Landscape Company Ayrshire

How to Flagstone Patio? Avoid These 5 Mistakes People Make When Installing a Flagstone Patio

Flagstone patios and paths have become a very common project that homeowners are taking on during there free time. Who can blame them, ever flagstone project is unique and because it's a natural product it automatically adds beauty that you don't get from a man made product like interlocking brick patios.
Most homeowners just search online for "how to flagstone patio", find a short instruction tutorial then attempt to complete there flagstone project. This is often a big mistake, not knowing each step to install a flagstone patio correctly will more often than not results in one of the following mistakes:
The 5 Most Common Mistakes When Installing A Flagstone Patio Or Path
Patio Size - This is one of the most common mistakes people make, the patio size looks good until they place some outdoor furniture on the patio. Always take into account how much extra room you will have once your outdoor furniture is in place.
Purchasing Flagstone - Just picking up the phone and ordering some flagstone or maybe telling the sales person you'd like a pallet of flagstone is a major mistake. No pallet of flagstone is the same, now without revealing all my tips on purchasing flagstone that are in my guide, I'm going to share this one with you. Never ever buy flagstone without physically seeing the exact pallet of flagstone your buying.
Patio Grade/Slope -  Installing a patio or path level or slopping towards the wrong place can result in having water build-up in the wrong places. Having the water runoff flow towards your house foundation can cause big expensive problem later on down the road, installing the patio level more often than not will result in pools of water sitting on your patio.
Base -  A stone patio or path needs a good solid and well compacted base, cutting corners and not using enough material for the base will result in problems, in a short time you would notices movement in different directions, flagstone will start spreading out and become very unstable especially during and after a rainfall.
Lack Of Knowledge - Not knowing how to install a flagstone patio or path can result in the home owner giving on the project and hiring a professional to do the work and believe me it happens, I've been hired a few times to complete half finished projects. Installing a patio or path is easy when you know what and how it should be done.
With years of experience installing flagstone, I've picked up many tip and techniques along the way making working with flagstone very easy. One of my speculates is installing flagstone patios and paths.
I've complied all my techniques in an easy to follow step by step guide, the guide takes you by the hand and contains real example photos as I Install A Flagstone Patio.
If you planning on installing a patio or path then my site "How To Flagstone Patio" will help. You can also contact me with any question you may have in regards to your flagstone project.

LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

Landscape gardening has often been likened to the painting of a picture. Your art-work teacher has doubtless told you that a good picture should have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. So in landscape gardening there must be in the gardener's mind a picture of what he desires the whole to be when he completes his work.

From this study we shall be able to work out a little theory of landscape gardening.

Let us go to the lawn. A good extent of open lawn space is always beautiful. It is restful. It adds a feeling of space to even small grounds. So we might generalize and say that it is well to keep open lawn spaces. If one covers his lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One's grounds lose all individuality thus treated. A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a pleasing side feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should be one of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit. While the poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing, bare and ugly, before the fall is old. Mind you, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective. But I think you'll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picture squeness. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech all these are beauty points to consider.

Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree. Suppose the lower portion of the grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow. Don't group trees together which look awkward. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut. One must keep proportion and suitability in mind.

I'd never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it.

As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should be. In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter.

Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prettier usually than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte's spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.

I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize but poorly with their new setting.

Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.

The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead somewhere. That is its business to direct one to a definite place. Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.

Garden paths may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would serve as well in your small gardens. Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.

A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and so let it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all most satisfactory.

close your eyes and picture a house of natural colour, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly corner of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there climbing over, and falling over a trellis was a trumpet vine. It made beautiful an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter work.

Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until the better things and better times come. The annual is 'the chap' for this work.

Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One might try to rival the woods' landscape work. For often one sees festooned from one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine.

Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and unbroken by beds. What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or no bother, and start the spring aright. One may make of some bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect, but just blend with the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too. You all remember the grape hyacinths that grow all through Katharine's side yard.

The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.
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You should have in mind some notion of the blending of colour. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas. So we should endeavour not to blind people's eyes with clashes of colours which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colours you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.

Finally, let us sum up our landscape lesson. The grounds are a setting for the house or buildings. Open, free lawn spaces, a tree or a proper group well placed, flowers which do not clutter up the front yard, groups of shrubbery these are points to be remembered. The paths should lead somewhere, and be either straight or well curved. If one starts with a formal garden, one should not mix the informal with it before the work is done.
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Selecting and Planting Perannials

Selecting and Planting Evergreens if you have been growing a plant garden for a while, you could be feeling a touch discontented at how plain it is to look at. I too commenced my gardening career with a plant garden, but I made a decision that it was not quite as pleasing to look at as I might have liked. I heard from a mate that the employment of evergreen flowers might be a good way to enliven my garden without adding any additional work for me. Perannial flowers are powerful, local flowers that come back each year while not having to replant or do any additional work. During their off seasons, the flowers and stems die back and you can barely even tell the plant is there ( instead of just dying and looking like appalling brown clumps in your garden ). When it is time to bloom, totally new flowers shoot up where the old ones were. Prior to choosing whether to put in evergreens or not, you want to be sure that your soil has correct drainage. If the water stays saturated for long amounts of time, you must build a raised bed. To test, dig a hole and fill it with water. Wait a day, and then fill it with water again. All traces of water should be gone within ten hours.

If the hole isn't totally dry, you'll need to build a raised bed. Picking your perennials could be a complex process.

The goal should be to have them ripening as much as humanly possible in the year, so you need to create an outline of the year. Research the different sorts of flower you would like, and make a timeline of blooming.

If you plan it right, you may have a different kind of flower blooming at any time in the year. Getting just the right mix of seeds can give your yard a consistently changing array of colours. When you go to buy the seeds from your local florist or nursery, you could be ready to find a custom seed mix for your area. This takes the truly difficult research part out of the job. Customarily these mixes are optimized for the local climate, and do great roles of having flowers always grow in your yard.

If one of these isn't available, you can ask the workers what they think would be a good blend. They deserve to be pleased to help you put something together which may be optimal for whatever you wish. You need to definitely use mulch when planting evergreens. This will scale back the overall quantity of work you have got to do, by reducing the quantity of weeds and accelerating the water retention. Bark or pine needles work well, I've found, and dependent on the remainder of your yard you may have them available free. As for manure, you need to use it sparingly once your plants begin to come to life. When you go to plant the seeds, you should put them in tiny, separate clumps according to the directions. This is usually because they generally tend to spread out, and if you have too many too near together then they may finish up doing nothing apart from choking one another out. As you plant them, chuck in a touch of highly puny manure. In almost no time at all you need to start to see flowers blooming up. If you would like to beat your Garden why not have a look at this great site i aquired this article from go here now Click Here!

Home landscaping is no different than any other kind of landscaping. It is natural for people to want their home to look as fab as it possibly can, who does not want the kind of yard that the whole neighborhood is envious of? And he beauty of home landscaping is that it does not have to be hard and much of it can be done by you. All it will take a it a little elbow grease and some time to spare and you can design your own home landscaping design quickly and easily.

There are even products on the market that will help you to find the best home landscaping idea out there. You can choose to use home landscaping software for one. These programs can be a great help to you as you are trying to figure out what will suit your home and yard the best. With these types of programs you will get to see a few different layouts and options are always good when trying to narrow down your choices.

If home landscaping software programs are not for you, then you can try doing a search online for some wonderful home landscaping ideas. The internet is full of great sites that you can use to get everything done the right way. It is important to do plenty of research before you start your own home landscaping so that you keep the number of mistakes made down to a minimum. If you do make a boo-boo, don’t worry about it, any thing can be fixed.

Before you start your home landscaping you will need to also look into any gas lines and electrical lines that may be running through your yard. This is very important if you are planning to be doing a lot of digging. You cannot afford to hit any of these things, not only can it cost you a bundle to fix, it can also be very dangerous. Hitting an electrical line with a metal shovel could put an end to all of your work, your life too.

You will also need to find out about zoning restrictions that could affect your home landscaping. In some places you cannot have trees too high and even some fences are not allowed. Find out these kinds of things before you start your home landscaping work and you could save a lot of time and money.

Could your home do with a little more garden landscaping? Probably so, and that is a good thing. In fact you should be very excited about it because there is nothing more fun than garden landscaping, it will get your imagination working overtime and you will have a ball planting and rearranging your plants and flowers.

By layering your garden landscaping beds you will be able to add a whole other level of beauty to your landscaping design. Your yard is the first thing that people will see when they come to your house and giving a grand tour that includes a fabulous garden is always fun and exciting. You will be the talk of the neighborhood, and for all the right reasons this time, when you do some really good garden landscaping.






Layering your garden landscaping design is easy to do. You need to know the flowers that you are going to plant first however. The choices that you make as far as the flowers and other plants will affect just how your garden landscaping is laid out. For example you do not want to have the taller plants in front of the shorter ones. This is obvious but you should still make a rough sketch of where you want things laud out for your garden landscaping before you begin. This will help you to keep thins as simple as possible. Your garden landscaping will go a lot faster this way and you will run into fewer problems as you go.

When layering you should have about three layers. Your back row should face north, if it can, and the back row should have the tallest plants and as the rows descend so should the heights of the plants and flowers. The trick of this kind of garden landscaping is that oftentimes the plants we buy are baby plants. So you will need to talk to those working at your local gardening store about how large the plants will grow to be. This is key to successful garden landscaping. If the front or middle row of your garden landscaping design is going to grow much higher than the last row, then you will have to do some rearranging.

The layering affect of your garden landscaping design will add depth and make your garden much more interesting to look at. This is what will make your garden landscaping a success.
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Before Wood Retains

Wood retain wall in the Garden yes or no i think yes we have been putting in Wood retain walls now for years and the advantages are out waying the disadvantages such as wood is relatively cheep compared to Brick plus it is easier to build with.
Do not get me wrong you still have to take great care when building as you do not want the wall to fall
1. Dig out a foundation to 6 inch then put in hard core ore concrete
2. Level Foundation and string line the area from one side to the other.
3. Lay your first New Railway sleeper and make sure it is level along and across.
4. Lay drainage pipe behind sleeper and fill with gravel up to top of sleeper 1
5. Some people like to stagger the sleepers like building a wall i myself pref are to lay them on top of each other then where they join put a sleeper vertically into the ground concreted in this covers the joints and there is no way the sleepers will get by the vertical upright.
6. If you go for the stagger make sure the area that is not supported is either pinned in with a rod to stop it being pushed out to do this drill through the wood and push the long rod through both sections of wood
7. continue building until the required height then put in Sleeper uprights to hold the wood in place then go around all the sleepers screwing them together with large screws.
8. Once finished paint wood to required colour.

If you would like a quote for this type of wall in your garden call Greencare Landscapes
oN 01475675591 OR E Mail sales@greencarelandscapes.com or to see more work go to
www.greencarelandscapes.com.
Charles White

Building a Patio is not a hard thing to do but it is tricky you will have to plan out the job.
Things to Watch out for
1. Spoil how much and were to put it
2. Size and how many Slabs you need
3. Hard Core and Sand and Cement How Much to use
4. Type of slabs some slabs do not suit certain situations.

First Step
a. Measure the area then decide what type of Slabs to use and what colour suits the area ie does it match your house, a good site to use for getting the right amount of slab is Bradstone patio builder go to their site and down load the software put it all the details ect size and they will return the amount you need.
b. Order the Sandstone with a few extra slabs in case of breakage

Step 2
a. Order a Skip for spoil this will cost between £150 and £200 depending on your area
b. If the area is to big to dig out by hand a Mini digger is needed 1 week hire £100 to £150
c. Dig out area to a depth of 6 inches and remove spoil to skip 20 sqr mtrs should get approx 6 tons of soil at 6 inch deep.
d. Put in pegs to the height required at the wall of house below damp course
e. Put a slope of approx 2 inches across to the furthest peg

Step 3.
a. Hire a whacker plate and whack the soil (when dry) to compact area to stop any future subsidence.
b. Put in 2 inch of hard core type 1 and whack again. when done put the other 2 inch in and whack again.
c. You are now ready to put a string line in 2 directions one running to the front and one to the side.
d. You then mix up building sand and cement at 3 to 1 sand plus cement with a little plasticise
e. Put down approx 1 and a half to 2 inches of cement and gently push the Sandstone into the cement
f. Make sure the Slab follows the string line in both directions you would follow the string line in one direction in lines following the Patter en laid out in the plan
g. After all the slabs are down leave them and do not walk on them for 2 Days

Step 4.
Point Slabs with a 4 to 1 Mix Sand and Cement use a colourant if needed mix up using very little water just enough to make cement go but not mark the slabs when cement mix lies on Slabs
Leave slabs till mix Drys then Brush off Lightly
If this is all to much and you just want the job done by a reputable company then E Mail sales@greencarelandscapes.com for a free quote.
Charles White
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