This is one of those pictures only a landscaper could like. Please forgive me. I have even used this one before in this blog, I liked it so much. It’s the “construction dude” in me, I guess.

It shows a project actually designed by someone other than myself, which is highly unusual in this blog. Typically, I give credit when it occurs and the rest are my designs and installations. This was a recent project undertaken for my good friend John Stone, who runs a local Portland/Washington company called JP Stone Contractors. He’s many things, but he is this: a hardscape specialist about as good and interesting as anyone I have ever seen. We have worked closely for nearly a decade now.

Anyway, it resulted in this: (which I thought was a pretty cool look and a great patio)

Since patios and outdoor living are this week’s theme, I’ve been surfing my pictures to find good examples of some of the more intriguing patios we’ve constructed. I hope I am not being too redundant and I know I probably am, but it is the time of year for patios, so I say go for it. There may be an idea or two someone can use in here because so many are considering patios any more, integrtated with their landscape projects.

A good patio can serve the same purpose as a good driveway. Inasmuch as they occupy a pretty sizable territory, they catch they eye and result in some serious and permanent curb appeal. They each tend to add value to a property which never changes, depending, of course, on the material. As can be plainly seen, I am a believer in the highly compressed interlocking brick pavers in my work. They have more than proven my statement about adding value over a very long period of time. Here are a few more:

The last are back to our own creations. The other and perhaps even more primary considerations with all this patio madness is how the home owners enjoyed them. They have. To be perfectly honest, if I did not have some envy surface as we were finishing a project, then I would feel my client had not been well-served.

Some patios can have stuff stuck in the middle of them! Like these two:

And others can be right out in the lawn!

And some can be “out there” in other ways:

Here’s a smoothie:

I can smell Summer around the corner. In Portland, it went from the 50’s to the 90’s in a couple of days. Weird and powerful, naturally the entire local galaxy is outdoors, lured there by a looming cool front……….. naturally. This year, it honestly figures.

Having whined sufficiently, what it HAS done is take people outdoors. The evenings are gorgeous, sensual with the smells of Spring still in the air and the heat like a warm embrace, full and enveloping. Folks will be wanting to spend that time outdoors. The fact is, it’s cooler there, for one thing. Naturally, it’s also just a great place to be. It reminds me of outdoor environments I have lived in as well as the labors we have put into other people’s prized possession: their homes. There have been many of both. Some smaller:

And some larger:

And some…….Humongous:

In any event, there is still always this: Patios like these are what we have made to allow people to extend their living spaces from the walls of their home, outwards, into the night, into the Sun, and into the Great Outdoors. They provide yet another room, a different place and a virtual connection to Nature. Indoors, we have our mental life and our constructs to provide protection and privacy. Outdoors, these things change. Patios provide us this environment. A good patio, in the end, doesn’t require alot: it is flat and outdoors. That’s about it and just about all one needs. A “great patio” has some other attributes……beauty of form, bells and whistles, even, lights or even a kitchen for the more “barbeque-bold”.

Patios are our way of giving back to ourselves. They provide a warm and intimate place for all of our souls and those of our friends and families. Or a cool one.

One more trip around the park with it’s Rhododendron theme. I may post pictures of plants other than rhodies, I haven’t made up my mind yet. Hey…….it’s my blog. 😉

Spiring has finally arrived, possibly because of a few nasty letters I wrote. I am not taking full credit, but, well, there it is. Just the same, the long-lasting and cool Spring has meant a flurry of floral activity here, with some prolonged blooming time. So I guess all was not lost.

OK, I have decided to vary into the unthinkable: things other than rhododendrons. Take this creek for example……… or the interesting maple following that and it’s totally Copper/Burgundy background. That’s a Japanese Maple with Copper Beech behind it.

A total favorite Viburnum of mine had always been the “Double File”. I have put them all over. Unfortunately, they never did great in Reno, owing to a liking for more acidic soils and the need, like the rare rhodies planted there, for Northern Shade and wind protection. In other words, up against the house on the North side, lol, and almost literally no where else without dense shade and a fence. But I think my reasons for liking the plant are obvious:

And, from a non park source, straight from my neighborhood:

Just one more…………….back to those boring Rhodies: