Many of us are currently relaxing around home during the Christmas/New year break. Now is a great time to do some introspection, to find out how you feel about your current outdoor space. A time to think about what would make you want to spend more time outdoors in your garden. If you are contemplating upgrading your current space, or maybe you have newly built a home and wanting to develop the garden and outdoor space so it will link with the home and reflect what’s important to you. Start with looking through magazines and books, and online to get some inspiration and your creative juices flowing, you will then have a better idea of what you want to incorporate into your great outdoors. So note down all the things you want in this outdoor space. Things that you might want to incorporate into this area: • Overhead structure, ideally with louvers, these are simply the best way to extend the outdoor season, you can close down the louvers, alter the angle or simply retract them to allow the sun to stream in. Side blinds are a great way to control the wind; this is high on many peoples list, as this spring and summer there has been constant wind from every imaginable direction. To justify spending money on the outdoor space, it make sense to incorporate ideas that will ensure you spend many hours outdoors, to ensure you will extend the outdoor season . It’s also important that you feel good in this space and makes you want to and of course it’s also important that you are are aware of what people are including into their gardens, this way you are mindful of the importance should you decide to sell your property at some future time. • Outdoor kitchens, are a practical option, benches, fridge, maybe a washing up sink, BBQ, Teppanyaki grill, seating, outdoor fire, TV so there are a lot of options to consider, Raised garden beds, lighting, decking and patios, spa pool and maybe all the items you want to include will be around a swimming pool. The ideas are endless, the area can include all of the above, or maybe you just want a basic functional area, the choice is yours. Now you can have fun … Once you have decided what you want, you can start to design how all this will fit in, link and flow together. Start by doing a scaled plan for this area; make sure you find out the actual size of all the things you will be including, you can cut out all these items and place them onto your plan and move them around until you are have with how it looks and works.

This preliminary landscape draft has just been completed. Lots going on here, client wanted the works: Swimming pool, spa, raised gardens, outdoor changing room, toilet and shower,decking's and patios. Overhead retractable louvers, BBQ and Teppanyaki grill and seating around a fire pit. Once competed this will become a stunning outdoor entertainment area for family and friends to enjoy.

For many of us , holidays overseas and travelling beyond NZ is not something we can take seriously anytime soon. This has seen many people investing into their properties, using money they would've usually spent on travel. Swimming pools, spas, outdoor dinning, fires, overhead structures and landscaping to name just a few. Life as we now know it, is very different now days, out of the adversity has been opportunity. Opportunity to reset and redefine our lifestyles, what makes us happy and feel good. This has been a great time to embrace change and redefine whats important to us. In one of my previous posts "There is life after lock-down" i alluded to how we would all be spending more time closer to home, and indeed around our immediate properties. Im determined not to have my life defined by Covid, however i think of myself as a realist. We are indeed living in some very uncertain times, at any stage we could see our freedom and ability to travel outside our immediate area being effected. Should we be unfortunate enough to be confined to our bubbles in the future, it will be easier to tolerate, and be more enjoyable if we have used our time wisely post Covid to get ourselves and our home and our outdoor spaces organised. Maybe now is a great time to seriously consider investing into a swimming pool. There are many reasons people might decide on installing a pool. Its a great hub for entertainment, to have fun and keep your kids and family close by, and create lifelong memories. There's lots to think about when including a pool into your landscape. What shape, what size, where exactly is the best position for the pool, what other things do you want incorporated into this outdoor entertaining area. Maybe an outdoor fire, out door oven, seating, barbecue, pizza oven. Overhead structures for shade and cover, louvers are great for this. They can be tilted to allow sun in, or can be closed if the weather is inclement. Lots to think about, pools are a large investment, make sure you deal with a reputable pool specialist who has good credentials, and is associated with all the other sub-trades to make the experience fun and exciting and to ensure the investment will be a good one.

Many things in our lives can be statements or expressions of who we are. The vehicle we drive, our house, our clothes. These things can be outlets to express our personalities and make a statement. Our gardens and outdoor areas are a great way to express who we are and what’s important to us. It’s often a reflection of our individuality and lifestyle. Garden styles are as varied as our personalities., no one size fits all, best way to avoid the cookie cutter look is to avoid using lots of generic off the shelf items, if you go down that route, your place will not stand out and nor will your personality show through. Try engaging a Landscape design professional to create a one off look, make a point of difference, if this person is truly working for you they will listen, help guide and fashion your ideas in a way that will work and help you unleash the “inner creative” locked inside you. Outdoor spaces are a wonderful place to get creative. There’s nothing like spending time in an environment that says … THIS IS ME! No matter what ideas you may have, start with the planning process to identify and define your own lifestyle and the things you want to include. If you have the ideas but feel swamped and over whelmed by choice or how to actually make it all work, simply choose a place to start. This could be the front of your home or the entry area, as this area is often the first place people see and can say a lot about who you are. Just get started, jot down and start formulating your ideas, and let your imagination fly.

Coming off lock-down and moving through the levels: Recently most of us have had way more time on our hands than we are used to since entering lock-down. Even at level 3 and beyond life will be far from what we’ve known as normal. For me personally and probably for many it’s been a stay-cation, spending lots of time inside and outside, close to our homes. For some of us it’s been difficult making this adjustment. For others me included, it’s been a great time to reflect on what things have been neglected around the home. Since the lock-down, like many I have been ticking things off a long list and completing many of these neglected tasks. Before lock-down many of us have been way too busy, rushing here and there, and after a busy working week we feel we just want to escape the routine, for us it was head to a cafe or a restaurant, maybe a chance to meet up over a meal with family or friends. We have come to realise we weren’t really spending quality time in and around our home. The lock-down has provided us all with the opportunity to reflect on our lifestyles, figure out what’s really important to us. It’s also a time to ask ourselves what we do or don’t like about our properties and more importantly how we feel when we hang out around home. An occupational hazard of being a Landscape Consultant and Designer is, whenever I travel or go walking, I can’t but help look at gardens. What has become very obvious to me when walking our dog daily, most people have a lot of money invested and many homeowners do care how their gardens look, and take pride in their properties. What has also become apparent to me while walking is, many gardens as viewed from the street have become tired and some have just lost that impact and street appeal? It’s obvious the ones that have initially had some guidance from a professional, and many owners have had a crack at doing it themselves. Regardless, over time as any garden matures, the garden changes and needs an update or upgrade, all gardens eventually fall into this category due to age. What’s encouraging, is many of the properties I see, simply need some short sharp fine tuning, a few tweaks here and there to refresh them, to make them stand out. The other good thing is, most of these changes and tweaks cost very little. What needs to be understood is the money we spend on the presenting our properties, especially the front garden as seen by others, if dealt with properly will nett you way more than the cost to initiate and make these changes. It’s a known and accepted fact by landscaping the front of a property in many cases will return and add way more value than spending on a new kitchen or bathroom. This is especially so if you are prepared to do the work yourself, but under the guidance of a Landscape design professional. Let’s face it the way we operate in the world has been changed forever. Our buying and spending patterns have been altered, what we do and how we do it, and where we go has changed. This is not all bad, we have been given an opportunity to stop, step back and take a look at how we live. We can make positive change to our lives and lifestyles. Many people will spend less time and money going out to cafes and restaurants and holidays outside of New Zealand. Also how we entertain and value we place on the indoors and outdoors of our homes. If we are to spend more time entertaining and staying home we want our properties to reflect who we are, and what feels right for us personally. It’s a privilege to be asked into someone’s private world, but also enjoyable and fun to socialise at home. This can be a great thing, saving you money, and giving you more control and safety over who we have around us. I challenge you all to google the word HYGGE … Hygge is a Danish and Norwegian word for a mood of cosines and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment what a great time to incorporate this into our lives and homes. Now is a great time to decide how your entertaining areas will function best, and how to go about incorporating all the things you need and want. Functionality is important, but equally how it looks and makes people feel is important too. The other aspect to consider is to be sure that the changes you make to your property are ones that will add value to your property asset. Maybe you are tired of how your garden looks, or not happy with how it is, but lack the confidence and motivation to get started … I can help! 1. Simply start by making an appointment. 2. I will call to your property, we will have a chat and do a walk around and ascertain what changes are you require. Options available: Option 1. If the changes required are straight forward, these can be suggested verbally on-site by way of a consultation. Option 2. If more instruction is required I can provide you with an on the spot quote for a Landscape plan which you can follow and do the work yourself, of if preferred have a Landscaper do the work for you … It’s that simple! Call David on 027 2271609

Yes winter can be a dreary sombre time of the year, but you don’t have to look far to see some magical things either. Winter brings a sharp contrast to summer; these majestic trees shed their coat of leaves to reveal the wonderful naked form and structure of these individual specimens. Their silhouette can stand out starkly yet they can almost disappear magically to reveal buildings and the surrounding things of interest that we are unable to see during the summer when they wear their cloak of leaves. Sunlight pours through warming us on a cold winter’s day.

An existing Courtyard in the Christchurch suburb in the heart of Merivale. The site was small (9x4m) was lacking privacy was uninspiring and lacked any feature or interest … summary, boring!

An existing Courtyard in the Christchurch suburb of Sumner. Small site (11x4m) uninspiring sterile and boring. Work within the existing confines of the established paving, but were required to soften and change its harsh lines and overall appearance. To create a courtyard oasis, private and tranquil with luxuriant foliage, a place to escape, relax and be at one with nature.

The design services we offer to Builders, Developers and Home build companies... are similar to those we offer to our regular clientele. However Builders and Developers often have a unique criterion given that many of the works in commercial environs are a site specific, being a mix of larger and smaller projects with such diversity, this requires the skills of a professional to ensure the specific brief of a project is achieved. Our clients benefit from our many years of practical experience in New Zealand, Europe and the United Kingdom.