stone edging

Build beautiful hardscape projects in your garden now

Now that winter is keeping us out of the garden, what’s a gardener to do?   That’s easy — plan.  Plan for all the big ideas you’d like to turn into reality once spring planting fever hits.  It’s the perfect time to start planning structural hardscape changes in your landscape. 
Today, our landscapes are becoming extensions of our homes.  They bring us outdoors, in rooms and areas that provide entertaining space, room for kids and pets to play, or maybe a quiet reading nook. 
 
Where to start?   Ask yourself — was your patio too small for entertaining last year?  Did you, or your dogs, wear a dirty path in the grass to get from area to area?   Or do you just want to remove some grass, water a little less or solve a drainage problem with a dry creek?
 
Now what?
Ask yourself some preliminary questions.  First, consider your personal style – are you traditional, natural or contemporary?  Think about the existing area – do you want to use the same material as your house or other structures, or do you want something different? Identify whether you’d prefer creating a color contrast color or seamless hues of a single color.
 
Consider the type of material best suited to your project.  Stone is sold by the ton — decomposed granite by the yard — your local landscape supply yards can help you determine how much you’ll need based on your measurements.  Here are some of the choices that are commonly used for hardscape projects.
Flagstone – Can be used for a variety of landscaping projects, from paths to patios and walls.  It can be mortared into place or simply set in decomposed granite or gravel so it remains permeable.  Wondering what to do with the sidewalk strip in front of your house where the grass is perpetually dying?  Consider some attractive flagstone set in decomposed granite.  If you want a softer look, add a few Mexican feather grasses or a few small agaves or a boulder or two for interest. 
 
River Rock – Available in a variety of size ranges, river rock is smooth and comes in a blend of colors.  It can be used to create a meandering dry stream through your landscape or to solve drainage issues.  You can also simply replace grass with an attractive contrast of natural material in your yard.  It can be used to puddle below a water feature or a birdbath.  Always be sure to vary the size of the rock in a dry creek, scattering in the larger rocks before you put down the smaller size for a more natural look.
 
Pavers – Man-made pavers come in very imaginable color and size.  The most commonly used are made of concrete and can be used for patios and porches, paths and even walls.  They can be laid on a bed of sand, placed close together for a more manicured look, or can be laid with spacing to allow for either grass or pretty little ground covers to grow between.  Pavers create a more manicured, formal style in outdoor rooms.
 
Decomposed or crushed granite – Weathered granite that has broken down into small pieces and particles of silt, DG is commonly used in patios, paths and even beds with arid plants.  It’s versatile as a filler for many different projects – just be careful not to use it on a steep hill – our periodic gully washers can wreak havoc with it.  You’ll want to make sure to use some sort of edging – metal or stone – to keep the granite in place and separated from grass or beds adjacent to it.
Gravel – Available in many different colors and sizes, gravel is a great material.  It can work wonders to help with small drainage issues and it adds texture and contrast to the garden.  Because it is larger, when used in a path, it is less likely to wash away than decomposed granite. 
 
Chopped block – Most stone can be purchased as a rough-hewn brick-like shape that is more natural in form.  These are used to build retaining walls, benches, planting beds or pathway borders. 
River rock, flagstone, chopped block and other stones come in specific palettes of color – Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado or New Mexico – are some of the choices you can find around Austin.  From golds to browns and reds or grays and pinks, the right hues in your garden can be like a fresh coat of paint in your house. 
If you are creating paths or dry streams, remember to use long, sweeping curves to provide flow and make your garden more natural and inviting.

Adding different types of material to you landscape can make it interesting and inviting – creating contrast and texture that enhance your garden.  
These are all landscape design projects I created.  For more ideas and information, go to Diana’s Designs and see other projects.

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Landscaping project solves drainage problem…

We’ve lived for 10-1/2 years with a terrible drainage problem on our front sidewalk.  When we get a good rain, a lake forms in front of the front door, making it impossible to come into the house without wearing galoshes or looking for a ferry.  (Well, that might be an exaggeration.)  If you look carefully, the edge of the stained concrete porch stops and you can see a tiny sliver of the sidewalk on this side of the puddle before you step up to the porch.

This is only a moderately-sized lake.  When we get gully washers it’s much bigger.

I try not to think about the builder and the contractor who thought it was ok to build a sloping sidewalk that comes down the hill, and then goes back up with the next piece of concrete, making a V in which water will always puddle.  They did the same thing in front of our garage doors as well, making a 3-car trench over which we also have to leap when it rains.

But I digress.

So, in addition to addressing our sprinkler/rain drainage and erosion problems in the beds that line the sloping sidewalk, we are fixing the entire sidewalk.

My crew dug the sides of the sidewalk out, separated the two pieces at the angeled joint and placed a BIG ‘ol pipe under it.  They then deepened my dry creek trench (the first attempt to fix the problem, but it was inadequate). 

I could not believe how meticulous they were with the cement pieces as I was sure they would crack in the process – the sidewalk is 14 years old after all.  They cut it to fit together so it is perfectly level and far above the trench that will carry away the water.  Before, the two pieces of cement met at an angle roughly down where the pipe has been laid.

It’s hard to see, but it’s all nice and level now!

And they made great progress today on the Oklahoma flag stone cap for the limestone edging.  In this photo the mortar is still wet and they haven’t finished cleaning and brushing the excess off.  But you can see where it’s going.

It was cold and windy and damp and they worked really hard today.  And it all looks great.  I’m proud of my crew and their skills, but I really was in awe today.  Craftsmanship.

Oh, and did you see all that beautiful red clay they dug out around the sidewalk in the first pictures?  I’m happy to say that it is officially basura (Spanish for trash) and is going away, to be replaced by 3-way garden soil and covered with fresh native Texas hardwood mulch when the edging is all done.

It should all be finished this week.  I can’t wait to see it.  And I really can’t wait for the warm sunshine of spring so I can start planting in it.

Landscape bed getting stone edging facelift…

No more pondering — it’s time to get started on the next landscaping project here.  In an effort to address some erosion and drainage problems and spruce up the front walkway – the beds on either side of the walkway will be getting stone edging.

As it is now, the sprinklers cause water runoff — the path here has a slight decline, but as you walk around the corner, it slopes down dramatically and turns the sidewalk into a pond in front of the porch every time it rains.  And that leads to soil and mulch erosion, because the bed level is slightly higher than the walkway.  And the lack of mulch along the edge also creates a weed wonderland for me.

Our house is limestone, so a 4″ limestone border will be laid, topped by a thin cap of Oklahoma flagstone in darker browns and tans.

 

This is what it will look like.

But no project is ever that simple.  (We knew that, didn’t we?)

First, the sprinkler heads that line the bed will have to be moved  inward by more than 4 inches.  Then they will have to be raised to accommodate the additional yards of soil and mulch that will then have to go into the bed.

Then we’re going to raise up two sections of existing concrete to level the sidewalk and place drainage pipe under it from one side of the dry creek to the other to help with drainage.

I can’t wait for the freezing weather to be over so I can visit all my favorite nurseries and put pretty plants into the garden.  But, this is winter and I can’t do that yet.  So, hard scape it is.

I hope when it’s all finished, the pretty, newly-lined beds will be ready to welcome spring and a bevy of new plants.

I can’t wait…

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