Top 5 apps for landscape professionals

There are quite a lot of applications related to landscaping for the iPhone and iPad, but a few are better than the others, thereby enabling the user to have an enriching experience. So, why waste your time and money on a landscape app that is not so good? We are going to discuss about a few apps that make the cut as the 5 best apps for landscaping, hence making it easier for landscapers to choose what app to use.

Morpholio

Morpholio was founded in 2011 by a group of architects and specialists, to help utilize the device culture, the cloud and social media and to use these factors to aid the creative thinking of people part of the image driven culture. The platform of Morpholio allows for collaboration between designers from various professions. It also includes features that allow for uploaded work to be critiqued by the Morpholio community. It is a unique sketch utility that allows you to easily develop ideas in layers and connects fluently with your global network. It definitely is user friendly and gives wide range of options for landscape professionals.

Landscaper’s Companion

This is an app that includes information on 25,000 shrubs and trees. The search categories and features cover the United Kingdom, USA and Australia amongst various other countries.  This app helps advice architects and landscapers on the basis of USDA zone.  We can enter data about the spot’s attributes and features; desired flower color scheme, height and spread, etc. The app then gives a list of flora that can be used for the specific location. This can be extremely useful for those who need to retrieve quick information.

Planimeter

This app uses measurements from satellite maps to find a site’s perimeter, distance, and area.  It includes both imperial and metric measurements. It helps us to measure the surrounding area in context and elevates the quality of the app while using the features. Search for a location by address, or let your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad find your current location. This land and area calculator is used in industries for concrete, seal coating, and to measure distances for bike rides, golf courses or race tracks. Builders can also quickly measure sizes of buildings, flat roofs, and roads. This app is certainly one of the best apps available at the moment.

Dropbox

We are very much aware that landscaping is about portraying information in various ways. Dropbox was founded in the year 2007 by Arash Ferdowsi and Drew Houston. Dropbox provides client software for Mac OS X, IOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, BlackBerry OS, Android and web browsers, and also unofficial ports to Windows Phone and Symbian. It enables us to share and collect information on the iPhone, iPad, or any computer. The information stored about a location can be accessed from anywhere using this app.

Leafsnap

This app was developed by Columbia University, University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution. Using visual recognition software, the software identifies trees from photographs of their leaves.  On placing the leaf from a tree at the location on a white background we can immediately start taking snaps.  Currently covering tree species of the Northeast United States, it will soon cover the entire USA as it is further being developed.  This app could soon become one of the most popular apps for landscape professionals primarily due to its uniqueness and quality.

5 Tips to Choose Paver Patterns and Designs

Creating the perfect outdoor living space isn’t just about choosing the location and size of your walkways, patios, driveways and pool decks. Rather, it should involve careful consideration of colors, styles, patterns and shapes of pavers that showcase your artistic flair and give your space an unmatched oomph. Here are five tips to choose paver patterns and designs that go well with the overall setting:

• Deciding your goal: By usingpavers of various sizes available in an array of colors, you can create amazing patterns in your outdoor space, which can either make a space look small or big, subtle or dynamic, traditional or contemporary. Therefore, deciding what end result you want to achieve is important before you start your search for the ideal paver patterns and designs.

• Deciding paver shapes and materials: Round, square, rectangular and hexagonal are some of the most common paver shapes. At first, you need to decide which would be most suitable for your landscape. Instead of choosing any one shape, you may opt for a design that includes multiple shapes to create an intricate pattern that showcases the unique character of your home. Once you have decided upon the shape, pick your material of choice. You can find a variety of paving materials such as flagstone, brick, cobblestone, outdoor tile, gravel, etc. to choose from. In case you want to replenish the groundwater supply and prevent stormwater runoff, using permeable paving materials would be a good choice.

• Consider the overall aesthetics: According to landscaping experts, laying brick-shaped pavers to repeat a form works well for rectangular, colonial style houses. However, for ornate Victorian-style houses with arched windows and doors, you can repeat curved shapes and edges to blend well with the structure. To make narrow paths appear wider, experts recommend laying the pavers in rows or on a diagonal that runs across the space. You can make rectangular pavers run the length of a wider space to make it look narrower. The key is to choose your paver patterns and designs to complement your home and its surroundings and not stick out like a sore thumb.

• Picking the paver pattern: Apart from the common circular pattern, other paver patterns that you can consider are basket weave patterns, running bond patterns, herringbone patterns and the European fan pattern (the last one being often considered to be the most challenging pattern to lay).  While small areas can be made to appear bigger with the running bond pattern, the herringbone pattern that’s famous for its durability and strength is ideal for regions with heavy furniture or traffic. Other patterns like the basket weave or circular ones are perfect for almost every spot of your outdoor space. According to some paver installation pros, circular or curved designs work especially well around a fire pit or water fountain, while irregular or random patterns look great in landscapes with a Tuscan or Mediterranean touch. Therefore, depending on the effect you wish to create and your landscape’s existing conditions, you should choose your paver pattern.

• Selecting within your budget: Setting a realistic budget for a landscape project is often one of the most difficult tasks and it’s no different for pavers. Still, you should compare prices online, talk to paver manufacturers and consult landscape designers to set your budget and find the right material that fits both your purpose and budget.

You can use these tips to choose the right paver patterns and designs that will help create a visually pleasing outdoor space, which enhances the appeal of your landscape and your home.

Water Saving Tips for Your Landscape

With a Mediterranean climate, the Bay Area enjoys cool, wet winters and suffers from summer droughts. Therefore, it’s important that people in this area use drought-tolerant plants in their landscape, in addition to employing efficient irrigation and water-saving methods. Here are some tips that will help you design a landscape that conserves water:

• Plan it in advance and maintain it – The trick to save water in your landscape is not to skimp plantation, but to use native and drought-tolerant plants. Consider dividing the yard into several zones and put plants in each zone with similar water needs. Remember to consider both the regional climate and microclimate to ensure that the zoning of plants is done properly. This will help you to avoid water wastage, apart from ensuring that every plant gets the required sunlight. For instance, irrigation is required in the low water use zone only when you add a new plant there. Again, plants in the moderate water use zone need more water than what is naturally provided. Finally, consider adding the thirstiest plants in the high water use zone. You may consider cutting back on the size of such plants, if possible, as this will help reduce water use.

• Keep a note of the soil in your landscape – Understanding the type of soil is important as this will help you to determine efficient watering practices. The three main particles that make up different combinations of soil are clay, sand and silt. Sand particles are the largest ones, while the clay particles are the smallest ones. Silt particles are of the medium size. Sandy soils get drained quicker and you need to water them more frequently. On the other hand, clay soils take more time to saturate and don't need frequent watering. Don't forget to enhance the soil quality at regular intervals as this will ensure better absorption of water and promote deeper roots.

• Water the plants properly – While watering the plants, you need to keep certain factors in mind. Consider watering all the plants deeply as this leads to deeper roots and also helps create a larger soil reservoir from which the plants can draw moisture, whenever required. Generally, you should water a lawn to a depth of about six to eight inches. Perennials and annuals should be watered to a depth of about twelve to eighteen inches. Watering to a depth of 2 to 3 feet is advisable for trees, whereas shrubs require watering up to a depth of twelve to thirty inches.

• Use mulches: By using mulches, you will prevent soil from crusting, ensure that the plant roots are cool, and let your landscape enjoy reduced evaporation and decreased weed growth.

• Take the necessary measures – Although there are certain basic rules of watering to follow, you should make necessary changes in the watering regime, as and when needed. Consider checking the water penetration by probing the soil with a metal rod or a stiff wire. If the soil is adequately moist, you can easily move the stick. However, if it is dry, it will be difficult for you to move the stick. Also, make it a point to adjust the watering schedule according to the seasonal changes.

• Maintain the landscape: You can conserve water when your plants and the turf are healthy. Therefore, opt for regular pruning, weeding, fertilizing and pest controlling measures to ensure that your landscape and the plants are healthy.

Use these water-conserving landscaping approaches to conserve energy as well as water.

5 Tips for Smart Outdoor Landscape Design

Outdoor landscaping isn’t all about planting a bunch of randomly collected shrubs and flowering plants haphazardly. If you do this, the wrongly placed plants won’t enhance the aesthetic appeal of your outdoor space. Rather, they would become a liability where you have to prune them frequently, apply expensive pest treatments, or even remove them entirely much earlier than their natural life spans. However, if you want to steer clear of such wastage of time, effort and money, you should design your landscape carefully. By keeping the following tips for outdoor landscaping in mind, you can create a landscape that doesn’t become a headache to maintain and gives your outdoor space an attractive look:

1. Keep an eye, both on the present and the future: A basic step for outdoor landscaping is to assess your present and future needs and design accordingly. For instance, it’s important to decide what you want to do in the space. Whether it’s to enjoy a relaxing mood, entertain guests, cook a meal or prepare a barbeque, play with your dog, grow vegetables, run around with your kids, or hang the laundry out to dry, you need to ascertain the purpose of your outdoor space. It’s equally crucial to consider future access to various elements of the landscape. After all, you may need some repair or renovation in the future, which could demand access to your yard for big/small machines like stump grinders, mowers etc. Therefore, your landscape architect should design after considering all these aspects.
2. Integrate some focal points: Your yard should have one or more focal points that attract the eye and engage the onlooker. Though the most common focal points used by landscape professionals are trees and statues, you can explore and use several other possibilities. Some of these include installing a bird bath, hanging flower baskets, using pebbles and stones of different sizes to demarcate a specific area, building a pool or water feature (pond/fountain), placing an ornate garden bench etc. You may even use a borrowed view or an architectural attribute of your house to create a focal point in your landscape that blends well with the overall style and theme of your outdoor space.  
3. Bring in some movement: A stiff landscape without movement looks very dull. Therefore, plan to add movements, and thus life and interest to your yard. It could be a few ornamental grasses that dance when the breeze blows over them, or it could be the flowers and berry producers that attract the birds and the bees.
4. Let your house blend in: Houses that are nothing short of architectural masterpieces can augment any landscape without much of an effort on the owner’s part. But if your home is a building with an average look and feel, you can choose some plants that will soften your home’s edges and let it blend with the setting. However, guard against planting with zest that makes your home hide behind an overgrown shrubbery. Remember – even the most ordinary homes have something interesting about them, which a thoughtful landscape architect can highlight and benefit from. 
5. Plant right: Choosing the right plants for your landscape and planting them at the right places is very crucial to create the landscape of your dreams. For example, the ideal location for a rose bed or vegetable garden is a place that gets adequate sunlight. You should also consider the growth rate of plants. Many choose fast-growing plants for their landscape to get the space filled with large trees and shrubs quickly but the money and time they need to invest to prune and maintain them later often outweigh the initial savings. Ensuring proper spacing between the plants is yet another important fact. This will guarantee proper air circulation to avert insect and fungal problems.

Remember that you don’t need to burn a hole in your pocket to create a beautiful landscape. Simply use the tips above to design carefully and ensure that you select your plants accordingly and place them at the right locations. When done the right way, your outdoor space will continue to enthrall and mesmerize you for years to come. 

5 Urban Landscape Architecture Design Ideas

Whether it’s your home, an office, a shopping mall or a park, designing them requires a lot of planning and careful coordination among various elements. Some designs can focus on simple and modern forms while using environment-friendly elements, while some others can be grand in their scale and execution. However, it’s important for landscape architects to have deep understanding and responsiveness to client requirements, site conditions, and sensitivity towards the bond between natural and constructed surroundings. The goal for every urban landscape project is to balance design and pragmatism to get striking end results that engage the user.

Here are five contemporary design ideas for your home that give you an idea of what to look for when you take your pick:

1. Rooftop decks: If your home enjoys the view of a lake or river, you can think of roof terraces to add charm to your space. If you want to create an oasis-style setting, you can use simple furniture and put greenery in planters to craft a relaxed, contemporary setting. This simple setting would go especially well if your river/lake views are flanked by an urban landscape. In case you have a limited space available to work with, opting for a crisp linear design will help you make the most of it.
2. Backyard with open terrace: This space can be put to use in different ways. If you have a lot of space to play with, you can get a pool or some other water feature installed, along with some big trees and native garden plantings. If you decide to have a pool or pond, the reflection of the sky and the trees will provide you with a quiet, contemplative feel. In case your living rooms open up onto the terrace, you can use the backyard as an extension for your indoor and outdoor activities. Having an open seating arrangement with garden umbrellas, tables, etc. can help you create a lovely and functional dining terrace.
3. Layered garden: People in the city often dream of having a green patch of their own but have to forego it due to space constraints. However, a layered garden can give the users a visibly sustainable and stylish garden to enjoy. If you too have always wanted a garden, albeit small in size, to relax and feel close to nature, you can ask your landscape professional to design one for your home. By layering elements, repeating materials and patterns, your landscape architect can create depth of field. This (the sculptural and constructed elements) can then be contrasted with planted elements to offer the onlooker a strong visual focus.
4. Outdoor fireplace: Whether you want a cozy nook in your garden to enjoy a quiet meal with family and friends, read a book, or simply laze around, having a fireplace installed would be a good way to jazz up the place. It could be a lone focal feature or a part of your outdoor kitchen area. Depending on the overall theme of your place, you can ask your landscaping professional to design it so that it blends well with the entire setting.
5. Party zone: Though you can always convert your backyard or patio to organize a party, it pays to have a dedicated party zone if you love to entertain often. You can use the rear of your property to welcome guests and put built-in benches, garden chairs, etc. to create a comfortable seating arrangement. If you have a fire-pit, the seating arrangement can be done around it. Having some plants and fences around the edges will also be a good idea to preserve the privacy of your guests while giving them a sense of spaciousness at the same time.

You can get these and many more ideas from your landscape architect as a professional would know what suits your space the best. So, give your landscape a makeover with these tips to enjoy your own personal space to the optimum.

Landscape Management Tips for the Rainy Season

Arrival of the rainy season marks many changes in your landscape. Apart from making the ground soft, the rains may also cause some shrubs and trees to lose their leaves or branches. Steady winds, which often accompany the rains, may cause havoc on your trees and shrubs by breaking some branches and making some others stoop or break. If you are worried about the impending rainy season, here are some landscape maintenance tips that will help you keep your turf safe and in good shape:

• Support/straighten leaning plants: If some of your garden’sadolescent plants are leaning after a heavy shower, take steps to straighten them. Allowing these plants to mature crooked and leaning will adversely affect the aesthetic quotient of your landscape. Therefore, take advantage of the wet soil and put these leaning adolescents into proper posture by offering support or just pulling them in position. In case such an effort breaks the crooked branches, you would still succeed in improving your property’s curb appeal.

• Remove the damaged/broken parts of plants: If your landscape is strewn with broken branches, hanging tree stakes, damaged plants that can’t be restored back to their healthy self, it’s important to remove them. You should have a systematic plan to take rounds of your turf during this season and spot such problem areas. Once you find them, get them removed and keep your landscape clean. 

• Protection against fungus: Heavy rains often make your plants damp, especially those that grow in the shade and don’ get adequate sunlight to dry up fast.This triggers the onset of microscopic fungi that anchor themselves on the stems and branches, thus damaging the leaves and the plant. Ornamental plums, flowering cherries and quite a few other trees are prone to such fungi attacks. Therefore, you should treat your plants to kill these micro fungi. In case the DIY approach is too tough to handle, you can hire landscaping professionals to get the job done.

• Ensure timely pruning and trimming: If your trees aren’t trimmed on time, they will become top-heavy and may end up going down in the rains and storms. In case these trees are close to a power line or your home, they can take the power line down while falling or cause serious damage to your property by crashing into the pool or roof or any other part of the home. With proper trimming and pruning, you can ensure structural strength and longer life for your foliage, in addition to increased safety. Regular trimming can also decrease the chances of losing branches/limbs or the entire trees to storm/rain damage. Though a good trimming can’t guarantee that you will not lose any trees, doing it would significantly alleviate the chance of such loss.

• Set up a rain sensor: Installation of such a sensor will identify instances when nature brings the water that your turf needs, and shut off the automatic sprinklers. This will decrease your energy costs while ensuring that your turf isn’t overwatered.

• Prevention against flooding: Heavy rains may often flood your turf. Preventing or limiting such flooding is a constant challenge for landscape owners. One way to combat this problem is to have proper drainage system in your garden. Another common practice is to use swales to clean out rain and storm water. A swale refers to a depression in your turf, whose depth can vary from 6 inches to a few feet. Swales can retain storm water runoff and treat it with a filter meant for pollutants and contaminants. Swales also facilitate drainage by letting water flow into canals/inlets or soak into the ground.

Use these tips to ensure that your landscape isn’t damaged by the rains.

5 Maintenance Tips for Your Landscape

In today’s busy life, most homeowners forget about their landscape once they have got it professionally installed. A handful of those who are still optimistic beat a hasty retreat once they find it too tiring and time consuming to deal with the endless deadhead blooms or high-maintenance plants. If you too feel that you don’t have the time or energy to invest in your landscape, you can use these five basic landscaping maintenance tips to keep your patch of green healthy and attractive:

1. Proper watering: In case your turf has newly planted species, remember that these plants will face a certain degree of transplant shock after their initial installation. It’s important that you water them properly to ensure good health. Since sprinklers and irrigation systems often fail to offer sufficient water to the roots, you should apply water directly to the roots. This will provide sufficient saturation and help the roots expand into the surrounding soil media. For turfs that are already established, you can set a watering schedule early in the morning. If you water your landscape sometime at noon, the water will evaporate too rapidly, while watering too late in the day may lead to humidity and growth of fungi. Also, you should avoid over watering as the turf roots need oxygen to survive. If you find standing water on your landscape or notice the turf to be soppy, you should reduce watering. In such cases, you may even consider topdressing or installing a drainage system.
2. Mowing, pruning and edging: Most landscaping experts suggest mowing two strips around the perimeter of your patch and then mowing in straight lines at right angles to this. The most effective method is to alternate the pattern every other mow, if possible. Pruning your plants and trees, especially their lower limbs, should be done carefully to avoid a negative impact over the life of the plant/tree. Edging is equally important for your landscape’s maintenance as a good edge keeps your turf looking great and creates separation between the turf and bed areas. You can prevent the grass from growing into the beds by edging every other mow.
3. Weed and moss control: Healthy landscapes haveno or minimal weeds.But when you notice a steady growth of weeds, you should remove them by hand or use a selective herbicide. Refrain from using a non-selective herbicide as it will kill both the weed and the grass. Moss control is another aspect of yard maintenance. Since moss is prone to occur in shady regions and in areas where the soil is not favorable for a healthy lawn, you can prune plants in such areas to bring in more sunlight. Opting for shade tolerant plants can also help control moss. If you spot moss in your garden, you can apply liquid iron to kill it within hours. Once the moss has died, scrape it out, either with a power rake or manually.  
4. Fertilization: You can consult landscape professionals to select the right fertilizer for your turf. Apply them carefully, as per instructions, because over fertilization can burn your turf. You can even use topdressing and aeration to amend the soil, thus decreasing the amount of fertilizers required.
5. Plan well: Analyze the life cycles and growth of your plants and plan their maintenance according to their requirements. Remember – good landscaping is all about maintaining a balance between how plants look when they are planted and how they will appear when they have become fully grown. Therefore, have patience, be ready to invest some time and have a maintenance plan handy.

If you feel that all these tasks require a lot of effort and time, and you are just not ready to sacrifice time for such tasks, it’s better to hire landscaping professionals to get the job done.