Get Creative with Outdoor Spaces

Europeans have got the hang of things when it comes to outdoor living. Outdoor dining in countries like France, England, Germany, Italy, Greece and Switzerland is very common, and each ...

Plant Food Features Fewer Salts, Lower EC

BioSafe Systems has released BioSafe Plant Food for the professional landscape market. BioSafe Plant Food (10–4–3) provides N–P–K, calcium, magnesium, plus micronutrients for healthier, higher quality plants.

How To Care for Palm Trees

Imagine relaxing on a sunny, salt-laced beach, and you probably have palm trees in the backdrop of this fantasy paradise. Their tropical allure makes fronds a popular addition to outdoor ...

Nature’s Sanctuary

Inviting backyard welcomes wildlife, garden tours. Soothing water features and aromatic foliage attract local – and fluttering – visitors to this eco-friendly property outside of Washington, D.C. Starting with large ...

New Paver Design Costs Pennies

Wouldn’t you like to offer your client a new, unique hardscaping option for just pennies? Believe it or not, this new technique exists and it’s called urbanite. Broken slabs happen ...

Get Paid for Water-Friendly Landscaping

Can you imagine installing a water feature and then getting paid by the government to do it? That thought has become a reality for the citizens of Minnehaha Creek Watershed ...

Scorching Heat Key Concern this Summer

Landscapers up and down the West and East coasts are trying to find new ways to save water, but some people are saying it’s not the drought that’s the problem ...

Cold Weather Slowing Business Down

Temperatures across the country are fluctuating left and right, and landscapers are trying to keep up. Last year, temperatures were through the roof in March, and this year, some cities ...

Impatiens Not Looking Good for 2013

Impatiens may not be a landscaper’s first choice this spring. Downy mildew is spreading like wildfire up and down the West and East coasts from Canada to Texas.

Top 5 Hardscaping Trends for 2013

With the steadily improving residential real estate market and recent uptick in sales reported by home improvement retailers, many homeowners are investing more in enhancing their outdoor living spaces this ...

Branch Out with Trees for an Edible Landscape

When planting a new tree this spring, think beyond shade, privacy and ornamental value. Nut and fruit trees can provide all of those as well as great-tasting food. You may ...

Roslen Launches netAQUA Web-enabled Irrigation Controller

Roslen Eco-Networking Products has released the netAQUA Web-enabled Irrigation Controller on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.com. The netAQUA can be controlled from anywhere in the Internet world from any computer, tablet ...

Hardscaping Creates More Usable Space

Building experts say homeowners are turning the old design mantra of bringing the outside in on its head. Instead, they're keeping the outside where it is but making more use ...

Hardscape Photo Gallery

Find inspiration for your next hardscape project in our new photo gallery. Landscapers from across the country submitted their best hardscape project photos, and we've featured them all on our website. ...

Project Seeks to Harvest Fog for Irrigation

The man-made mist is part of an effort to help slum-dwellers in Peru harvest moisture from the air. With a small grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, UW students and ...

Blends in With Nature

Surrounded by a forest of green, this patio, fire feature and outdoor kitchen area provides a welcoming spot for relaxing year round. For a lasting hardscape against the climate conditions ...

Plant Trends for 2013

Enhance your planting projects with hardy new varieties. Every year, growers debut hundreds of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees. Some plants have been discovered recently in wild populations, while others ...

Underhill Introduces Novo Converter for Multi-Wire Controllers

Novo, a compact two-wire converter from Underhill International, is designed to quickly transform any standard multi-wire controller to two-wire operation by using a “plug and play” feature.

Crystal-Clear View

Enjoy this intricate hardscape while inside or out. Whether it’s the antiqued edges of the gently distressed pavers or the soothing blue ripples of the pool, this Knoxville, Tennessee, project ...

Symposium Promotes Region’s Biodiversity

In his award-winning book, “Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains,” botanist and author Tim Spira, Ph.D., brings to light the tapestry of plant life native to the ...

Photo Contest

Whether you lay pavers, install fire pits or create cozy outdoor patios like this one from RYCO Landscaping, we want to see your hardscape projects!

Outdoor Living Trends

American homeowners increasingly are drawn to adding outdoor rooms for entertaining and recreation on their properties, according to the 2013 Residential Landscape Architecture Trends survey conducted by the American Society ...

Don’t Fear the Audit

Irrigation audits give landscapers a new tool to reduce customer costs and use water more efficiently. For many business owners, audits are about as popular as broadleaf weeds on a ...

Paver Patterns

This functional art can add pizzazz to your hardscape design. With so many landscape professionals adding hardscaping to their portfolios, it’s important for you to strike out on a path ...

Night Light

Landscapers shine the spotlight on plants and hardscaping features. To give these clients an inviting backyard they could enjoy even after the sun went down, McKay Landscape Lighting in Omaha, ...

Exceeding Limitations

Overlooking the Newfound Lake in Alexandria, New Hampshire, this backyard retreat serves as the perfect spot for restful afternoons and fire-lit evenings. Natures Elite Landscaping (natureselitenh.com) constructed the sitting area ...

O, Christmas Tree

Landscapers fight obstacles to light up a city. Timberland Outdoor Services illuminated St. Paul’s parks, streets and holiday season with towering beacons of light.

Common Design Mistakes

If you're planning to fork over big bucks to create the outdoor living space of your dreams, or even do it yourself, you can't afford mistakes. The more time you ...

Ornamental Trees

Outstanding ornamental tree choices for every landscape. Royal Raindrops Crabapple (Malus ‘JFS-KW5’ PP 14375). Bright pinkish-red flowers, purple foliage, orange-red fall color and tiny persistent red fruits offer four-season appeal.

Don’t Murder Crape Myrtles

You may have seen the protest signs: “Stop Crape Myrtle Murder!” It seems for every vibrantly blooming and well maintained example of Lagerstroemia adorning properties from Texas to Savannah, there ...

Healing Grounds

To extend a healing, tranquil environment beyond the hospital walls, Benchmark Landscape (benchmarklandscape.com) installed a $2.5 million sustainable landscape at Palomar Medical Center West in Escondido, California.

Serene Surroundings

Keeping this outdoor room from going for a swim. Overlooking the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, this refreshing pool and patio rests on a bluff 60 feet above the water ...

Secrets to Winning Designs

Is there really a secret to great landscape design? We talked with four award-winning professionals to get the scoop on how they manage to create beautiful and functional landscapes. Two ...

Compost Operation

Rhode Island may not be one of the largest states in the country, but its geographic location makes it one of the most nutrient rich. In fact, it’s an ideal ...

All-America Announces Winners

Announced in the fall of 2011, the AAS Display Gardens contest was created to celebrate the 80th anniversary of All-America Selections. By September of this year, 15 gardens met the ...

Perennial Winners

These drought-tested natives are resilient and colorful. The winners are From AES’ first-hand experience comes the following winners. The selection criteria: (1) drought resiliency, (2) attractive plant form and blossoms, (3) ...

Flair for Details

Ryan Youngblood sets high standards for design/ build and estate-maintenance projects that clients appreciate. Serving a roster of high-end residential landscaping clients is a tightrope walk. A good example, says ...

Hardscape Tools & Techniques

A level start is the key to success.Between bidding a hardscape job and wowing customers with the finished product, a lot can go wrong with the installation if you don’t ...

From the Ground Up

You already know groundcovers are problem-solvers. They retain moisture and control erosion. They provide habitat for pollinators such as bees and butterflies. And they’re tough as nails. “Once established, many ...

Rainwater Harvesting

More ways to save and reuse water are being employed in landscape design. With the rise of municipal water restrictions and push for sustainable practices, more contractors and designers are ...

All Aboard!

Chicago-area residents left the frenzy of the city for a glimpse into a peaceful town with this stop on the “Through the Garden Gate” tour, which featured seven unique garden ...

Rainwater Harvesting Resources

American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association Classes, workshops, symposiums, find a professional in your town or become a member: arcsa.org Firestone Building Products Will host a seminar on rainwater harvesting at this year’s ASLA ...

Elemental Design

As an artist, landscape architect Bruce John Riddell “paints” his canvases with sweeping strokes – big and bold, not only in how he handles physical area, but in his conceptual ...

Making Hardscape Easy

These pavers and materials won't put you off to a rocky start. Go green Pine Hall Brick’s StormPave permeable clay pavers in a Rose color can help qualify in six ...

Ahead of the Curve

With the breathtaking Lake Wylie as their background, TG&R Landscape Group worked with this hillside’s natural incline to lay a hardscape masterpiece.

Plants for Waterscapes

From upright marginals to surface floaters, aquatic plants offer seasonal interest and soften the edges of manmade ponds. Plants provide habitat for fish and other aquatic life, improve water quality ...

Famous Coach Talks Trees

Former Auburn University football coach Pat Dye tells how his love for Japanese maples led to owning a nursery with more than 6,000 of these beautiful, hardy trees.

Online Calculator Estimates Green Roof Benefits

The “Get More Green” calculator, from American Rivers at green.americanrivers.org, allows visitors to enter an address via Google Maps, and determine the square footage of a building’s roof.

Green Roof for Harrah’s Cherokee

When the expansion to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino & Hotel is completed, guests will be welcomed under a green roof situated atop the canopy at the casino’s main entrance. The LiveRoof ...

Paver Driveway

Step-by-step to a permeable paver installation that minimizes runoff, which can pollute waterways. Success lies in attention to the details.

Hot Trends in Outdoor Kitchens

From masonry kits to pizza ovens, here are outdoor kitchen trends you can build on.

Hillside Transformation

Challenging terrain becomes a space to relax and renew. By breaking down this property’s obstacles one phase at a time, Idaho Classic Landscape & Sprinklers created a design that lit ...

Secret Garden

Because of a steep slope rendering this backyard almost inaccessible, Patricia St. John, APLD, St. John Landscapes, designed three retaining walls 2 to 3 feet high to terrace the landscape. ...

Hardscaping in Stages

Building hardscape projects in phases is growing in popularity because it allows customers to achieve their dream yard over a period of time with financially digestible, staggered payments. Contractors like ...

Smart Controllers

When put to the test, these irrigation controllers can reduce water use 15 to 30 percent and prevent over-watering. In the beginning, there was heaven and earth. Rain came as ...

Definite ‘Wow’ Factor

Spacious design leaves client glowing Medea Landscape Studio (medealandscapestudio.com) jazzed up this disconnected, confined landscape using the classical elements – earth, water and fire – but there’s nothing traditional about the ...

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental varieties have become the go-to plant for many landscapers.

Healing Landscapes

Learn the key elements for transforming a backyard into a true sanctuary. How interest in healing gardens has bloomed into a landscape design trend.

How to Protect Frost-Sensitive Plants

In the midst of cold winter weather, keeping frost-sensitive plants alive can be a challenge. Here are tips on how to protect your clients’ plants until the spring from FloraTerra ...

Mavericks

Landscape designers, architects and contractors share a common appreciation for the natural world and the creative ways it can be shaped to suit our needs and desires. But, there are ...

Seashore Sensation

Multiple gardens, outdoor living areas for challenging space. Transforming the landscape around this mid-1800s house into a modern, relaxing spot for the clients and their extended family was no easy ...

Best Irrigation Rotors

Technologies such as smart controllers, central control and drip irrigation systems continue to improve irrigation system efficiency by using less water to keep landscapes looking their best.

Favorite Foliage

Foliage, earthworms, bacteria in soil, a vertical garden and lights for deck posts are among the landscaping topics featured.

Lighten Up

If you operate even a small landscape business, you may be surprised how adding low-voltage lighting design and installation is such a natural fit.

Hardscape Certification

Hardscaping certification gives landscapers a competitive edge. “Getting certified is like putting money in your pocket,” says one contractor.

Festive Flair

Adding a touch of holiday color to avoid a winter whiteout.

Tasty Transformation

This once hardscape-heavy landscape is given a more natural makeover. With an asphalt driveway covering nearly 1/3 of the total property, barren planting strips and extensive red brick areas, this ...

Rebirth of a Landmark

A year after a historic flood, the gardens at the Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Resort are more vibrant than ever. In the first two days of May 2010, flooding caused by ...

Pacific Prairie

Eco-friendly design reminds homeowners of the American Heartlands. From billowing grasses to sandstone unearthed during site preparation, this tranquil landscape contrasts, yet complements, its neighborhood setting dominated by palm trees ...

Plant Trends You Can Grow With

New choices that meet the needs now—and in the future. These top picks among plant offerings will enhance your reputation as an expert in sustainable landscape practices. Buzzwords you’ll hear ...

Bright Ideas in Lighting Choices

Light up outdoor spaces with these lighting choices.

Install an On-Surface Dripline

Drip irrigation can be used almost anywhere spray, rotary or impact sprinklers are used, but on-surface drip systems are becoming increasingly popular for bedding areas because they take less time ...

Sun Lovers

12 Easy-care plants that can take the heat. the sunny garden can pose a challenge to the most experienced landscaper. These plants that not only tolerate hours of direct sunlight, ...

Christmas Lighting Trends

Judicious color, LEDs, animation and creating a natural look can separate your holiday lighting services from the competition. Christmas is a holiday filled with traditions, but that doesn’t mean your ...

Elegant Views

A front and backyard designed with water in mind. In response to the close proximity of their clients’ Mediterranean-style house to the road, Native Landscapes, from Wilmington, North Carolina, designed ...

Koi Ponds Profitably

Koi pond installations can be money makers but require expertise. Here’s how to test the waters. Client + pond installation contract + water + fish = profit. Simple enough, right?

Companion Plants for Autumn

If you’re looking for the perfect foils to freshen up the late season landscape, combine these autumnal-colored annuals, season extending perennials and evergreen or ornamental grasses with existing plantings.

Playtime Paradise

Tropical-themed play area for clients’grandchildren. Greenday Creations in Miami, Florida installed a landscape where the homeowners’ grandchildren could have “the best day ever” enjoying an island-like retreat at their private ...

Planting Around Trees

Maintaining turf in the shade under established trees can be an ongoing battle. Mowing over large surface roots is hard on both the tree and the mower. And grass growing ...

Celebratory Setting

To design a landscape that would not only enliven the backyard, but also serve as the location for the wedding of the homeowners in Hudson, Wisconsin, The Greenskeepers created a ...

Healing Haven

Two landscape crews teamed up to give a handicapped couple a backyard retreat they could easily access and maintain. With both homeowners wheelchair-bound – one a double-amputee from the Vietnam ...

Create the Perfect Patio Plan

Think outside the rectangle, and other tips from our experts. Patios of the past: Rectangle concrete slabs laid outside a sliding glass door. Today, your clients are more discerning, and ...

Making Rooms for the Views

Input on the master plan allows landscapers to create unique outdoor spaces. “The house was new construction, so we essentially had an open palette to work with,” says Andrew Demus, ...

Vertical Gardens Take Root

Vertical gardens serve many purposes and showcase various looks depending on the designer and location. Learn how they may inspire you to view spaces in a more open way and ...

International Inspiration

Inspired by their travels through Europe, the homeowners of this project longed for a formal English garden of their own. To achieve this style, Ryan Youngblood, president of Artistic Landscape ...

Going with the Flow

Cipriano Landscape Design created a one-of-a-kind feature with rock croppings and two waterfalls fashioned from 1,000 tons of Pennsylvania chunk Karney stones.

Great Plants for Small Spaces

Get maximum impact in limited spaces with these compact versions of popular cultivars. Creating a first-class design for a small garden isn’t simply a matter of using fewer plants than ...

Benefits of Certification

Pretend for a moment that you’re a customer looking for a contractor who installs irrigation systems. Would you prefer to contact Contractor A at www.irrigationinstaller.com instead of Contractor B at ...

Terraced Approach to Tricky Slope

Southern Environmental Landscaping Contractors overcame many challenges, including persistent rain, to achieve the property owner’s vision for this backyard retreat.

Pools with Pizzazz

His passion for creativity and understanding clients’ needs drives Scott Cohen’s designs of innovative oases. There is much more that sets Scott Cohen apart from the competition. His focus on ...

Landscapes that Anticipate the Future

One of the most talked about demographic trends in America is the aging of the Baby Boom. If you are looking for the future of landscaping, you need look no ...

New Irrigation Products

Spray, control and pump water with these irrigation products that will help you complete your next project efficiently.

Harmonious Design

Drawing from nature, MINT Landscaping used stones, water and plants to create a landscape that seamlessly blends into the forest.

Winter Hardy Plants

Winter landscapes don’t have to be lackluster. A planting plan that includes specimens such as Yellow Ribbon Arborvitae with its lemon-colored edges, the waving plumes of Feather Reed Grass, and ...

Creating a Luxurious Vacation at Home

Creating a luxurious vacation at home.

Man on a Mission

Larry Cammarata is utterly evangelical about sustainable landscaping. The road to redemption, he says, is paved with three simple commandments. Understanding the complexities of sustainable landscaping can feel like digging ...

Patio Takes the Plunge

Hardscaping is the star of this Fremont, Indiana lake house’s outdoor living space, containing more than 120 tons of related materials. The retaining walls are a single row of natural ...

Creating a Tranquil Cove

The designer faced many challenges when he installed this koi pond at a home in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.

New Lighting Products

Brighten your projects with the latest lighting products and technologies.

Living on the Edge

In the big picture of landscape design, border plants often steal the show despite being assigned a supporting role. The woody plants may be the bulk of the garden, but ...

Landscaping for Children

Lessons learned from public spaces can help your projects be more profitable.

Extending Blooms from Season to Season

Chart out the seasons and make sure you have a favorite perennial blooming in each stage.

Remarkable Remotes

A sampling of new “smart” ways to more easily and precisely control irrigation systems.

Native Perennials Go Uptown

Native perennials are showing up in some surprising places these days, and for good reason. Landscape pros from San Francisco to Las Vegas and Chicago to New York are taking ...

Transforming a Challenging Hillside Space

The California project makes use of the hillside and invites exploration of the garden. It also provides conversation areas for entertaining.

Installing Firepits

Tips and ideas for how to sell and install fire pits. From Hollywood celebrities to New Jersey plumbers, Americans are rediscovering a forgotten past time: warming their hands over a ...

Selling & Building Water Features

If you run a landscape business, you probably have the skills, crew, tools and creative ability to provide a range of water features for your clients. There are plenty of ...

Caring for Crape Myrtles

It seems for every vibrantly blooming and well maintained example of Lagerstroemia indica adorning properties from Texas to Savannah, there is one with its limbs hacked off by the uninformed. ...