The shape and character of zen gardens result from the religious beliefs and philosophy which were focused on: trees, mountains, rocks, streams and even sides of the world. Japanese believed that composition of those elements has a benevolent impact on their life. Also the garden made according to the zen design needs to comply this order.

The thought and the symbol
All of the elements of nature are perceived as a symbols of ideas. The main rule that should be considered while arranging the Japanese garden is to show with those symbols some general, philosophical message, that is important in your life. The symbol should be easy in recognition. Composition of some plants and decorations may influent positively on our minds, enhance creativity or have calming qualities etc. It is also believed that symbols can improve our character traits and relations with people. For instance: stalks of bamboo placed in vase have good impact on our loyalty and reinforce relations between friends. On the other hand, low, flat rocks located next to the short plants in spots ensure your family safety and peace.

Read the rest of this entry »

For everyone who doesn’t have experience in garden design, the first self arranged theme garden can be a difficult task. Obviously you need to be well prepared, read a lot of self help books, magazines, articles etc. But this is only the first step. Even if you already know all the practical design tips, you’re still far away from implementation of your tailor-made cottage garden….

Where to start?

First thing you should do is analysis of your needs and exact function of your garden. Start from the project on graph paper. It doesn’t have to be full professional plan, but only initiative project, which will certainly help you to implement your concept. Apply all the items, buildings, all the other objects you wish to have and already existing trees and shrubbery, as well. Then prepare the data base of plants you want to crop in your garden (reflect short characteristic of each plant). To keep the order, divide the plants for groups (grasses, leafy, coniferous, stalks, bulbs, herbs etc.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Everybody knows how useful are covered spaces in stores or restaurants. Below you can find some more or less conventional propositions for using them at your own house…

As a patio

Walkway is a perfect place where you can spend time with your family and friends eating dinners and drinking coffee during both hot and rainy days. Especially if you decorate the space under the roof with some climbing flowers, the atmosphere will be charming. Additionally, thanks to the rain protection, covered walkway allows you to bring CD recorder, listen to your favorite music and just relax. You can also sit there working with your PC or simply reading a book, even in a heavy rain.

As a dance hall

If you love to organize parties for your friends and to have fun with them in a free time, covered walkway will be suitable for you as a dance floor! Under the modern-shaped, spectacular roof intimate date or all-night-long party will be always great attraction, even despite the bad weather. It’s construction allows you to put up speakers, lights and any other decorations and crate your own disco. In case of pleasant warm nights you can also use it as a place for buffet and have party outside. Your friend are gonna love it…

Read the rest of this entry »

The owners of garden centres are usually faced with one issue: how to make their object both functional and visually appealing for visiting clients.

Main advantage

Covered walkways solve this problem.
Firstly, they are perfect protection for plants. Regardless the weather: rain or burning sun, even delicate, exotic flowers and shrubs will be provided with ideal conditions. It is possible thanks to the special design of walkway, which is equipped with solar filters to ensure the plants optimal insulation and moisture.

Usability
Walkways have many other advantages. One of them is their aesthetic appearance which will give your business place a professional and modern look. Using covered walkways you can create, for instance many different thematic sections or interesting aisles, with individual species and varieties of plants. In this way, you will make the centre an attractive place for customers who will be willing to visit.

Facility

One more important fact is that installation of walkways in the garden centre is easy and quick. You don’t need any permission for it and the whole process of building takes 2-5 weeks (exact time depends of the size of project). Additionally those new architectural elements in your centre will be perfectly tailored to the other parts of your. Finally they will look like integral part.

Indepedently of your centre’s size and specialization our solution is cost-effective improvement of your business and solution that can help you make this place customer-friendly.

Winter gardens (which were use to called orchards as well) have been well known in Europe for ages but recently they’ve became really popular and trendy. The main reason is their attractiveness and increasing availability.

Below are presented 5 most useful tips which concern building our own winter garden.

1. Plan
Every winter garden needs to be constructed according to professional project. In case it’s not built simultaneously with a new house, you can simply order the project by the contractor.

2. Founds
Winter gardens are usually built on concrete founds with reinforcements. It is important that founds of construction need to be separated from house’s with Styrofoam. You should also remember that the bottom layer has to be isolated from the ground wetness.

Read the rest of this entry »

Limited space in your garden doesn’t force you to give up with all of your fresh concepts like: flowerbeds, rockery, fountain, swing or covered places. However contemporary garden design is all about expansive acres in the country, when you don’t have such a big area, can still adapt some concepts and arrange your small space to your relax, enjoy and enhance your home. Just use your imagination…

Good taste, view and imagination are very helpful, but the only real way to learn how to design garden is by doing it. Don’t be afraid of changes, trying new arrangements and mixing different styles. During this work you can find some very interesting solution you didn’t even consider before.

While planning your garden space remember about the few general rules:

1. Minimalism and functionality

In a small space every additional item seems to be bigger and much more visible than in a large one. So when you wish to have, for instance, a swing or table and chairs, the best option is to buy collapsible furniture (like low coffee table and small chairs with comfortable pillows), which can be replaced easily at any time to you could gain the space.

2. Order

That’s the basic structure of every garden. Order can be obtained through symmetry (as in a formal garden) through composition of couple of plants or colors and through balancing particular features with a comparable weight of some other different features of plants.
Order in your garden doesn’t have to be marked. It may be intuitive as well. You can design two basic sections: plants/decorations and time-spending, and connect them fluently with particular flower species. In our small garden reasonable solution that let us have a lot of variable plants without loosing space, are hanged flowerpots and cases.

3. Harmony

The parts of the garden need to be composed to suit together as a whole. This can be accomplished by using a specific color palette or repetition of plants, which will give the garden a rhythm.

Other useful tips for small garden gadgets:

Read the rest of this entry »

Covered outdoor space is a good solution for those restaurants owners who consider how to make their places more attractive for customers.

Space

Main advantage of covered patio in a restaurant is simple: more space for guests. Customers want to have an opportunity to take a sit in the fresh air, outside the restaurant, especially during warm spring or summer months. When needed to choose between two restaurants of which one has a cool, airy patio and the other one doesn’t, most of them would certainly pick the first of them.

Atmosphere

Another profit from a covered, extended patio is that it gives the restaurant fresh look and enhance it’s style, so it can be good supplement for the place. Particularly in case of themes restaurants offering, for instance, Italian or Provence cuisine, covered area outside, surrounded with flowers or vines would be surely helpful in building of a specific, local atmosphere of the place.

Read the rest of this entry »