It's simply amazing how different an outdoor space can look in a matter of hours. ...and low-voltage night lighting is a simple add-on to most outdoor living environments. Photography by: Joe Hollowell

Be the hangout house and build memories. This is about more than just getting off of the couch. This is about building a place where your family can play, train, and bond. •Know where your kids are and get to know their friends. •Build a multi-sport game court designed for maximum versatility or a dedicated basketball court or tennis court to take your little athlete to the next level. •Let us design a court to fit your family and your budget. •Tell us which sports you play; we’ll find the right surface for you. •Spend time playing on a low-maintenance court instead of landscaping. •Watch the kids grow up at your house.

Full Grounds arbors to quest house and driveways. The team and I really enjoyed the project in Chappaqua, New York.

To ensure that the bocce balls stay in place we drilled shallow holes in the ipe wood deck. This is a wonderful space saving idea.

Outdoor landscaping intertwined with Artificial Turf

At Bulldog Paving we specialize in the design and installation of concrete interlocking pavers for residential and commercial, landscape and hardscape projects. We believe that the use of paving stones for your next driveway, patio, walkway or pool deck is going to enhance the overall appeal of your property. So, if you would like to set up a free consultation for your new paver installation or perhaps you want to seal your existing pavers? Then contact us today and we will discuss all of your options!

24mm Photography

jeri koegel

Hear what our clients, Lisa & Rick, have to say about their project by clicking on the Facebook link and then the Videos tab. Hannah Goering Photography

Eastern Redbud 'Forest Pansy' Tree - Cercis canandensis has deep purple hear-shaped leaves in summer, fading to yellow in autumn. Grows to about 20-25' tall, 15-20' wide. Photo and Design: © Eileen Kelly, Dig Your Garden Landscape Design

A local Houston art collector hired us to create a low maintenance, sophisticated, contemporary landscape design. She wanted her property to compliment her eclectic taste in architecture, outdoor sculpture, and modern art. Her house was built with a minimalist approach to decoration, emphasizing right angles and windows instead of architectural keynotes. The west wing of the house was only one story, while the east wing was two-story. The windows in both wings were larger than usual, so that visitors could see her art collection from the home’s exterior. Near one of the large rear windows, there was an abstract metal sculpture designed in the form of a spiral. When she initially contacted us, the surrounding property had only a few trees and indigenous grass as vegetation. This was actually a good beginning point with us, because it allowed us to develop a contemporary landscape design that featured a very linear, crisp look supportive of the home and its contents. We began by planting a garden around the large contemporary sculpture near the window. Landscape designers planted horsetail reed under windows, along the sides of the home, and around the corners. This vegetation is very resilient and hardy, and requires little trimming, weeding, or mulching. This helped unite the diverse elements of sculpture, contemporary architecture, and landscape design into a more fluid harmony that preserved the proportions of each unique element, but eliminated any tendency for the elements to clash with one another. We then added two stonework designs to the landscape surrounding the contemporary art collection and home. The first was a linear walkway we build from concrete pads purchased through a retail vendor as a cost-saving benefit to our client. We created this walkway to follow the perimeter of the home so that visitors could walk around the entire property and admire the outdoor sculptures and the collections of modern art visible through the windows. This was especially enjoyable at night, when the entire home was brightly lit from within. To add a touch of tranquility and quite repose to the stark right angles of the home and surrounding contemporary landscape, we designed a special seating area toward the northwest corner of the property. We wanted to create a sense of contemplation in this area, so we departed from the linear and angular designs of the surrounding landscape and established a theme of circular geometry. We laid down gravel as ground cover, then placed large, circular pads arranged like giant stepping stones that led up to a stone patio filled with chairs. The shape of the granite pads and the contours of the graveled area further complimented the spirals and turns in the outdoor metal sculpture, and balanced the entire contemporary landscape design with proportional geometric forms of lines, angles, and curves. This particular contemporary landscape design also has a sense of movement attached to it. All stonework leads to a destination of some sort. The linear pathway provides a guided tour around the home, garden, and modern art collection. The granite pathway stones create movement toward separate space where the entire experience of art, vegetation, and architecture can be viewed and experienced as a unity. Contemporary landscaping designs like create form out of feeling by using basic geometric forms and variations of forms. Sometimes very stark forms are used to create a sense of absolutism or contrast. At other times, forms are blended, or even distorted to suggest a sense of complex emotion, or a sense of multi-dimensional reality. The exact nature of the design is always highly subjective, and developed on a case-by-case basis with the client.

Almost every side of the house features an activity, off the game room is a nice sitting area for watching the new bocce ball court. From many vantage points you can see into parts of the rest of the house, and all windows have operable Lutron roller shades for privacy.

Sport Court game courts are custom-designed to fit the space in your yard. Almost any size or configuration is possible. Download our 10 tips for custom court building to help you understand the process. http://www.sportcourtstlouis.com/game-court-building-tips

Relax by the outdoor water features or play bocce ball with a friend in your own private court.

The summer butterfly garden greets the weary traveler upon arrival. Photo by William Healy

Pots provide height and are a solution to planting larger plants in smaller spaces.

Raccoons and gophers routinely destroyed the lawn in this side yard. As a result it was not an inviting outdoor room. Although the client was adamant at first, a premium sample of artificial turf persuaded her that she could still have an authentic look and feel of spacious green serenity. We created a larger planting border with drought-tolerant plants, and added boulders for texture and to create a more organic perimeter. The client was thrilled that she and her family could still lounge, read, do yoga, and have Easter egg hunts in a garden that provided all the textures needed to invite magic.