Steve Snedeker’s Landscaping and Gardening Blog

 I love the look of yet more running, curving pavers bordering grass and planting areas. The small white squares are actually lights, very low wattage (7 Watts) and subtle.  The air out here is so clear at night that it can get very  dark, sometimes, and, conversely lit by a full moon. With those mountains to look at during the day, this house could be nowhere else.  This is becoming a nearly perfect job, for a myriad of reasons, perhaps especially considering the people.  For sheer creative purposes alone, it has been as satisfying as any in my past and Doug and Louise have supplied fascinating and unique ideas. 

We have done a few of these now, installing fire pits in patios or just outside them.  We connect gas from the house which supplys a grate of concentric circles with holes for the gas placed evenly around it.  The valve controlling the rate of gas and fire size is just directly upwards in the picture, under a shiny brass lid set at paver height. We enjoyed placing the rocks around it, providing some of that good old primitive seating around the fire.  It provides warmth on the occasional cool Summer nights we get at 5,000 feet above sea level.  “Smores, anyone?”

Here’s some prospective from across the raised and contoured lawn.  The nice green of a medium sized lawn forms the real basis of the design, providing a basic color against which the riot of colors of the garden and the water feature’s great sounds and motions cascading slowly and lightly over the small falls and creek to the pond reduce the entirity to a human and refreshing scale.  This picture proceeds the equally relevant ones following.  Thanks Steve and Mary.

I added this one because of the great view it gives of what perennials can provide in a landscape, an illustrated poossibility.  Notice the color variety and their intensity, which was the effect we were after.  All those electric colors provide eye candy for the water behind it and add so mich to a verdant, green lush look overall. 

We made this water feature and did the landscaping for an absolutely delightful couple, Steve and Mary.  Lots of laughs and plenty of respect, they were on it from the first and have since maintained this place wonderfully.  One of those “reasons I do this” kind of jobs, fun in the construction, in the design as it unfolded and then love and fun when completed.  They still owe me dinner, though! Wait, I think they served it and I missed it, lol.  Anyway, looks good, doesn’t it?

Here’s a great example of one of many options in terms of laying patterns of brick pavers. We were able to bend the “flow” in a sort of “running bond” pattern utilizing a break to the right and yet a different direction. The effect is a comfortable slow “S” curve which captures something along the lines of motion.

And, yes, this is the same house with the “Romanesque” Grotto and the formal entry. In fact, it is the same house which had the ‘Infinity Edge’ water feature as well. If you look to the far right in the picture, you can just barely make out the rear edge of the pond. These folks had a laundry list of items they wanted to implement, lol, and it was nice and long. We were there pretty much forever. And we did at least 5 neighbors homes that I can remember too. It was one of those neighborhoods that we “could not get away from”. Don’t worry, as a business, I loved that.

The picture taken here was absolutely immense. If you click the picture twice, you can see what I mean and get some pretty splendid details.

Bo and Sandy, if you guys read here, I hope you’re still enjoying it all as much as you were.

This is the view from above the stairs, walls and deck from the previous 2 posts.  It is Winter in this shot, and daytime, of course, so the grass is not its typical verdant green, nor are the lights of this casino town on as yet.  It is one wild, 270 degree view, however.  I think you can get the picture. Darn near breath-taking vistas all ’round.

A bit better look at the stairs from the May 30 post.  This was obviously taken during the construction process but I believe it gives insight into just how these can be constructed.  There was some leaching out of limes and salts in the cement and we treated it appropriately, scrubbing with a light acid mix, then sealing the blocks..