Make Your Patio Awesome

Make Your Patio Awesome

A patio is a patio right? Not exactly. We view patios as an extension of your home, your outdoor family room, so to speak. A family room is not a family room right? It is your family room and you have probably gone to great lengths to make it special. Why not do the same with your patio?

Here are a few ways to make your patio awesome:

Add a seat wall - This sounds simple enough, and it is. A seat wall around part of your patio not only provides extra seating capacity, but also creates a boundary to your patio, making it feel cozier and more private. Another benefit to a seat wall is that when other families come over, the children naturally migrate to sit on the seat wall leaving the parents to enjoy the meal even more.   

Light it up - Lighting can greatly enhance any patio room and extend its usefulness into the night. With today's technology, LED lights can also save energy and reduce the need to change light bulbs. An automatic timer makes the whole system care free.

Let there be fire! - What is better than sitting around a campfire in the comfort of your backyard. A fire pit can really make a good evening a great evening. Choose from wood burning or gas, just save us a s'more.

There is no reason in the world to settle for boring. With these options, your patio can be awesome! 

See more of our patios at Our Portfolio.

Going For The Gold

Yeah, we know. It is a little cliché to use an Olympic theme but we are going to do it anyway. If you want to have a "gold medal" landscape, here are some simple rules to follow:

Start with a plan - You wouldn't build a house without a plan would you? The same holds true for the landscape. Going through the planning process helps prevent possible problems down the road, takes into
account the growth patterns of plants, and may bring to light some possibilities not previously considered.

Create fun - Life is hard, gardens should be for creating happy moments. Whether this means creating intimates places to spend time with loved ones, putting together an interesting combination of plants, appealing to the senses with fragrant plants or wind chimes, attracting birds, or hiding something whimsical (like a frog band) along a path, make your gardens come to life for yourself.

Make wise plant choices - If you have deer, accept the fact that you have deer and do not use plants that they are known to eat. Also, consider whether a plant has a lot of issues such as disease or insect problems. There is no point in fighting uphill battles. Use the right plants for our area. A southern plant will probably not survive our winters.

Consider maintenance - Hard fact here. There are no plants that require no maintenance. Sorry, it is the truth. There are, however, plants that require less maintenance than others. If you are going to hire a company to maintain your landscape (we have fantastic maintenance programs by the way) this may not be an issue. If you are going to maintain your landscape yourself and do not have a lot of time or knowledge, high maintenance plants such as roses may not be a good choice.

Following these guidelines may not guarantee you a gold medal, but they do assure a more successful landscape. After all, isn't that the real goal anyway?

If you are interested in having Allentuck Landscaping Co. create a gold medal landscape for you, please call us at 301-515-1900 or email us at info@allentucklandscaping.com, or simply click the link below:

Project Profile: A Step Up

Project Profile: A Step Up

Before

After

In this project, our client presented us with several challenges. The driveway was too narrow, access to the front door was inconvenient, and their children wanted to plant herbs and vegetables. Our designers set out to create solutions to these issues and give our client a great landscape.

A two and a half foot high Celtik block wall was constructed along the left side of the driveway. By doing this, we wereable to expand the driveway by three feet giving enough space for car doors to open, bicycles to get past the parked cars, and for trash cans to be wheeled out to the curb.

In the front yard, a slope created a difficult obstacle for walking directly to the front door from the driveway. To solve this, Western Maryland steppers were stacked to create steps. Our client remarked that this gave the feeling of a vacation spot in Maine that she and her family like to spend time at. Plantings of Winter Jasmine, Fountain Grass and a Sangu-Kaku Japanese Maple makes the walk to the front door seem like walking through a garden.

The only sunny spot, other than the front yard, is on the right side of the house. This area was prepared for herbs and vegetables. A Southern Magnolia grown on a trellis was placed against the chimney to serve as a backdrop. Stone steppers lead to the back yard and travel under a stunning Wisteria that gives a magical roof to an area the children like to run through.

"Allentuck Landscaping was fun to work with and really listened to our practical concerns.  And since we are fairly plant-illiterate they asked a lot of questions to figure out what kinds of style and look we like.  We are still admiring it every day when we pull up in front of our house." 

Be A Suburban Farmer

Nothing tastes better, or is better for you, than fresh grown vegetables. It is even more rewarding when you grow them yourselves. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of work to get a garden started. Removing turf, tilling in organic matter and fertilizer...who has the time? And then there is the bending over to pull weeds.

Want the "fruits of your labor" without the toil? We have the answer.

Allentuck Landscaping Co. has created "Garden In A Box"! These vegetable/herb gardens are 4' wide, 8' long, and stand 1' tall to minimize the bending over. Each garden is constructed using sturdy recycled composite lumber that will not rot or warp and is filled with a rich mixture of topsoil, leafmold and manure. We even give you a bag of fertilizer so you can continue to nourish your garden plot.

Each Garden In A Box can be installed for $550.00 (slightly more on sloped ground) or two for $1,045.00. Deer Protection can be added for $140.00.

Get started today to have veggies on your table this summer.

To find out more how Allentuck Landscaping Co. can make your landscape dreams a reality, please call Eric Shostal at 301-515-1900 or email at eric@allentucklandscaping.com, or simply click the link below:

                                                  

Signs of Spring

With the early warm weather here, our team has been actively visiting our client's properties to check on work in progress and to assess any site conditions. One of the benefits of doing this is that we get to see some of the beautiful plants that we care for in bloom. After all, we are plant people at heart. Here are a few of our sightings:

Daphne at a Chevy Chase, Maryland Residence

Camellia at a Chevy Chase, Maryland Residence

Saucer Magnolia at a Potomac, Maryland Residence

Ugly, Ugly, Ugly           

Where did that ugly utility box come from? It wasn't there last month. It's soooooo ugly!

Actually, it was there last month. As was the electric meter, irrigation controller, and your, um, neighbor. Unfortunately, as leaves drop all that is left  is the bone structure of deciduous plants and some eyesores we may not have noticed in the warmer months.

Fear not, here are some excellent solutions to consider:

Evergreens - Plants such as Skip Laurels, Hollies and Arborvitaes offer year round beauty, seasonal interest and potential backdrops to shrubs and perennials. There are a lot of variety of plants to choose from.

Trellises - Adding an element such as a trellis can not only hide something you don't want to see, but can also become a point of interest in your garden. Always try to match the architectural style of your home.

  

Fences - Fences make good neighbors. Not only do they hide things you may not want to look at, they hide things your neighbors may not want to look at too! They also provide security and keep our pets safe. With so many styles available, there is a fence for hiding just about everything.

 With a little imagination, screening can be both functional and attractive.