8 Benefits Of Hiring A Landscape Designer

Do you often find yourself stressing over the cost of getting professional landscape design services? You would not want to waste another moment to book an appointment if you knew the benefits of a solid landscape design plan.

While some regard landscaping as something unnecessary, most people know about the value that it adds to a property. Check out our past blog article on the value of landscape design: How Landscaping Increases Your Home's Worth. Just like all other investment decisions you make, landscaping design requires attention and good planning.

While landscaping may feel tiresome and wear you out for a while, the return and benefits that you get are what make the hassle worth it!

Benefits of Landscape Designing

Landscaping goes past just enhancing the view; it actually has numerous benefits. Here are some advantages of landscape design that will compel you to invest in it right away.

1.     Bond with...

A beautiful landscape does not happen by itself; it is worked upon and created.

Revitalize Your Landscape

Flowers are blooming, rain is still here, and it's time to spruce up that tired landscape of yours. Hire our team to implement a soil building program, Integrated Pest Management, Professional fruit tree pruning, or growing and harvesting of your landscape. Spring cleanup is a basic segment of your landscaping schedule to recover from the aftermath of winter's cold frosts and summer's grueling heat! 

Our experts at Ecology Artisans give you the landscaping solutions and provide services to enhance the appearance and resiliency of your landscape or farm. We are experts in building soil, harvesting water, and preparing your landscape to shine even into the dry summer months. 

Tailored Approach

As a property owner, you might consider going up against your garden care and spring cleanup task yourself. However, the experienced and craftsman approach we...

Low-maintenance Fruit Trees You Should Have in Your Yard

There are several reasons you should consider growing your own fruit trees. To start with, fruit bought from the store often travels several hundred miles to get to your kitchen table. The travel time can take days. The nutrition and the freshness often suffer with these non-local fruits.

Second, stores usually stock fruit types that look the prettiest, however, they do not really taste that good. I think we all know the taste of that freshly picked plum or peach from grandma's backyard.

Lastly, a few fruits, for example, plums and peaches, make remarkable great aesthetically please landscaping plants and add to the overall appeal of your yard/garden.

By planting your own fruit trees, you get fresh fruits every year and have access to nutrition year around. Here are some low-maintenance and easy-to-grow fruit trees for your yard.

1.     Plum

Plums are a great addition to home gardens because of their...

Landscaping Tips to Increase Your House's Worth

Truth be told, quality landscaping can add thousands of dollars to your home’s worth.

Landscaping is one of the very few upgrades to your home that can prompt a rise in its total worth. Likewise, it also instantly enhances the overall appeal and makes your home look beautiful. When you add things like edibles, rainwater harvesting tanks, greywater systems, that adds even more value for the right customer. 

In fact, some homeowners might seek out an ecological home over just a boring one with turf and some palms. 

DIY landscaping ideas and overhauls have a tendency to get obsolete soon, leaving the home dull and unattractive. Moreover, redesigns that are done without professional assistance weaken and wear out with time.

The Effect of Landscaping on Your Home’s Worth

A home that has quality landscaping has a significant value advantage over a home with pretty much nothing or low quality landscaping, says Alex...

Save the Rainwater - Rainwater Harvesting 101

What is Rainwater Harvesting?

Rainwater harvesting is gathering the excess rainwater from houses with a specific end gol to store it for later use.

Generally, the activity includes harvesting the rain from a rooftop. The rain will gather in raingutter, then it will all flow towards a rainwater tank. Rainwater tanks can vary in size. 

Did you know that in a 1' inch rain, you can harvest 600 gallons of water off of a 1000 sq. foot roof? That means in most areas of san diego, if you assume a 2000 sq ft house, we all have the potential to store, 12,000 gallons of water per year! That's a lot of water!

We often don't recommend using 50 gallon rainwater barrels because they fill up so quickly. If you are going to harvesting rainwater, let's take it seriously. Even a small house has a huge potential, so let's size our tanks appropriately.

Rainwater harvesting is turning into a suitable option for providing households and organizations...

Reasons Ecological Landscape Maintenance is Important

A lot of people when talking about landscape maintenance only consider planting buds and cutting the grass to be a part of it. While landscaping maintenance, design, and engineering are aimed to add more to the aesthetic appeal to your house, the idea of ecological landscape maintenance is considerably more involved.

While most people don’t know much about what ‘ecological’ maintenance is a lot of them get in touch with landscape designers every day to decide on landscape design and maintenance plans for their properties.

The role of regular landscape designers is to only deal with the land in a manner that makes it aesthetically pleasing, without taking other things into account like bugs, soil, water, costs, and habitat.

When hiring a landscape designer, you should consider going for those who provide ecological solutions because they take the whole picture into account. 

A professional landscape...

Regardless of whether you plan your new landscape design yourself or totally leave it in the hands of a professional ecological landscape maintenance company, look at these reasons for why hiring a professional landscape designer seems like a better option.

Reasons to Hire a Professional Ecological Landscape Maintenance Company

1.     Ideas

Due to the knowledge and experience that they have, the mind of a professional landscape designer is loaded with ideas. Idea generation is an inborn characteristic that people belonging to this field possess.  

While going into the details of ideas is a natural quality that most people have, the capacity to turn an idea into something stunning is an extraordinary ability which mostly only design professionals can boast about.

2.     Analysis

Although the land we live on looks like it is a single piece spread across the world, you will be surprised to know that every piece...

Everyday we hear of soil scientists, farmers, and gardeners alike discovering something new about the rich world under our feet: soil! Soil is an amazing living ecosystem in which we rely so heavily on for our food, medicine, shelter, and clothing.

Our work at Ecology Artisans is heavily influenced by soil regeneration pioneers such as Dr. Elaine Ingham, Gabe Brown, Dr. Christine Jones, Colin Seis, and Darren J. Doherty. We as a company believe that healthy soil solves many issues that our society faces. Stormwater runoff, droughts, and soil loss become mitigated when we have healthy soils that can store water for longer periods of time. Not to mention that healthy soils create healthy food, which leads to a healthier, less disease prone and robust society.

A 1% increase in organic matter in our soil increases water holding capacity by 25,000 gallons per acre. Photo courtesy of Kiss The Ground.

Whether you are a backyard homesteader, native plant landscape lover, or large...

Straw Bale Home Construction and Passive Rainwater Harvesting Coverage in Edible San Diego!

Read About Straw Bales and Passive Rainwater Harvesting

We are big fans of the local San Diego magazine, Edible San Diego, so you can imagine our appreciation and excitement when they called to do a story on passive rainwater harvesting and how we apply it in our landscape designs and installs.

What we didn't know was they were also covering straw bale construction, a natural building technique where insulation and mass are of a home are mostly taken up by bound and secured straw bales. And, they not only covered a building technique that we are huge proponents of, but they featured two of our close friends and peers, Mike and Rebecca of Simple Construct who design and build natural, healthy homes.

Straw Bale, Plaster and Natural Building - A perfect fit for most any environment

This is the finished look of a natural plaster, straw bale interior. Warm, comfortable and inviting.

The reason...

Looking to try something new and fresh that your tastebuds will enjoy? Explore these semi-tropical fruit trees that grow well, with proper planting and care, in our San Diego climate.

Many local nurseries carry many of these varieties, so visit them to see if one or more of these unique fruit trees are right for your yard!

Jujube - Ziziphus jujuba - 25-50' h x 20-30' w

This small, resilient tree originated in China and has been cultivated for over 4,000 years. It produces a sweet and delicious plum-sized fruit with a dark, edible skin. The jujube thrives in sunny, warm areas and prefers sandy, well drained soils. Very little care is necessary to keep the jujube healthy and strong.

Loquat - Eriobotrya japonica - 10-25' h x 10-25' w

The loquat is popular as an ornamental plant all around the Southern California landscape. It is likely you have passed by one without realizing how sweet its fruit are! This small evergreen tree produces small pear-shaped fruit that are...