27th Year Anniversary
Serving the Naperville Community
Serving the Naperville Community
 Nosy neighbors and wide open expanses can leave you feeling vulnerable in your Hinsdale, IL, backyard. However, a carefully planned landscape design can provide you with natural looking privacy fences made of lush and lovely evergreen shrubs. While you may be tempted to simply install a tall masonry wall for privacy, you may be surprised to see that there are natural evergreen options available that could fit your tastes better. Installing these year-round beauties offers a way for you to enjoy your outdoor space without worrying about prying eyes. Read on, and we’ll show you some of the best evergreen shrubs that create the kind of barriers that will blend in beautifully with your landscape. Bushy Firs and Pines A classic way to block out unsightly buildings and create a natural barrier in your backyard is with the use of big and bushy shrubs. Classic evergreens like juniper, spruce, and fir can help to create a forest-like feel surrounding your space with gorgeous greenery all year long. Plus, if you enjoy decorating for the holidays, they make for an excellent place to decorate and add a little seasonal cheer! Holly, though not a fir or pine, also makes for excellent privacy shrub while providing a year-round, Christmas-like feel. Flowering Shrubs If you’re looking to add a bit of natural privacy fencing but want to enjoy beautiful blooms as well, a flowering shrub fence is an excellent option for your backyard. There are many types of flowering shrubs you can choose from, in varying colors, sizes, and even fragrances. Azaleas are an excellent option due to their versatility and availability of colors, plus they offer shiny greenery when not in bloom. Cold-tolerant rhododendron also make for excellent flowering privacy shrubbery, and offer blooms in pink, purple, and white. You could also ask your landscaper about other popular flowering shrubbery options, and inquire about early spring blooms so that you’ll see cheerful colored bulbs and shiny green leaves when other plants may be dormant. Related: Landscaping Inspiration for Your Front Walkway in Your Hinsdale, IL, Home Edible Evergreens Here’s an option for a visual feast: One of the most popular ways to surround your home in beautiful greenery these days is with edible plantings. Shrubs like rosemary, bay leaf, huckleberry, lingonberry, and many more make beautiful displays that taste as good as they look. Plus, if you want to invite critters into your yard, certain edible shrubs are an excellent way to get them to come and visit for a nibble. Ask your landscaper what edible evergreen shrubs are available in your region and would work best for your backyard. Boxwood and Arborvitae Classic and timeless, boxwoods and arborvitae are the quintessential shrubs that homeowners typically reach for when creating natural borders and walls. They are both easily shaped and manipulated into beautiful dense forms, making them perfect for creating expertly manicured “walls” or even topiary. Arborvitae, in particular, are an excellent option for creating the ultimate natural evergreen wall as they can reach to heights of up to 30 feet! Either way, these two tried and true evergreen shrubbery options won’t disappoint and will help you create the visual backyard barrier you desire. Whether you choose gorgeous greenery, fragrant flowers, or edible evergreens for your natural barrier wall, you’ll enjoy the beauty and versatility that each style brings to your property. Related: 6 Practical Landscape Design Tips for a Functional Outdoor Living Space
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 Your plants and greenery have been growing all summer long at your Hinsdale, IL, property, and you want to ensure they continue their progress when the warm weather returns. Now that you are likely thinking of all the ways to tidy up your property in preparation for the holiday season, you should also give thought to winter preparation for your plants and grass. Your favorite landscaping company can step in to get your landscape ready for winter. We will show you the many ways your trusted landscaping company can help freshen up your property this fall. Related: 6 Practical Landscape Design Tips for a Functional Outdoor Living Space Grading Rain, regular irrigation, and normal day-to-day wear can drastically change the grading of your property. Grading is the natural slope that your property should have leading away from your home; if your property has experienced too much erosion during the year, your landscape experts can re-grade the soil as part of your fall cleanup plan. By taking care of this landscape problem, you may be able to avoid drainage problems all year long! Pruning Your perfectly landscaped garden and flower bed may be looking a little overgrown this time of year. Inquire about giving your hedges and plants a much-needed trim as part of your fall cleanup plan. By prepping them at the end of summer or the beginning of fall, you’ll be caring for the maintenance of your plants at the optimal time and preparing them just in time for winter. Edging You could have your pathways and driveways perfectly trimmed up before the first cold snap. Not only would edging help your property look welcoming for visitors during the holiday season, it could help to jump start your lawn care plan when spring comes next year. Related: Landscaping Plant Care Tips for the Summer in Wheaton, IL Debris Removal Sticks and stones and weeds and leaves—all these organic materials may be accumulating on your lawn that don’t want to be there. Whether your flower beds need an extra layer of mulch or your garden needs a bit of special attention, your landscapers can help to evaluate your property and identify which areas need a clean sweep and a professional touch. Paver Care Is your paved driveway, patio, or sidewalk looking a little worse for wear after the summer? Ask your landscapers how they can help refresh their look with a fall cleanup. You may be surprised to see all of the dirt and debris that could be dulling the look of your paved spaces. This could also be an optimal time to get on your landscaping company’s schedule for next year if it is time for an upgrade of your patio, walkway, or driveway. It’s around now that homeowners tend to notice their landscape could really use a refresh, and you may find that modern pavers would be the kind of investment that would provide returns in terms of curb appeal and long-term enjoyment. If you want your property to look its best all year long, don’t wait until spring for a proper cleaning and review. Ask your landscape professionals for a consultation and see what they can do to spruce up your spaces this fall. With some expert help, you’ll be sure to enjoy a tidy looking exterior all season long.  Applying mulch to your Wheaton, IL, landscaping can reap a world of benefits for your plantings. Mulched gardens are more efficient in their use of water, they retain nutrients better, and they are less susceptible to weeds and disease. However, navigating around the types of mulch available can be confusing, so knowing the benefits of different types of mulch is essential to maximize the gains for your landscaping.
Related: Landscaping Plant Care Tips for the Summer in Wheaton, IL Wood Chips or Shredded Leaves Shredded bark, leaves, and wood chips are great mulch options that not only provides all the benefits from mulching but also look great aesthetically. A contractor can source the leaves from your garden, as well as clippings around the yard. Shredded wood and bark from your yard can be used to create a top layer that gives your bed a rustic, natural look. This form of mulch can typically last between one and three years. Grass Clippings Grass clippings are some of the easiest ways to mulch your lawn and garden. For your lawn, you can just leave the clippings after mowing, as they are the perfect size to act as mulch. Bagged clippings tend to be better suited for flower beds, gardens, and shrubs. Grass also decomposes quickly and is considered a faster source of nutrients than most other forms of mulch. Compost Compost is not only a great source of nutrients but also a great mulch for your yard. Waste from your yard can be used to create a compost pile, or you can get compost sourced from animal and plant waste easily from your landscaping contractor. The ideal type of compost for mulching depends on the type of plants, their nutrient requirements, and their current condition, so it’s best to consult a landscaper. Compost typically doesn’t inhibit weed growth, so it might be prudent to combine it with another type of mulch to help avoid weeds. Straw or Hay Straw or hay is not only a great mulch for your vegetable gardens but is also great to look at. It typically breaks down slower than grass and provides nutrients well into the winter after application. However, it is important to source straw from a reliable contractor, as some straw can contain seeds, which may promote the growth of weeds in your yard. Related: 3 Reasons to Include Custom Planter Boxes in Your Landscape Design in Naperville, IL Gravel or River Stones Gravel and river stones are the first of two non-organic mulches we discuss in this guide. Gravel and river stones provide a much neater look for your garden while offering some unconventional benefits you don’t see from other types of mulch. Stones tend to retain heat better and help keep the soil warm during the night, especially if you use darker colored stones as mulch. Moreover, these forms of mulch don’t need to be reapplied although they do require raking and readjustment. They should typically be applied on top of an organic mulch layer to keep your plants well stocked with nutrients. Plastic Mulch Plastic covers are one of the more popular forms of inorganic mulch. Large sheets of black plastic help keep the soil warm by retaining heat from the sun. The covering also helps reduce evaporation, creating a microclimate beneath the soil that is prime for plant growth. Plastic is generally ideal for garden and flower beds but should be avoided for shrubs as it can inhibit their growth in the long-term.  If you are thinking of upgrading your Naperville, IL, yard’s softscaping to something more attuned to your personal taste, custom planter boxes might be just the right solution for you. Custom plant boxes offer a range of practical and aesthetic advantages that make them a must have for any landscape design.
Multitude of Designs As a custom product, the design options in custom planter boxes are unlimited. This especially comes in handy if your yard’s design strongly conforms to a particular design style. For most modern yards, custom planters with a sleek profile and smooth surfaces are essential and hard to find in off-the-shelf offerings. Likewise, for more traditional homes, finding curved and more ornate planters that are more suited to natural landscape designs is generally quite challenging. Related: Landscaping Plant Care Tips for the Summer in Wheaton, IL In addition to the shape and design of the planters, the customization options extend to the choice of materials, textures, and colors. You can have custom planters created that utilize the same pavers as the rest of your hardscaping, helping them meld in beautifully into your landscape design. Similarly, you can integrate custom materials such as metal and glass to help your planters meld in well with more modern landscapes. Integrate Softscaping More Easily Custom planters make it remarkably easy to achieve the perfect balance of softscaping and hardscaping. This comes down the huge flexibility they offer, easily introducing lust green plant life into areas of your yard where in-ground flower beds and shrubs aren’t feasible. Since they can be molded into shape to fit into any part of your landscape design, they allow you to integrate greenery around masonry to create a good balance. They can also be easily mounted on walls, windowsills, and even hung from structures within your landscape, to introduce plants in areas where it would be impossible to have in-ground plants. They can also be used to break up overly long stretches of masonry, such as long retaining walls, by installing custom planters to separate them into sections. Related: Landscaping Inspiration for Your Front Walkway in Your Hinsdale, IL, Home Durability and Practicality Custom planters, especially those made of concrete, metal, and wall stones, tend to be much more durable than off-the-shelf wood and plastic planter boxes. Concrete planters made of poured concrete are particularly strong, albeit heavy, and provide great insulation for the soil. The concrete is also a great candidate for adding custom artwork, inlays, and engravings to make them all the more special. Custom wood planters made of rot-resistant timber are quite durable and also tend to complement existing woodwork, trellises, fences, and patio furniture well. Planters also make it much easier to maintain your softscaping. As opposed to in-ground plantings, there is no soil compaction and the associated plant damage when you use custom planter boxes. The soil also warms up more easily giving the plants a longer growing season. Moreover, you have complete control over the type of soil that you can use for growing your plants and apply nutrients and fertilizers more strategically with minimal wastage. The result is healthier plants that require less weeding and maintenance in the long term.  Integrating a brick patio well suited to your Wheaton, IL, home’s modern backyard requires a lot of careful consideration when it comes to choosing materials and making design decisions. Here are the important details you’ll want to consider when designing your modern patio.
Choosing the Right Colors Choosing the right colors for your patio pavers is the first step to making sure your patio integrates well into your home’s design. Modern patios generally favor subdued hues, predominantly in the gray to white spectrum. More importantly, the colors should match the exterior of your home to help keep the entire design consolidated. You can always add a touch of drama and contrasting colors by choosing more vivid pavers for borders and accents to help your patio stand out. Related: 5 Reasons Why a Brick Patio is a Must Have for Your Naperville, IL Outdoor Living Area Paver Texture and Design Choosing the right paver design and texture is as vitally important as choosing the right color. Modern landscape design is characterized by smooth surface finishes and textures, clean edges, and sharp, straight lines. You probably want to choose a paver that ticks all these boxes and stay away from more traditional paver designs. Complement your modern pavers with an equally clean and minimalist laying pattern that helps set a modern tone for the entire patio’s design. Patio Furniture With the important hardscaping considerations out of the way, it’s time to choose the right patio furnishings. For seating, choose minimalist patio furniture that has a clean design and feature predominantly straight lines with minimal curves in the construction. The colors should ideally comply with the same rules as the patio pavers, but you can choose more vivid colors if you feel your patio could use some brightening up. Stick with more modern construction materials such as metal and glass to complete the look. Softscaping No landscape design is complete without some greenery, and this holds for modern patios as well. Choose rectangular planters and pots and neat plants without too many irregularities. If you have flowerbeds and hedges surrounding the patio and the walkways leading to it, make sure they are well maintained with straight, consistent edges and well-ordered plants. Fire and Water Features Every patio needs a focal point, and that’s a fitting role for a fire pit or water feature. For modern patios, a square or rectangular fire pit balances the rustic appeal of a traditional fire pit while still complying with the modern design language. If you want something more modern, a fire table with a glass surface or marble surface is also an option. For water features, you’ll want to stay away from traditional water fountains and ponds, and instead choose a minimalist water feature such as a modern waterfall with a clean and consistent water flow and good lighting. Related: When to Repair or Replace a Brick Patio in Hinsdale, IL Landscape Lighting Designing a proper lighting plan is the last step for a modern patio and is not only important from a design perspective but also to ensure the safety and security of your backyard. As a general rule, choose subtle lighting that is well-placed and unobtrusive. Recessed lighting works wonderfully in modern patios as it is inconspicuous and understated. For sconces and path lights, choose minimalist holders in subtle colors to comply with the overall landscape design.  Choosing a landscape design that makes the most of your Wheaton, IL, patio can be a challenge. You want something that would be aesthetically pleasing yet unique, while still being practical for daily use. Here are five inspirations to help you decide on your patio’s design.
Related: Benefits of Hiring a Fully Insured Landscaping Company to Service a Hinsdale, IL, Property Kitchen Patio A kitchen-centric patio is a perfect choice for a food lover. Naturally, it starts with designing the perfect outdoor kitchen integrated into your patio. This can include the seating and dining areas. The kitchen would be the highlight of the patio in such a design, so it is important to choose the right materials and appliances to help assert a focal position. Stainless steel appliances coupled with striking colors for the kitchen island and floor are a good starting point. Multi-level Patio If your home’s landscape involves gradient changes, a multi-level terraced patio can be an excellent design option. It helps showcase your yard’s distinctive vertical element while opening up flat space for the construction. The patio can be spread over multiple levels connected with walkways and steps. The different levels can also be segregated with different functions, such as the higher level being used for seating and dining while the lower levels house the grill or outdoor kitchen. It's important to also pay attention to practical safety considerations, such as reinforcing the terraces with retaining walls if necessary. Fire and Water Fire elements and water elements are among the most distinctive features in landscape design, and having both can really make your patio shine. Fire features such as fire pits and fireplaces are a natural complement to patios, providing warmth and light to occupants as they sit around them. Water elements can range from a simple fountain to a more elaborate pond complete with waterfall, enhancing your patio’s atmosphere with the distinctive sound of running water. Having these two naturally contrasting elements together can create a wonderfully unique design for your patio. Related: Challenges in Landscape Design and How Our Team Can Help in Wheaton, IL Rustic Patio A rustic patio is especially well suited for traditional homes. Start with choosing a brick paver to give your patio the traditional charm of old European and American cities. Modern concrete pavers are also a great choice since they are available in a wide range of traditional brick designs, giving you the authentic look with all the advantages of modern concrete. Complement the patio with strategically placed plantings, gravel walkways, and wood fencing in accordance with the rustic theme. A traditional fire pit can complete the design and give you a final product that stands out. Modern Patio For more modern homes, a minimalist patio would be a natural choice. Choose a modern paver that suits the exterior design of your home and features subtle colors with sharp lines and clean edges. Modern materials such as metal and glass could be used for patio furniture to complement the minimalist design. For purists of this style, walkways and softscaping should be feature straight, neat edges and irregular shapes should be avoided. Lastly, if you want a distinctive fire element, choose a rectangular fire pit or a modern fire table to give your modern patio a visual focal point.  If you are looking for a versatile patio style to elevate your Naperville, IL outdoor living space, a brick patio might just be the perfect option. Brick urban structures have been a mainstay of European and American cities for centuries, and here are 5 reasons to incorporate the magic of brick into your landscape design. The Classic Aesthetics One of the primary reasons for choosing a brick patio is its evergreen, classic look that pairs beautifully with almost every design language. To accent a modern home, you could choose a brick-style paver that retains the small form factor with sharper lines and a sleeker look. For more traditional homes and landscapes, the traditional brick paver fits in seamlessly with its textured and irregular surface. This design flexibility also extends to softscaping as bricks can complement both modern and traditional plant choices. Related: When to Repair or Replace a Brick Patio in Hinsdale, IL Wide Range of Color Options Today’s brick patios are rarely made out of actual clay bricks thanks to modern concrete pavers. This offers a number of advantages, one being the much wider range of colors and textures that are available. Having a wide range of color and texture options can offer amazing design versatility and help you create a patio that blends in with the exterior of the home. It also makes it easier to adapt your design to match existing masonry around your yard, as well as create distinct borders and accents by using pavers with contrasting colors and textures. Durability and Easy Maintenance Concrete pavers in the style of brick are wonderfully easy to maintain and are highly durable. In contrast to traditional clay bricks, concrete is significantly stronger and can stand up well to the rigours of daily life. Moreover, maintenance is also easier as there is a steady and reliable supply of matching pavers available from manufacturers. Concrete brick pavers are more resistant to fading from constant exposure to UV light and retain their color better in the long run. Lastly, they are also more practical with features such as stain-resistance and anti-slip surface textures that can massively improve the usability of your patio. Related: 6 Practical Landscape Design Tips for a Functional Outdoor Living Space Helping Raise Curb Appeal and Value When it comes to curb appeal, the universal appeal of brick patios gives them a distinct advantage over more modern patios. A well-installed brick patio can help raise the value of your home and provide an excellent return on investment when it becomes time to sell. It can also have a positive effect on the curb appeal of your home, especially if you choose a more vibrant color that is easily visible from the street. Coupled with a quality outdoor lighting plan, you can extend the appreciation of your brick patio into the later hours of the day, making it a shining highlight of your home even after the sun has set. Design Freedom with Other Materials The design flexibility offered by brick patios makes them great candidates for landscape designs that feature a variety of different materials. Whether it contains a wooden deck, metal sculptures, water features, wood pavilions or a stacked stone fire pit, a brick patio will merge seamlessly into your landscape design.  Your Hinsdale, IL, home’s front entrance could be the most important element in determining your home’s curb appeal, which makes the design and installation of your front walkway take on paramount importance. Thankfully, you have a wide range of landscaping options for making your walkway not just a functional piece of your front entrance but a dynamic design element that adds to the aesthetics of your home. Related: 7 Landscape Design Ideas for Your Paver Driveway in Hinsdale IL Opt for Brick Style Pavers Classic brick pavers are hard to go wrong with, and with modern pavers, you can have the aesthetics of brick pavers with all the durability of concrete. Reputable paver manufacturers feature that classic small format brick in the classic clay color to mimic walkways and streets in old European cities. Modern pavers can mimic classic brick in terms of colors, as well as texture and imperfections, deriving their paver molds from actual bricks to give your walkway a truly authentic look. Fall in Love with the Look of Natural Stone The sheer beauty of natural stone is hard to beat, and a natural stone walkway can be a versatile design feature, working wonderfully in both modern and traditional landscapes. Popular choices for natural stone walkways include bluestone, flagstone, and limestone. You can choose concrete pavers that mimic the color and texture of natural stone perfectly while being more cost-effective, easy to repair, and more environmentally friendly. Be Adventurous with the Details Having chosen the right materials, with the right colors and textures for your landscaping, you can move on to choosing the right shape and dimensions for your walkway. The classic straight walkway works well in most settings, but you can also go with a curving walkway that meanders through your front yard, especially if your home has a more traditional landscape design. You can also be adventurous with the dimensions, letting your walkway open wider as it gets closer to the entrance, to bring in some additional depth. However, it is important to keep the overall design and scale of your landscape in consideration to make sure everything blends seamlessly together. Choose Accents and Borders Carefully One of the biggest advantages of modern concrete pavers is the wide range of colors and textures available, which makes them excellent for creating borders and accents. A well designed border helps to frame the walkway and can be created using both contrasting colors, textures, and laying patterns. Choose a border material that contrasts with your primary paver but matches some other design element of your front entrance to keep the overall look harmonious. Borders can be coupled with pathway lighting to keep your walkways safe and usable at night. Related: Landscaping Plant Care Tips for the Summer in Wheaton, IL Consider Bringing in Shrubs, Hedges, or Flower Beds Offsetting all the hardscaping with shrubs, hedges, and flowerbeds can help to soften the overall effect of masonry features. Straight, well-maintained hedges could be the most popular candidates, as they can serve as a natural border alongside walkways while also adding a vertical element to your landscape. Flower beds and shrubs can also be used to give your walkway a more natural border, which is more suited to more traditional and natural landscapes.  Your outdoor living space should be a comfortable haven to which you can escape regardless of the weather or time of day. Optimizing your outdoor entertainment in the face of the elements can be a daunting task—but the payoff will be well worth it. Here are a few landscaping tips to make your outdoor living space as functional as possible and to streamline your relaxation.
Read more here:  Undertaking any change can feel daunting at first. There is a lot to plan for and adjust to when you’re about to introduce landscape design changes to your Naperville, IL, property. Your current routine may be uprooted for a bit. If you are prepared ahead of time for what is needed and expected, then the transition to the wonderful changes ahead to your landscape will be seamless. Here are some steps to help you prepare for changes to your landscape design. What’s Involved with the Site Survey and Analysis You should expect that a complete site survey and analysis will be performed. This means that at a minimum, site visits by the landscaping company has been completed. They will assess the current design, the topography, soil, environment, and your lifestyle to ensure that as the process unfolds, the unexpected has already been carefully thought out. These proactive steps will keep you and the landscaping company you are working with on the same page and working together to determine the most efficient way to bring change to your property. There can be forethought into how to cause your family the least amount of interruption and downtime. At this point, you and the company performing the work have an opportunity to fully discuss the potential issues, what is most important to your needs, and ensure scheduling will occur with minimal, if any, setbacks. Related: Challenges in Landscape Design and How Our Team Can Help in Wheaton, IL Take Time With the Landscape Design Mock-Ups Using mock-ups and renderings will allow you to be able to see the phases unfold before the big build begins. This gives you ample opportunity to make the changes and adjustments you need on your end to avoid any detrimental lifestyle intrusions that could occur without this knowledge. Having a complete concept plan will also allow you to make sure spacing is adequate, the concept of the design fits together and the overall design plan works with existing architectural features and hardscapes. Selection of Materials, Features Whenever possible, it is ideal to focus on keeping your landscape as environmentally friendly as possible, whether that means prioritizing native plants that are destined to thrive with minimal water or considering how to reduce the amount of care your overall lawn needs if you bring in more hardscape features, such as an expanded patio. You want your new landscape design to thrive and adhere to the soil, surroundings, weather, and impact that it will be up against on a daily basis. This can be achieved by making sure your landscape contractor is knowledgeable about choosing proper placement of each plant, water feature, turf, and foliage that is going into your remodeled landscape. Related: The Benefits of 3D Design for Your Naperville, IL, Landscaping Scheduling and Timelines Scheduling is one of the most important things to consider when preparing for landscape design changes. Weather, your lifestyle, deliveries, and the experts you’ve hired will all affect the timing of your project. Keep in touch with your landscaper as the project unfolds so that you are in tune with why any delays may occur and what the remedies are. Experienced landscape contractors have gone through pretty much any conceivable challenge on their job sites and can provide realistic timelines for your project. Things happen, and skilled contractors will deal with them promptly, while keeping you in the loop at every step. |
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