Outside Living Rooms Ease of movement and flow are essential when connecting indoor and outdoor spaces. Outside rooms designed for relaxation and recreation will add new living areas to your property whiole increasing your home's value by as much as 15%. Not a bad return on a project meant to help you make the most of your property -- which you already own! Designing and installing fresh, exciting and timeless landscape architectural designs [...]
Each brick used in the GardenWise, Inc. designed and installed garden space in Washington, D.C., was recycled from the previous garden space. Landscape Architects are paying closer attention to "green" projects more and more. Using recycled materials is one way GardenWise helps our clients take a great "green" step when installing a stone or brick design. We use recycled materials whenever the [...]
This February is much different than past Februarys. It's not as cold, and it's not as snowy, icy, or rainy. However, we still have winter garden chores! Start by checking your perennial plants. You can protect your strawberries and many perennial flowers as well as garlic, over-wintered spinach, and other crops that can easily be damaged by alternate warming [...]
Garden accents say much about the gardener, and they can make or break a garden space. Finding the right garden ornament can be a difficult task. We've all visited our share of gardens that would inspire us more if it weren't for those gnomes! Religious statues, bottle trees, stones with inspirationsal phrases, and even garden gates; so many ideas to choose from, and not all choices blend as [...]
Add beauty and curb appeal to your front yard with a sidewalk garden. The most productive gardens in smaller spaces use layering, combining layers of plants that grow at different heights. This bottom garden is a great example; each plant and flower plays its part, and the sum of the whole creates an optical illusion that gives your [...]
Caring for Lavender Avoid the urge to cut back your lavender plants this winter in spite of their visual decline with the cold -- wait for new growth to emerge in Spring before trimming and tidying up your lavender. It does not react well to hard pruning and may even rot if given a thick layer of organic mulch in [...]
Vines can play a key role in a garden space. These wonderful and adventurous climbing plants create vertical interest as they wrap themselves around garden elements, such as gazebos, arbors and trellises, adding new dimensions and important focal points. They can also soften architecture and disguise areas that aren't fully developed. Strategically placed, vines can also hide areas that are out of our control, such as a [...]
Using recycled materials in your hardscape featrures is a great "green" step to take when installing any stone or brick design. We use recycled materials when the chance to do so is available, and the possibilities are endless -- recycled concrete for paving systems, glass in stepping stones, recycled bricks, and crushed stone and granite to be used in patio surfaces. Each [...]
Move over Mums! Now you can have garden beauty in late fall and early spring from spectacular ICICLE Pansies and Icicle Violas. Icicle pansies and violas are selected for their ability to overwinter when planted in the fall. Bred for cold climates, this tough new breed is guaranteed to survive the harshest winters, wherever they are [...]
Larkspur - A Late Spring Bloomer If you didn't sow Larkspur seed in October for flowering in late spring 2013, no worries. You can buy the plants at your local gardening center. Larkspur (Delphinium consolida,) which symbolizes an open heart, tends to be a bit fussy, and I've not had much luck in the DC-area. But if you have [...]
