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.

The unity of the space
Another crucial rule is harmony between the interior and outdoor space. It means that the occupants and guests should still have visual contact with both of those parts of the house. Thus, solution recommended by designers are: winter garden or glass door to the garden, which don’t limit your vital space. Terrace, porch or winter garden is – according to zen philosophy claims – another room, which should be “equipped” in plants and rocks instead of any furniture. It allows you to meet demand of another rule – direct contact with nature.

Miniaturization of the landscape
The idea of miniaturization is a focal point of Japanese culture. It can be easily reached by using appropriate decorations. Thanks to small accessories you can reflect the idea of the unity with nature.
The items you can use are: bowls with water – symbol of the ocean, shrubbery, bonsai trees that reflect trees and forests or rocks and sculptures – symbols of strength and eternity.

Designers advise also to create the miniature gardens in boxes – compositions of the sand, rocks and plants – and place them next to the house entrance.

A little bit of English chic composed with some exotic decorations – these are the main features of colonial style. It was born many centuries ago as a result of two cultures  impact: progressive and the spiritual one. Today colonial style experiences its revival in home and garden design. How to arrange  the garden in such an innovatory design and avoid kitsch?

To create colonial garden you need to plan carefully all the details: plants, furniture, accessories and decorations, surface of the patio, paths etc. Every item, particularly its material, is important. Crucial issue is unity of style of all objects and plants in your garden.

Surfaces
Surface of the ground and paths should be calm and sober to contrast with all oriental decorations in the garden. Avoid colorful sets and irregular shapes. Highly recommended materials are precious rocks, styled on the old pavement. Surface of the patio should be made of smooth, natural rock or wet-cast slabs that perfectly remind sandstone.

Decorations
Essential items in colonial garden are specific furniture and decorations, like sculptures and figures. The best are those made of dark wood: teak, rosewood and mahogany. It is common for the colonial furniture that they are not seamless but connect different materials (like wood and bamboo). Furniture are usually located on the patio while inside of the garden, alongside the paths recommended are small, wooden or rock statues of Buddha, Shiva, Brahma, rings hanged on the trees or under the walkway’s ceiling.

Plants
Oriental flowers are spectacular and perfect for garden in colonial design. However beautiful, they are difficult in growing, while herbs (oregano, basil, rosemary) and ornamental grasses are both attractive and weather resistant.

Arrangement
Atmosphere in colonial garden is relaxed and easy – its arrangement should reflect this fact. Though symmetry and order do not play main role here, there are some obligatory elements that are occured regularly: hedges, tapestries and arcs. To improve the atmosphere, find some corner for rest and isolation, where a bower or pergola could be mounted. Encircle this place with high, climbing plants or exotic trees. Colonial design of your garden can be good form of distinguishing your garden from the neighbours’ ones.

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.)

Plants

The set of plants appropriate for cottage garden is really rich and diversified. Actually, there are no limits in flowers composing. The more colorful, filled with flowers and varied your garden is, the more authentic effect of charming cottage you gain. The atmosphere of your garden should be easy and relaxing. So you don’t need to worry about sophisticated, exotic plants. Simplicity, nature and multiplicity of different plants are highly recommended here. Thus, main advantage of having the cottage garden is that the plants are cheap and easy in taking care of.

Making the atmosphere…

As it was mentioned, cottage garden is characterized by easy, cheerful atmosphere. To enhance this atmosphere and accent its natural style, it is recommended to encircle the garden space with wooden or wooden-rock fence. It will let you make impression of natural unity with the surrounding. Moody corners with wooden bower, small pond with fishes, smokehouse, big wooden benches, rockery, fireplace, rock paths – all sunk in colorful bush of flowers – are perfectly suitable elements for cottage garden. They will make you feel like in some small, charming corner of village, far away from the crowds…

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…

As a private wellness area

Hardworking week is stressful and exhausting. Use your covered walkway as a place only for yourself for evenings and weekends, according to the rule: “Me, myself and I”. You can put there your favorite deckchair or some other furniture and gadgets that make you feel relaxed: pillows, teapot, candles, incenses, cosmetics etc. You can easily create the real wellness cabinet alongside your own house. With a sound of music you like the best, you may meditate, make a cosmetic treatment, read a book or make some artistic work that make you feel calm and relaxed.

As a playground

Covered walkway is an ideal playground for children. Large, covered area, the ability to attach and suspend a variety of surety on the elements of it’s design is an excellent stimulus for a child’s imagination and creativity. More importantly, your children will no longer complain that it is raining outside the window. Neither the weather will not prevent them enjoying themselves.

These are only a few of many possibilities offered you by this item. Certainly you can find much more of them by your own…

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.

3. Material
The most universal and recommended material for construction of winter gardens is undoubtedly wood. It makes the room space warm and cozy. From technical point of view wood is a perfect warm isolator. Moreover, wooden framework gives you guarantee of it’s toughness.The best is laminated wood because of it’s warp-resistance.
Another advantage of wooden frameworks is that they can be tailored perfectly to the general house and garden design. Dependently, if you prefer retro or modern style, our specialists can create a project of winter garden suitable to your taste.

4. Floor and heating
The best idea for the floor inside are ceramic tiles. They are long-standing, universal and also easy in cleaning and exploitation. This is important particularly in case you plan to raise the flowers inside the winter garden. Good solution to make the premises warm and comfortable is to install the floor-heating inside.

5. Usability
New construction is not only additional space in your house but also a place with special properties and atmosphere (thanks to it’s location in the middle of the garden, construction and glass walls). You can use this place in many different ways: as an artistic workroom, professional cabinet, all-year dining room or sitting room full of comfortable sofas and seats etc. In every single way, it will be a special place ensuring you relax and good mood.
Regardless what style, aims and shape of winter garden are preferred, first thing you should consider carefully is it’s location, reflecting insulation of the garden. Choosing a place with optimal insulation, the most important profit is high energy-efficiency of your tailor-made place.

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:

Covered walkways

This item is perfect also for the small garden because it is always tailored to its size. In case of every small space, it is good solution to localize it just over the garden entrance, next to the house. This way you gain interesting, mysterious effect, especially if the sides of walkway would be decorated with ground flowers (like roses, andromeda or lily) or shrubbery (bay tree or cypress). Additionally you can use the sides of walkway as pergola for flowers in pots. Next to it, between flowerbeds you can arrange a cozy space for meetings with your friends and for afternoon relax. In case of rainy weather you can simply move your garden furniture under the roof and enjoy the dinner in a fresh atmosphere of your charming garden.

Small rockery

When you find an appropriate place for it and compose suitable flowers, rocks and other decorations, rockery can be great adornment of your garden.
It gives you additional space for plants and makes the garden space optically wider as well (but only if it has good proportions).

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.

Two faces of one restaurant

Covered outdoor area gives you one more very important possibility: development of alternative activities in a restaurant. During the day, covered patio can be simply used as a place for dinners. After dark, on the other hand, it can be transformed in a dance floor for evening dancing or discos. Additional space allows you to organize many different events like: live concerts, weddings, birthdays, business banquets etc. You can only benefit from it.

Architectural improvements in the restaurant for the convenience of customers are good investment. With low operating costs covered space provides tangible benefits in the form of many satisfied customers. These types of solutions are the lifeblood for business development. Your customers will certainly appreciate it.

The Elegance of a Covered Walkway

The best items you can buy are ones that are both functional and will serve your purpose, and are also elegant and pleasing to look at. When searching for an outdoor covering, the covered walkway serves both of these needs. The walkway is sturdy and will protect against the weather. It also is much more appealing than other covering types or simple additions to buildings.

The first part of the walkway that you’ll notice is the clear ceiling. Unlike other coverings, this ceiling makes the space underneath the covered walkway feel even larger than it actually is. It creates a relaxed atmosphere and allows sunshine to drift in on nice days. It provides the perfect place to sit and watch the day go by.

The design and construction of the covered walkway adds to its charm as well. The wooden structure adds charm not found in other creations. It shows the creator was dedicated to his work and provided a quality product that appears to blend in with nature instead of drawing attention to the fact that it was man-made.

As far as the design goes, the covered walkway implements gently curving lines to encourage a peaceful and productive atmosphere. Unlike harsh curves and corners, rounded curves cause natural flow and movement. The viewer’s eye drifts through the structure and it almost seems to bend to fit the curve of the sky, further enhancing its attachment with nature.

No matter where or why you’re using the covered walkway, be it for a business or simply in your own driveway to create a carport, you’ll enjoy looking out at its elegant design. In a busy world, this can truly be a sight for sore eyes.

If you were to look around for a covered walkway, you’d probably spot one over the front of a business or at a gardening center to protect the plants and flowers. These are all excellent spots for a covered walkway because they keep away the elements while still adding a decorative touch to the building or area.

There are many other areas, however, where a covered walkway would be a perfect addition. Often a covered walkway is overlooked when it is actually the solution you’re looking for.

1. Parties

Whether for a wedding or a simple family gathering, a covered walkway provides shelter for a sunlit picnic. Sunlight still shines through the top, but the covering protects against extreme heat and makes for a comfortable spot. Use it for celebrations or simply to relax in the backyard.

2. Extended Patio

Restaurants and business owners will enjoy the extended outdoor area they can provide their customers or employees with a covered walkway. A restaurant with limited space can provide outdoor tables for dining. This setting is both peaceful, and adding a few decorations such as lighting can transform the atmosphere into an elegant serving area. Business owners may wish to use a covered walkway to provide an area for employees to smoke or take breaks outdoors.

3. Craft Store

Crafts stores and other small businesses will enjoy the comfort and shade provided by the covered walkway when displaying their wares outdoors. This is a much needed improvement over hot days spent sitting in a lawn chair under the sun.

Many other businesses and individuals can tailor these ideas to fit their own needs. The covered walkway provides a versatile outdoor covering with many functions.