Landscapers for Mods

gsutiger2 · May 20, 2008

Hello All,

I am trying to find a reasonable landscape designer for a simple Mod home. The current landscape is fit for a traditional house and looks horrible. Any recommendations on a designer or websites that have pics of landscapes?

Thank you.

Willowisp · May 20, 2008

I found this pretty helpful.

http://www.eichlerforsale.com/Landscaping_Eichler_Homes

Here's a pretty interesting article I found.

http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/articl...1532879,00.html

We have had to pretty much start over with our landscaping from what was there before. We kept the big sago palm in front and cleaned everything out around it. Then we had some planting put in around it. We kept the umbrella plants and added more along the front wall to those. In the back we spent a million dollars on Giant Timber Bamboo which promptly shot up to over 30 feet high and became a great visual shield from S. Post Oak's billboards and furniture store signs. Man, this bamboo pic from last year tells me that it has filled out a lot, and it's supposed to "go crazy" after the 3 year mark and the stalks start getting really thick.

Another greenery thing I wanted was to cover my fence in vines. I figured it would help block the sound from the street and it probably has just a bit, but it's really nice to look at. I doubt if that's "modern" at all...

Here's the front when we first did it. It's grown up and more maintenance now. The knock out roses need clipping to keep them blooming and I'm not a fan of thorns...

We also went simple with a lava rock garden in the atrium and set a small cactus in the middle of it. It has grown to almost 5 feet in one year. I need to take pics of it.

We put in a disappearing fountain in the back yard with an kidney shaped "bull rock" area and put in a Queen Palm and a Washingtonia (I think) Palm, and a smaller clump of bamboo. Then we bought a small kettle pond for that area which will have to tide me over until I can afford a larger fish pond and waterfall in the backyard. Here's a picture of this area when it was first put in. It's good for me to look at this because I thought that the palms hadn't really grown much, but they definitely have, especially the Queen. I need to take more pictures. I also have to weed this area monthly.

So obviously, my taste in landscaping may veer toward the more traditional or organic fifties than a stark modernist style. I really love cactus and bamboo and try to figure out if and how they belong together!

I would love to hear and see more stories of Houston Modernist Lanscapes. We are different here than Palm Springs, but I like that look too...

Jason

apower · May 22, 2008

We met with several landscapers. The absolute best that seemed to connect with our MCM ideas was Portia Leyendecker. Unfortunately she ended up out of our price range. We decided to do the "design" ourselves and just get someone to do the heavy lifting parts. We had one person come out and tell us that they would never plant horsetail and another that they wouldn't plant an agave for us because we had small children living next door. Since I didn't actually contract Leyendecker, my recommendation is limited somewhat, but from the interaction I did have I fully believed that she "got it."