BBuilders, Author at Babylon Builders - Home & Landscape Construction

Spring Hardscaping Ideas

by BBuilders | Apr 1, 2024 | Hardscaping

Spring Hardscaping Ideas: Enhancing Your Outdoor Space with Stone and Pavers

As the chill of winter fades away, many homeowners are eagerly looking forward to revitalizing their outdoor spaces. Spring is the perfect time to breathe new life into your yard, and one of the most effective ways to do so is through hardscaping. By incorporating elements like stone and pavers, you can transform your outdoor area into a stunning oasis that’s both functional and beautiful. In this blog post, we’ll explore some creative spring hardscaping ideas to help you make the most of your outdoor space.

1) Create a Charming Pathway: One of the simplest yet most impactful hardscaping projects is creating a pathway using stone or pavers. Whether you opt for natural flagstone for a rustic look or sleek interlocking pavers for a modern feel, a well-designed pathway can add structure and visual interest to your yard. Consider curving the pathway to add a sense of flow and invite exploration.

2) Design a Cozy Patio: A patio is a versatile addition to any outdoor space, providing a place for dining, entertaining, or simply relaxing outdoors. Enhance your patio with stone or pavers in a pattern that complements your home’s architecture. Add comfortable seating, an outdoor rug, and some potted plants to create a welcoming and inviting atmosphere.

3) Build a Retaining Wall: If your yard has slopes or uneven terrain, a retaining wall can help create usable space while adding a touch of elegance. Choose from a variety of materials such as natural stone, concrete blocks, or brick to construct a sturdy and visually appealing retaining wall. Incorporate planting pockets within the wall to introduce greenery and soften its appearance.

4) Construct a Fire Pit Area: Spring evenings are perfect for gathering around a fire pit with friends and family. Build a fire pit area using pavers or stone to create a focal point in your yard. Add seating around the fire pit, such as built-in stone benches or comfortable outdoor chairs, for a cozy and inviting ambiance.

5) Install a Water Feature: The sound of trickling water can add a sense of tranquility to your outdoor space. Consider installing a water feature, such as a fountain, pond, or waterfall, using natural stone for a harmonious blend with the surrounding environment. A water feature not only enhances the visual appeal of your yard but also attracts birds and wildlife.

6) Define Garden Beds: Stone or pavers can be used to define and border garden beds, adding structure and organization to your landscaping. Create raised garden beds using stacked stones or install paver edges around existing flower beds to prevent soil erosion and provide a clean, finished look.

7) Designate Outdoor Cooking Areas: If you enjoy outdoor cooking and dining, consider incorporating a built-in grill island or outdoor kitchen into your hardscaping design. Use durable materials like stone or pavers for countertops and surfaces that can withstand exposure to the elements. Add seating options nearby for convenient outdoor dining experiences.

8) Incorporate Lighting: Enhance the beauty of your hardscaping features by incorporating outdoor lighting. Use low-voltage LED lights to illuminate pathways, highlight architectural elements, and create a warm ambiance during evening hours. Solar-powered lights are a sustainable option that adds a touch of eco-friendliness to your outdoor space.

When planning your spring hardscaping projects, it’s essential to consider the overall aesthetic of your outdoor space, the functionality you desire, and the materials that best suit your climate and maintenance preferences. Whether you’re aiming for a cozy retreat or an entertainment hub, stone and pavers offer endless possibilities for enhancing your outdoor living experience. Embrace the beauty of spring and transform your yard into a stunning haven that you’ll enjoy for years to come.

Embrace Drought-Tolerant Landscaping

by BBuilders | Mar 12, 2024 | Landscaping

A Sustainable Solution for Lush Gardens

In the face of climate change and increasing water scarcity, it’s time to rethink our approach to landscaping. Gone are the days when lush lawns and thirsty gardens were the norm. Today, the call for sustainability resonates louder than ever, and one of the most effective ways to answer that call is through drought-tolerant landscaping.

The Case for Drought-Tolerant Landscaping

Drought-tolerant landscaping, also known as xeriscaping, is a method of landscaping designed to reduce or eliminate the need for supplemental watering. Instead of relying on traditional grass lawns and water-intensive plants, drought-tolerant landscaping focuses on native and low-water plants that can thrive in arid conditions.

The benefits of drought-tolerant landscaping are manifold:

Water Conservation: By choosing plants that require minimal water, homeowners can significantly reduce their outdoor water usage. This not only conserves water but also reduces water bills, making it a win-win for both the environment and your wallet.

Low Maintenance: Unlike traditional landscapes, which often require frequent watering, mowing, and fertilizing, drought-tolerant gardens are low-maintenance. Once established, these landscapes require minimal upkeep, saving homeowners time and effort.

Environmental Resilience: Drought-tolerant plants are well-adapted to survive in challenging conditions, making them more resilient to drought, extreme temperatures, and other environmental stressors. By incorporating these plants into your landscape, you’re helping to create a more resilient ecosystem.

Enhanced Beauty: Contrary to popular belief, drought-tolerant landscaping can be just as beautiful and diverse as traditional gardens. From vibrant succulents and colorful wildflowers to ornamental grasses and shrubs, there’s no shortage of options for creating a visually stunning landscape that thrives in arid conditions.

Why Consult with a Professional Landscape Contractor?

While the benefits of drought-tolerant landscaping are clear, implementing such a design requires careful planning and expertise. That’s where a professional landscape contractor like Babylon Gardens Landscaping comes in.

At Babylon Gardens Landscaping, we’re passionate about creating sustainable, beautiful landscapes that enhance the beauty of your outdoor space while conserving water and resources. With years of experience and a commitment to excellence, our team of skilled professionals will work closely with you to design and install a drought-tolerant landscape that exceeds your expectations.

From initial consultation to final installation and ongoing maintenance, we’ll be there every step of the way to ensure your complete satisfaction. Contact us today to learn more about our services and start planning your drought-tolerant landscape makeover. Together, let’s create a greener, more sustainable future, one garden at a time.

5 Types of Trees to Avoid

by BBuilders | Mar 13, 2018 | Landscaping

Think twice before planting these five trees.

Planting trees can spruce up your home landscape, but choosing the wrong tree can cause some major headaches.

Here are five species you might want to avoid when planting a tree:

1. Black walnut tree

Black walnuts are often grown for their shade and edible nuts, but their buds, roots and nut hulls release significant levels of juglone, a chemical that robs sensitive plants of needed energy.

Garden vegetables planted in close proximity to black walnut trees are highly prone to wilting and eventual death. Vulnerable vegetables include tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, cabbage, eggplant, potatoes, and rhubarb.

Trees affected by black walnuts include apple, pear, crabapple, and pine. Lilies, petunias and some chrysanthemums are also vulnerable, as are blackberry and raspberry bushes.

The Bradford pear tree is sensitive to leaf scorch and fire blight, but branch splitting remains the biggest problem. Bradford pears are top heavy and have a v-shaped crotch, which makes them prone to splitting. It’s not uncommon for the Bradford pear tree to split in half, especially during severe weather.

3. Ash tree

S-shaped patterns left by emerald ash borer larvae on an ash tree.

Emerald ash borer larvae leave S-shaped patterns as they feed under the bark of ash trees. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State University)

The ash tree is a target of the emerald ash borer (EAB), a beetle once native to East Asia. Initially found in Michigan in 2002, EABs likely arrived via packing materials made of ash wood.

EABs threaten the more than 8 billion ash trees in the United States, where they’ve often been planted in residential settings due to their resistance to severe weather, diseases, and pests. While nibbling by mature EABs can hurt foliage, the worst damage comes from their larvae, which feed on inner bark, thus disrupting water and nutrient transport.

Split bark, heavy woodpecker activity, leaf loss and water sprouts at the trunk are all signs of EAB infestation.

4. Ginkgo tree

The female version of the colorful ginkgo tree produces a troublesome fruit in late fall. (Photo by Susanne Nilsson)

Found on five continents, slow-growing gingko (biloba) trees can reach 115 feet and are popular residential trees because of their durability.

The problem comes in late fall, when female trees produce a putrid-smelling “fruit,” which sticks to shoes and can get tracked indoors. Because there’s no way to distinguish male and female varieties at the seedling stage, the ginkgo tree is plagued by the rotten byproduct.

If you really want a stink-free ginkgo tree, seek out Autumn Gold and Lakeview varieties, which are male-only.

5. Sweetgum tree

The sweetgum tree provides long-lasting color, but its spiny balls are a major drawback. (Photo by Sean Hickin)

While it can be beautiful, especially in the fall, the sweetgum’s spiny brown balls, which come down by the thousand, are a major drawback.

There are many ways the “gumballs” might cause injury. You can slip and land on them as they roll. Shot out of a lawnmower, they become a hazardous projectile. They also don’t rake easily, so you have to pick them up by hand, an unenviable task.

5 Outdoor Plants You Can’t Kill

by BBuilders | Mar 8, 2018 | Gardening

Tired of watching your garden not grow? These low-maintenance outdoor plants won’t let you down.

Through ignorance, neglect or just plain bad luck, I’ve had my share of gardening failures. But I’ve also been fortunate to discover a few low-maintenance outdoor plants that even I’ve been able to keep alive. Whether you’ve never planted a thing before in your life, or just want to select some hard-to-kill plants for a troublesome spot in the yard, here are five outdoor plants that can survive almost anything.

The blossoms of the wild geranium differ greatly from the more common red geranium plant. Hardy geranium flowers come in colors including blue, pink and magenta. (Photo courtesy of Benny Mazur)

Wild Geranium

I do nothing for this hardy, low-growing perennial, yet it rewards me with small five-petaled pink blossoms and zig-zag-edged greenery every spring. Far different from the popular red geranium plant, the wild geranium thrives in partial shade but adapts to a wide variety of sites.
Not fond of pink? Check out the many hardy geranium varieties, in colors including blue and magenta.

Consider carefully where you will plant oregano; this bright green-leaved perennial will return each year. (Photo by Carolyn Doyle)

Oregano

Whether you pick up a packet of seeds or a Greek oregano plant from a nursery, think about where you will plant oregano, because the bright green-leaved perennial will come back every summer.
A favorite of butterflies, this low-growing herb has a familiar flavor that’s a natural with Greek and Italian food. Use fresh, or cut and dry stalks for your own dried oregano to sprinkle on pizzas all year long.

The purple blooms that top a chives plant in the spring are both attractive and edible. These hard-to-kill plants have a mild onion flavor. (Photo courtesy of Kilgarron)

Chives

Tired of buying green onions at the grocery and having half of them turn slimy in the fridge? Growing chives, another hard-to-kill plant, is a great alternative. Just snip off the hollow green stems about an inch from the ground as needed and add to a dish at the end of cooking for a mild onion flavor. The purple flowers on a chives plant in the spring are a nice (and edible) bonus. Their cousin, garlic chives, has flat, grass-like leaves, white flowers and a mild garlic flavor.
These low-maintenance perennials can get pushy; planting chives in a contained spot will keep them from taking over.

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Oriental poppies are a beautiful addition to the garden. When you plant them, consider leaving room for other plants in front that can screen the dormant foliage once the poppy flowers have faded. (Photo courtesy of Uli Harder)

Poppies

Providing big impact with little care, red poppies are one of my favorite hard-to-kill plants. I find the most difficult thing about this perennial is to remember that it’s not a weed! Until the poppy flower blooms, this scraggly-leaved plant looks like something you’d want to pull out of the garden.
When planting, dig deep to loosen the soil; a poppy plant develops a long root like a carrot. And while you’re digging, think about what you might like to plant in front of your Oriental poppies. Once their brief May-June blooming period has ended, the foliage goes dormant and leaves you with nothing but memories of poppy flowers until next spring.

Daffodils, also called narcissus, require little care and produce long-lasting blooms. These spring-flowering bulbs like to face the sun. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Wilkinson)

Daffodils

The squirrels eat my tulip bulbs, my hyacinths topple over and the crocuses stick around as long as cotton candy on a rainy day … but daffodils last and last. Also called narcissus, these spring-flowering bulbs require little care, but do like to face the sun. When you plant them in the fall, avoid soggy or shady spots. After they bloom in the spring, allow the leaves to remain until completely withered.

In addition to the familiar yellow flowers, there are white and bi-color varieties with orange or pink accents, not to mention miniature and even fragrant types. Note that daffodil bulbs require cold winter temperatures as part of their development and don’t do well in frost-free areas.

Home Gardening for Beginners

by BBuilders | Feb 26, 2018 | Gardening

Growing a garden at home is an activity that the entire family can participate in, and it provides a household with a wealth of benefits.

These include a healthy amount of outdoor exercise and a greater understanding of horticulture, and gardening is also a good method to improve mental health and fight stress. Fruit and vegetable gardens offer even more benefits, including increased access to foods that are fresher, healthier, and, in the case of organic gardening, exposed to fewer pesticides. Producing food in a home garden also leads to an increased level of self-sufficiency and lower food costs. People can participate in community gardens that spread these benefits to many households at once, and even apartment residents can make gardens to grow their own food. Of course, coaxing food from the soil requires some amount of trial and error to master, but there are techniques and strategies that people can learn in order to get the most out of their garden. (more…)