Tag Archives: garden design

Knowing The Choices In The Los Angeles Landscape

For many decades the innovation and beauty of the Los Angeles landscape has captivated the world. It is at the forefront of design just as New York is with fashion and San Francisco is in the culinary world. It is California’s largest city and the second largest in the United States.

Outdoor living is very popular in the Los Angeles area as well as throughout California in general. The weather lends itself well to being appreciated out of doors many days per year. This trend has opened up the need for outdoor kitchens as well as outdoor living rooms.

Water is the most important element of the landscape plan here. Whether you are working with an abundance of it or wanting to conserve it, water will always play a role in the design. Swimming pools are beloved backyard staples here, however, what’s new is they are increasingly filled with salt water for their sustainability and health benefits.

Ponds with or without koi are very common in this area. Enough can’t be said about the amount and importance of fountains. They are in the yards, at the malls and on street corners and intersections. Waterfalls are also well loved for their calming sounds and oneness with nature they allow.

The gardens of Los Angeles are bright, colorful and tropical. Beauty flowering plants and trees can be seen where ever you look. Very popular plants are dahlia, fuchsia, and tropical palms and plants. Terraces are a common feature in the garden with sitting areas suitable for reading.

Water conservation and drought conditions are major considering factors here due to the climate. In return, drought resistant gardens and landscapes have become a staple that will not be going away anytime soon. There are well used plants for these conditions that add beauty such as deer grass and lilac verbena.

Rock gardens are also very common due to the climate. They can be as small as pebbles or as large as boulders that need special equipment to bring into the yard. They are easy to maintain and they obviously would be a very water conscious choice.

A final feature you will not want to miss is the openness of the spaces with the ability to retract entire ceilings and walls when the weather is nice. That is truly bringing the indoors out in a functional and literal sense. Nothing says the great outdoors then opening the wall with a touch of a button and being a part of it.

The Los Angeles Landscape is home to quite a variety of fashionable trends. There can be some inspiration here that anyone can imitate where ever they live and get a sense of the L. A. Spirit. See what works for you and give it a try.

When you have a climate that encourages outdoor living spaces, landscape design is particularly important to homeowners. Los Angeles landscape professionals have the experience and expertise to make your lawn and patio attractive and functional.

Home Beautification Of Flowers In Winter

Bringing flowers indoors can certainly brighten up any home when the cold winter season sets in. In today’s busy world it can be difficult to know what you can do for color indoors.

Clumps of iris pumila or violets, potted now and brought into the house, should bloom in a few weeks.

Branches with plump uninjured flowering buds of winter honeysuckle, forsythia, peach, pussy willow, Cornelian-cherry, Magnolia stellata and Soulangeana, deutzia, Spirea Thunbergi and flowering quince may be cut and placed in water for winter bouquets.

Cut the ends of branches on a slant and peel back the bark an inch or so to allow increased water absorption. Select branches preferably two to three feet long. Specimens brought inside immediately after cutting and placed in water in a sunny south window usually develop rapidly and

No great difference is shown when branches are forced in either warm or cold water. Room temperatures from 55 to 65 degrees produce best results, but this range is considerably less than that in the typical home. Higher temperatures force bloom sooner than where lower temperature is maintained, but the flowers do not last as long. Sunlight is not essential but it does impart a richer color to the flowers and foliage. Length of time required for forcing depends upon the nearness of the normal blooming season; the first branches cut in late January take more time to develop than those cut the first of Mareh.

For attractive outdoor flower boxes during the winter, cut tip end branches 12 to 18 inches long of spruce, fir or pine and stick down into the soil in flower boxes. A few small Tine cones wired naturally to the branches will add interest and attractiveness. Later a few branches of forsythia and winter honeysuckle with vigorous flowering buds cut and stuck down into the soil among the evergreen branches will add early color.

 

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