“Design Up-Front”

ESPatch Aug 5, 2013 7 comments

C:UsersJohn_PCDocumentsCorbett2012 WillowSANDERS_042913 Mo

This contemporary house / garage apartment is shortly to be built on the east side of Austin.

I am signed up to design and install the landscape and exterior hardscaping on the property.

I wanted to get a head start on the project but I needed to really understand the architecture and site layout to develop a consistent and appropriate scheme.

I decided the best thing would be to construct the house in 3D based on the architectural plans (which are hard to digest, even for the trained eye)…

Here are the 3D building blocks representing the outside dimensions and architectural design:

I concentrated on the main front area as my first priority is to design the area from the street down both sides of this house.

As this is a completely new construction it is a clean slate, nothing to work in or around…the luxury!

3D model taking shape.

The home owners requested minimal plants and ultra-low maintenance.

Here is the final post-rendered model in-situation with a superimposed minimalist xeriscape planting scheme. The final image helped the homeowners visualize how their future new home and landscape is going to look.

Architectural_Landscape_Design__Xeriscape

Now, it may be sweltering hot in our current August temperatures but I will get some frosty Arizona ‘blue-ice’ cypress trees into the scheme!

Cupressus arizonica

Stay Tuned for:

“X Marks the Scot”

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“Picking on the Paddles”

ESPatch Apr 20, 2013 4 comments

Looking like Medieval instruments of torture the hooks on these

Opuntia ellisiana

paddles (spineless prickly pear) have been keeping someone very busy this week.

First comes the paddle selection…

…there is no shortage to choose from,

then the picking,

and removal of ‘select’ hooks.

“The beauty of suffering.”

Like little voodoo dolls I keep finding them all around the house, dangling where ever there is a free nail.

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2009/08/pressing-along/

They are like Cactus Man’s…

Moving Less Disturbingly Along:

Plants are very happy after our rain and sun.

My post oak has finally leafed out and stopped raining its catkins everywhere.

Inland sea oats are quick on the rise, and one of my favorite tropical-looking shrubs,

Nerium oleander,

‘Hardy Red’ is putting on a, well…red show on the edge of my Hell-strip.

‘Hardy Red’ tolerates temperature extremes better than the white and pink cultivars, it blooms sporadically through most of the year.

Prefers sharp soil and good drainage,

as do most things in the Patch, like this

back-lit sotol, and these barrels:

I contemplated picking off last year’s old blooms, then decided better of it. I will wait until I have my pliers, besides there is that stubborn piece of Bermuda grass that I always have to work on, (bottom-right) but I do not want to talk about that.

herbert lom dreyfus

With the discovery of the first tadpoles of the year, the netting began.

Not so little fingers went fast to work,

their catch and release policy even included a few baby goldfish which is a good thing considering recent events.

Finally:

My landscape design portfolio finally outgrew the page that it once inhabited in here, so for the past few weeks I have been busy learning Thesis 2 and building a new home for it in here:

http://www.leveridgelandscapedesign.com/