus, Gold Dust Esperanza, Mealy Sage, the bulbs of agapanthus, butterfly iris and blue plumbago. For the ground layer society garlic, bulbine, hints of monkey grass.

English Garden Pathways, Spaces and Plantings
In the English garden pathways and space ramble naturally from one to the other as opposed to the modern garden design were experiences and spaces are very deliberate. Also in formal garden design plant elements are used in a very architectural way as opposed to “managed chaos” approach of the English garden design approach.

Features for the English garden: Gates, Arbors, Trellises, Pergolas, gazebos and whimsical elements such as sun dials can be used. Landscape lighting can be utilized to uplight garden arbors.

Natural and Local Material Selection: In English Garden design take cues from the homes material and use that outside especially if its brick stone and gravel.

English Garden maintenance.
Managed chaos is the goal here-deleting and weeding out plants here and there. If you want to keep some of the maintenance down or provide more order plant in organized drifts. Ultimately you still need a landscape maintenance program. In the English garden flowering trees shrubs, bulbs and other perennials will need a regular feeding program. If your property has large trees, tree preservation methods will need to be employed while installing an irrigation system, you will need to do some hand-digging to prevent tree damage.

If you are interested in a english garden design for you Houston home call Exterior Worlds at 713-827-2255 for its years of professional experience.

Formal Landscape Design and Landscaping Ideas

2008-07-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Formal Landscape Design and Landscape Ideas

What is formal landscape design? Formal design derives from classic architecture and garden designs of the past-Greek, Roman, and the East. The garden design is best described by exact rectangular, square, circular, and oval geometries of expansive lawns and pools articulated by linear and diagonal paths and path axes with sculptures, benches or water fountain focal points. Formal garden design can be an extension of your homes architecture-were columns from within the house are repeated as trees out into the garden. A beautiful granite oval floor is repeated as an oval lawn with planters at the edges reflecting back to the oval pattern edge in the home. Formal garden designs also theme a hierarchy of spaces. A large oval lawn area linked by a primary 6 ft. path of paved limestone bisected by a secondary 4 ft. limestone gravel path continuing to a smaller oval lawn area reflect primary and secondary paths of visual priority.

Historically formal garden designs have many different expressions. In European traditions they were expressions of opulence and wealth. Detailed and intricate topiaries, hedges and layers of color represented what ones wealth was capable of. The size and quantity of fountains, sculptures and benches also represented ones ability to have leisure time to “pass the day” in the landscape garden. In the garden traditions of the east, gardens represented the joining of heaven and earth-in the classic design form of the four rivers or channels of water leading to a central fountain. Four hemispheres with fruiting trees, culinary herbs and vegetables representing both necessity and earths bounty for its inhabitants and visitors.

Today, the formal landscape garden is truly an extension of the home and an opportunity for renewal, entertainment and beauty. The difference today is in the landscape size and need to simplify the landscape maintenance of the garden. Topiary shrubs and clipped hedges may flank primary garden elements were secondary spaces might have a defined edge of lawn and layering of unclipped hedges beyond to minimize the landscape maintenance. The painters palette of the formal landscape gardener may include:

Garden design tools for the formal:

• Formal Italian Gardens -the use of limestone paths, ceramic planter bowls, junipers and blue-green plantings for hedges. Relatively high percentage of hardscape in proportion to landscape for a more Mediterranean arid feel.

• Formal Baroque Gardens - lavish approach to shrub and ornamental elements with curved clipped hedges and fancy color patterns.

• Parterre Gardens-patterned garden of clipped plantings intended to be viewed from above

• Prominades -formal open walking patios for viewing the garden

• Formal Garden Axes -Were diagonal or perpendicular paths intersect usually with a focal feature at their intersection

• Hedge Rows, Hedges, and Collonades - deriving from the patterned wine vineyards and olive groves of Europe. Extension of the homes architecture out into the landscape creating order, repetition and structure.

• Topiaries -plantings clipped into architectural elements as focal points and sculptural elements

• Potagers -formal herb and vegetable gardens with a surrounding hedges and fruit trees

Landscaping ideas for the formal:
• Luxury swimming pools - Formal pools can serve as water features and swimming pools. The design of the pool may include a spa that spills into a sun deck that steps into the pool. The formal pool can relate to the houses architecture with sculptural planter features or water features on axis with the home. Water jets lining the pools edge turn the pool from function into a piece of art to be viewed and listened to.

• Outdoor water fountains - Fountains work as excellent focal points and axis points to be enjoyed.

• Landscape lighting - Down-lighting from trees, up-lighting for elements that repeat, architectural lighting, incandescent lights—to play up the theatricality of a formal landscape design.

Modern Landscape Design and Contemporary Garden Design

2008-07-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

What is Residential Modern landscape Design?

Modern landscape design tends to focus on scale rather then axial relationships as in formal landscape design. In contemporary landscape design, boundaries between color, texture and shapes are undefined or conversely, boldly defined ignoring more classic landscape design forms created by the Greeks, Romans and classical architectural traditions.

Modern designs use geometric shapes to create view points that are fluid and natural. The composition can elicit an emotional response.

Form and Function in Modern Landscape Design.

Form shall follow function. The simplicity and minimalism of contemporary design is literal about revealing functionality, creating a sequence of spaces and experiences even when that function is merely to evoke the senses. Modern landscape design materials reinforce this theme by leaving surfaces and/or materials exposed.

The architectural design of a home needs to be skillfully considered when using a modern landscape design. A bold home needs a landscape that is strong as well. The home and garden are tied together in an architectural dance of mutual respect; if one does not honor the other, the design falls apart. A selective plant palette is helpful when designing a modern garden. Plants, gravels, and textures are massed together to develop a contemporary effect.

Today’s Technology and Modern Landscape Design.

New technologies in building materials are a big component of modern landscape design, which can mean a new approach to using old materials or a new approach to using new materials. Often, it is the contrast of material usage that suggests modernism. Concrete, with its sturdiness and malleability, has won a firm place in contemporary garden design establishing its minimalism, durability, and permanence. Its uses run the gamut from flooring to columns to stark amorphous benches. In addition to concrete, advances in steel and glass technologies and their construction methods are further exploited within the modern landscape design. Often materials such as; stone, metal, plastics, steel and glass, are left in an exposed or raw state. Part of the beauty of these materials derives from their interplay with nature- the way steel rusts to a warm burnt look.

Can you create a Modern or Contemporary Landscape without creating a high tech-look?

Its juxtaposition— sleek and rough, linear and non-linear, energetic and restrained— that is the fundamental nature of modern landscape design. One can use vertical and horizontal lines of alternating plant material to create a softer modern or sculpture effect. Plantings, color walls, and the use of wood can evoke a warmer feeling over the colder use of steel, concrete or glass.

What elements can be included in modern garden?

Outdoor kitchens. These are one of the biggest trends in landscape design becoming the center of outdoor entertainment. Outdoor kitchens provide a great gathering place. Their design can honor the architecture complementing both the home and the garden.
Luxury swimming pools.Modern pools can be anything but a boring rectangle or kidney-shaped pool. They become part of the architecture, sophisticated, elegant and eye-catching. Many times they can serve as pool and a strong modern outdoor water fountain.
Outdoor water fountains can be contemporary elements that if used in an artful way, create liveliness and artistic expression. You might want a water element that ends in a water feature
Landscape lighting is another great tool of modern landscape design; not only can you create ambiance, hide elements you don't want people to see, but it lets you enjoy the garden at night as well the day and highlight sculptures or art work displays.

as a sculpture of sound and movement.

Exterior Worlds has been constructing modern landscapes and contemporary garden throughout the Houston area, including the Memorial villages, River Oaks, West University and Houston since 1987.
To discuss modern landscape design—and the gardening of your universe—call Exterior Worlds

Landscape Maintenance Residential

2008-07-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

What type of things can residential landscape maintenance companies do
for you?

Once you have made a large investment landscaping your Houston home, it only makes good sense to take care of it. You want to be sure it develops as the landscape designer or landscape architect intended. This can be quite a task for a homeowner to handle on their own, and that’s where a residential landscape maintenance program comes in.

A complete residential landscape maintenance program will include the trimming of hedges as well as other shrubs and bushes. Regular pruning is necessary to maintain the desired contours and allow the garden design be fulfilled. Ground covers and vines are trimmed as well to keep a neat and ordered appearance. Regularly-scheduled maintenance will enable your landscape design elements to come together.

Residential Landscape Maintenance Program

Lawn maintenance. Landscape maintenance programs start will the lawn or turf. Houston lawns are typically St. Augustine, and need trimming weekly through the summer and part of the winter. A lawn should also be fertilized on a regular basis and aerated twice per year. However you cannot aerate enough so the more, the better.

Winter rye can be a great way to keep your lawn looking great throughout but keep in mind there can be some negative aspects to winter rye grass. The Houston temperatures normally allow winter rye seed to be planted between late September and early November. Be sure not to aerate your lawn before planting your seed, because the seeds will collect in the holes and you will have a dotted lawn. Another issue for you to consider is rye grass will compete with your St. Augustine for space and nutrition. This can make it more challenging to get your St. Augustine healthy and beautiful in the growing season.

All trees should be trimming on a regularly basis. Tree maintenance can also include deep root fertilization, vertical aeration, and treatment to prevent insects from acting your trees.

Garden Maintenance. Generally beds need to be weeded on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Breaking up the mulch monthly is also helpful in the allowing air and water to penetrate the garden soils.

Seasonal Flower Maintenance. Remember a "high-end" or more to the point "full service" landscape maintenance program will include seasonal flower maintenance, which optimizing the growth and bloom cycles of seasonal flowers. Seasonal Flowers need to be pruned and fertilized regularly.

Chemical Programs. Fertilization and chemical treatments are a necessity when trying to maintenance a upscale garden or landscape. The plants need the additional nutrients to stay healthy and fend off many of the insect that are prevalent in Houston and the gulf cost region.

Rose maintenance. Roses should be feed every 4 to 6 weeks during the growing season. With Houston's rain and humid weather, rose maintenance programs should include weekly sprayed to control fungus.

Does your landscape company handle all of these issues?
The services mention here, including commercial landscape maintenance, are all part of a professional landscape maintenance program. Exterior Worlds has been maintaining residential landscape projects in the Memorial, Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village, Tanglewood, River Oaks, West University, and the surrounding Houston area since 1987. Feel free to call with any questions.

Residential Landscape Designers and Architects in Houston Texas

2008-07-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

What do Residential landscape designers and landscape architects do?

If you are embarking on a re-design of an existing home or the construction of a new home, you will need the services of a landscape professional to help you design and mange the landscape project. A landscape designer or landscape architect can take you through the entire design process step-by-step, which includes: site studies, consultation, cost estimates, programming elements, conceptual landscaping design, construction plans and permitting.

An important part of the initial discovery meeting with a residential landscape designer or landscape architect is a walk around site. This is a great opportunity to discuss your goals, landscape ideas, likes and dislikes. Be sure to discuss any and all possibility like, you may want to build a swimming pool or an outdoor water feature. Possibly you have children that may one day need a place to park a car. An initial discovery meeting is a great chance to get these and other landscape ideas out on the table.
Since 1987, Exterior Worlds has been creating beautiful residential garden designs throughout the greater Houston area including River Oaks, Memorial Villages, Tanglewood, Bellaire and West University.

Residential Landscape Design, Installation and Maintenance Services in Houston

2008-07-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

What kind of services do residential design build landscape companies provide?

Throughout Houston Texas, residential landscape companies offer range of services like landscape design, landscape installation and landscape maintenance. Some companies, including Exterior Worlds, perform as landscape contractors as well, they engage in the construction of swimming pools, outdoor water fountains, patios, landscape lighting and outdoor kitchens.

Are you planning to landscape your home or building a new home, having a professional landscape company general contractor your landscaping can cost a little extra money, but it can be the best investment you can make. Not only will they come up with great landscape ideas and garden designs, but someone be handling all of the mundane calling, coordinating, scheduling and re-scheduling; but you will avoid confusion, misunderstanding due to trade terminology, unique material peculiarities and special product needs, that home owners wont have the experience to know. Another contracting problem is: subcontractors will respond better to a seasoned general contractor who understands the work to be performed, timing, scheduling of subs and has the experience and earned the respect to command the team.

When you have made the decision to hire a residential landscape design company to design your garden be sure to communicate your personal wants, needs, likes and dislikes. A professional landscape designer or landscape architect will work diligently and patiently to help you define the scope of your project and refine budget. Once you have chosen and landscape design and you have approved the over budgets, the landscape service company you selected is ready to begin construction.

Want to get started landscaping your home?

If you are interested in any residential landscape services, Exterior Worlds in located just outside the memorial and has been providing the landscape design services to the great Houston area as well as Memorial, Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village, Tanglewood, River Oaks and West University area since 1987.