Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Get the EDGE


With all that summer fun you have had, not it is time to get back to it. Your yard is waiting for you. Get out there and prepare for next year. Begin with setting the boundaries to your vision with beautiful concrete landscape borders.

Your plan:
  1. Map out your vision (lay out all of those photos you have saved over the years and assemble the pieces to your dreams).
  2.  Yard prep - clean out the clutter 
  3. Begin with the basics- put in your borders and edging to give your yard the feel you desire
  4. Prepare your garden beds 
  5. Fill in your grass where you may have been a little rough with it
  6. Insert any yard decorations you wish to add accents with
You are now ready for spring.

Once spring hits get to work planting those flowers and trimming the shrubs, trees, and manicure your lawn.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Do-It-Yourself Landscaping Made Simple


Are you ready to concur your yard and build your dream landscape? 
Whether its a simple dream with flower beds or an extravagant yard wrapped with luscious vegetation, beautiful décor, and professional look, begin your complete landscape transformation today.

First things first, figure out what you are capable of doing on your own and what your limitations are to determine how far you can go before you need to call for help. Your project map will include; your style, elements that fit your skill level, starting with a clean work site, running your ideas by a professional, cost considerations, flexibility, and evaluating your time and financial investment. Secondly, determine your edging style, if it is creative concrete edging that will last a lifetime or more, have that installed prior to beginning your project. Your edging expert Creative Edge can help you lay  out the rest of your project.

Mapping out your project
1. Determine your style
Many do-it-yourselfers, have taken pictures or cut images out of magazines to summarize their dreams and provide a visual of how they want everything to turn out. You may consider creating a file with all your favorite items all together so you can use it a foundation for your plan. Your current landscape condition and extent of your desired outcome, may determine how much you might or might not be able to accomplish. Some people may be content with a few changes to what they already have, like adding a few new beds or landscape edging surrounding their lawn. Some might focus on simple landscapes which include optimizing existing landscape elements. These two categories easily fit do-it-yourself landscaping. Others wanting to maximize square footage with numerous shrubs, complicated flower and garden beds surrounded by extensive creative edging, having plenty of complicated tasks requiring some heavy lifting to prepare for the extensive project, might want to include a professional landscape architect as part of your plan.

2. Evaluate your skill level
Do your friends say you have a green thumb and that they are jealous of your grace and ease making your yard look so beautiful, or do you find that you just can’t get it right? At whatever level you find yourself determine if do-it-yourself landscaping fits. Research is a good place to start, if you find that you can envision your yard changing and see yourself completing many difficult projects, if you are familiar with different soil types, plants, shrubs and gardening, then do-it-yourself landscaping may be just what the doctor ordered.

3. Junk the junk!
As you lay out your project the first thing on your list should be getting rid of extra clutter, undone projects and extra pieces, that may stand in the way of completing your ideal landscaping transformation.

4. When to seek professional advice
If you are determined to go it alone, you may consider at least running your plan by someone that has done something like this before, or a landscape professional, to make sure you have the pieces in order and can plan for any gotchas that may pop up.

5. Budget considerations
Some landscape elements may vary in cost due to changes in items used, they could even cost less than you originally planned or you might encounter adding things you didn’t plan on that will drive your costs up. To figure out what fits into your budget, map out each section separately closely scrutinizing items used, then put it all together for a final tally. If you have included a landscape professional in your planning stages, consult with them to help determine a cost baseline to work from.

6. Be patient
Many people are impulsive and buy on emotion, you may have found yourself in years past buying that beautiful flower pot, those landscaping bricks, or that beautiful lattice, and over the years looking back saying to yourself, why did I buy that in the first place. Having a methodical approach to your landscaping project will help you lay out exactly what you want and how it will make you feel. Remember it is art that you are working with, only this is not a piece of paper you can just wad up and throw away. Evaluate each element and how it will work with everything around it. Be patient especially in the planning stage, and do everything one step at a time.

7. Plan to be flexible
Planning may not be the end all, as you begin your project allow for additions that may come along that work better. In your planning stage include some flexibility with each area of focus so as to be able to incorporate something you come across that you really love. You may kick yourself if you just plunge in and finish your project with blinders on then realizing after the fact that you would have liked to include….. You may however want to sit back down and make sure the new feature fits with everything on your plan before adding it in. Having a flexible approach to your dreams will bring it all together in your beautiful art landscape.

8. Plan out your investment of time and money
Developing a plan requires that you put real elements in place along with numbers to realistically project your investment of time and expense. Decide how much time you can devote and establish a dollar figure you are willing to invest to make this project a reality. Stick to your plan, pay as you go so you don’t end up working at it for the rest of your lives and then working to pay off the credit card for years to come. 

View related article for Creative Edge http://ezinearticles.com/?Do-It-Yourself-Landscaping-Made-Simple&id=7868149 Article Written By: Fred A Selby

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

CURB APPEAL for Your Home

  • Are you looking for ways to set your home apart from your neighbors?
  • Are you constantly trying to make your yard look better?
  • Are you tired of looking at that same old ugly yard?
  • Have you seen a yard you want yours to look like?

If you answered yes, you are ready to give your home/yard that long awaited make over!!
Take your yard from this                                                       
                                                                            To This!








Every spring millions of people head outside to find their yard overgrown and lacking that spark that gives them excitement about being outside and enjoying their front or backyard. Most people try to add something to their yard to give it better curb appeal, and many times its something that breaks down and looks dull or grey after a year or two.

If that is you, consider adding permanent beautifying borders, made from concrete, which keep looking great year after year. If you have considered concrete borders before and thought it would be too expensive, you may be pleasantly surprised. Concrete edging per linear foot, compared to plastic or wood borders over time, factoring in self installation, maintenance, and cost of supplies, ends up being very comparable. Concrete curbing can be installed in many different shapes and sizes. AND now with concrete coloring, you can have your edging installed in a variety of colors too!

Advantages of permanent concrete edging or borders:
  1. Provides structure and elegance to your yard above any other product
  2. Doesn't break down due to the elements and lawn maintenance
  3. Doesn't get squashed down and dissapear 
  4. Because of the width and height of the concrete edging it is hard to get overgrown
  5. Unlike stone, bricks, or blocks creative concrete borders stay put and don't get kicked around
  6. Concrete curbing lasts a lifetime
  7. Gives your yard that well defined border that keeps everything in it's place
  8. Concrete borders can help keep people and vehicles off sensitive landscape areas
  9. Most effective root barrier over any other product
  10. Design flexibility give that softening look to your yard landscape project
So before you consider any other product to give your yard just the right look, remember there is only one way to get great CURB appeal- Creative Concrete Edging and Borders!


Visit our website for more information on how to give your yard Curb Appeal: www.creativeedging.com

Friday, March 29, 2013

Give your yard greater curb appeal!

Do you have the yard you want? Well it is easy and not too expensive to get that curb appeal you have always dreamed of.

Do you wish you had a back yard that was organized and had everything in its place like this yard?
 
Or this beautiful garden with curbing.
 
Consider concrete borders, that give a lifetime of beauty and keep things in their place.
Check out our webstie www.creativeedging.com to begin your project today. Link into our gallery and see other examples of what we can do for you. http://www.creativeedging.com/gallery.html