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Crafting a Sustainable Modern Art Masterpiece: Your Personal Urban Garden

Create a Personal Urban Garden Design

Whether it is a window sill herb display or a rooftop installation, urban gardening is quickly transforming itself into the “next big thing” in sustainability. Aside from polishing courtyards and sprucing up terrace appeal, city-dwellers are increasingly investing time to ensure almost year-round access to attractive flora and freshly-picked fruits, herbs and vegetables. As you know however, keeping this on par with building ordinances and more importantly personal landscaping flair requires careful planning and coordination. For those of you looking to transform your urban venue into the likes of a Monet, sit back as we navigate you throughout the jungle of urban garden design.

First Thing’s First

Before going out and splurging your hard-earned money on a bunch of exotic ferns from your local Lowe’s, utilize this time instead to ascertain what you really want. Do you want a home farm-to-table experience? Do you want to propagate moss on your outdoor fireplace to give it a more rustic feel? Do you want to create a forest-like aesthetic on your roof? Needless to say, the possibilities are endless when it comes to urban gardening.

Tying the Knot Between Form and Function

A garden in the city is a bold step in the right direction. Sometimes it’s just a therapeutic escape from the concrete and steel atmosphere of urban living. Sometimes it’s a way to ensure access to organically grown food. Perhaps you gourmet chefs out there could experiment will exotic peppers and herbs grown on your window sills. Perhaps you canning aficionados can create the next best jam or pickle with homegrown produce from the vertical garden on your balcony. Whatever the case, gardening in the city is a true blend of practicality and elegance. Once you have figured out what you want, consider hiring a contractor to help you design and install permanent structures for your garden that will not only stand up to the elements every growing season, but will enhance the overall look of your space.

Go Big and Stay Home

Your home is your palace, your castle, your Shangri-La. You have worked long and hard to get to where you are now. Your home should reflect this and then some! In terms of sustainable gardening ideas, you have many options to pull this off. An attractive yet durable raised plant bed, a paver courtyard with a container garden, water features and an outdoor fireplace — you hold the cards! Creating a lasting urban garden for the ages can be tricky, but you can count on Belgard to pave the way with ideas that will transform your balcony, terrace, courtyard or rooftop into the masterpiece you deserve!

Built-In Planter Ideas

  • Diamond 9D Wall Urban Garden Design
    Diamond 9D Wall
  • Weston Stone Wall Urban Garden Design Ideas
    Weston Stone Wall
  • Belair Wall 2.0 Urban Flower Garden Design
    Belair Wall 2.0
  • Weston Stone Wall Urban Flower Garden Built-in Garden Design
    Weston Stone Wall

Courtyard or Terrace Design Ideas

  • Celtik Wall Vertical Urban Garden Design Ideas
    Celtik Wall Vertical Garden
  • Brighton Fireplace with Container Garden Design Ideas
    Brighton Fireplace with Container Garden

For more outdoor living design ideas, visit our Inspiration Gallery and Pinterest Boards.

NEXT WEEK: Come back to the Outdoor Living by Belgard blog next week for creative ideas on enhancing your gardens with edgers, borders and planters.

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Introducing the Chiseled Stone Look of New Coventina Coping

Belgard’s newest hardscape product answers the call of two major design trends for outdoor living spaces: large-format materials and natural textures. Coventina™ Coping features chiseled edging, a lightly textured surface and unique color blends that emulate the look of large pieces of natural slate for a fraction of the cost. The perfect accent for a variety of trim applications, Coventina Coping can work with both contemporary and traditional designs and complements a variety of paver styles.

Stone Pool Coping

Coventina Stone Pool CopingCoventina Coping works well with traditional pavers, plank-style pavers, and contemporary porcelain pavers as an elegant chiseled stone trim for swimming pools, spas and water features. The large-format shape creates a clean stone look with a minimal number of seams.

Wall and Step Trim

Conventina Stone Wall Trim, Stone Step TrimCoventina Coping can be paired with a variety of Belgard landscape wall blocks to add a stylish finished look to multi-dimensional outdoor living design elements such as fire pits, landscaping walls, seat walls and built-in planters. Coventina Coping can also be used to create stair steps and terrace transitions. This versatility allows Coventina to be used in trim applications throughout an outdoor living design to pull the entire look together.

Natural Stone Looks

Natural Stone Coventina CopingChiseled edges, a gracefully textured stone top surface and variegated color blends combine to mimic the aesthetics found in nature.  A cost-effective alternative to natural stone, Coventina Coping emulates the look and feel of slate with the added benefits of uniform sizes, durability and slip-resistance.

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Coventina™ Coping is currently available in various markets along the East Coast and the Gulf South. Plans to expand distribution to other regions will be announced at a later date. For more information regarding availability in your local market, visit the Belgard contractor and dealer locator page.

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Fire Pit Patio Design Trends

Research shows that fire pits have been among the top five outdoor living design trends for the last several years. As this trend continues to grow hotter with each passing season, design ideas for fire pits have evolved and taken many different forms. Whether a gas-burning, wood-burning or hybrid version, fire pit designs continue to become more unique and individualized in nature.

In-Ground Fire Pits

The appeal of an in-ground fire pit is that it creates the beautiful, primal effect of flames erupting from the ground. In terms of fire safety, there is the added benefit of lower flames that are kept more contained. However, there’s a safety drawback, as well, as there are no protective walls around the fire.

  • In-Ground Fire Pits Nau Porcelain Pavers
  • In-Ground Fire Pits Mega-Arbel Pavers
  • In-Ground Fire Pits Belair Wall 2.0
  • In-Ground Fire Pits Highland Stone Wall

Gas Fire Tables

Gas fire tables offer a contemporary look and appeal to homeowners who prefer the ease of gas — always ready to light, no wood or ash to worry about. An added benefit of a fire table is that it has a larger surface area and can actually be used as a table, creating more of an outdoor living room aesthetic than a traditional fire pit. Fire tables can also be built at varying heights, including bar height.

  • Gas Fire Tables Belair Wall
  • Gas Fire Tables Weston Stone
  • Gas Fire Tables Wall
  • Gas Fire Tables Tandem Wall

Multi-Level Fire Pit Patios

A multi-level fire pit patio offers a dimensional element to the design and separates the fire pit area into a distinct outdoor room, making the fire pit more of destination spot in the backyard.

  • Multi-Level Fire Pit Patios Celtik Wall
  • Multi-Level Fire Pit Patios Belair Wall
  • Celtik Wall Multi-Level Fire Pit Patio
  • Celtik Wall Multi-Level Fire Pit Patio

Fire Pits with Built-in Seat Walls

Built-in seating often holds a spot in the top 10 outdoor living design elements as well, so it’s only natural that seat walls would become a popular aspect of fire pit patio design. After all, where does everyone want to sit and gather? By the fire, of course.

  • Fire Pits with Built-in Seat Walls
  • Fire Pits with Built-in Stone Walls
  • Fire Pits with Built-in Wall
  • Fire Pits with Belair Wall

COMING SOON: Interested in winning a free wood-burning fire pit for your back yard? Come back to the blog on August 10, when we’ll celebrate National S’mores Day by kicking off our Fire Pit Giveaway Contest!

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Built-In Planters That Add Dimension to Your Outdoor Living Designs

No matter how beautiful the construction materials, an outdoor living design can look dull and lifeless without pops of color or dimensional design elements. A built-in planter constructed with retaining wall block will provide a permanent receptacle for adding color, texture and dimension to your spaces and can coordinate with your pavers and landscape walls to tie the overall look together.

Add curb appeal

Make a statement as soon as visitors arrive with planters along the driveway or a sidewalk in front of your home.

Highland Stone®Built-in Planters Retaining Wall
Highland Stone®

Create a grand entrance

Planters along walkways and near doorways create a welcoming effect and add architectural interest to the front of your home.

Edge a terrace

Soften the look of an angular wall or add a buffer zone along the terrace edge with planters of various shapes and sizes.

Dress up a retaining wall

Large retaining walls are often necessary, but can be visually boring. Add dimension and visual interest to a large retaining wall with planters at the base or at higher points along the wall.

Create a focal point

Add drama to a patio, walkway or driveway with a large planter that can create a visual focal point for the design.

Belair Wall® Retaining Wall Blocks & Built-in Planters
Belair Wall®

Flank a fire feature

Add pops of color and foliage to soften the look of larger structures and help coordinate the space with the surrounding landscape.

Flank Stairs or Steps

Stair or step planters can take a variety of shapes and styles. Options can include symmetrical tiers, terraced landings, or a singular accent planter.

Emphasize a tree

A tree planter box or wall can add design elements to larger open spaces or provide an area for installing a flower garden.

Add dimension to a patio

Planter gardens are a great way to add dimension and visual interest to an open patio. In addition, locating a planter near an outdoor kitchen can provide an outdoor chef with a space to grow fresh herbs.

Soften the look of a column

Incorporating a planter into the top of a column or pillar softens the look and adds a natural textural design element to your outdoor living structures.

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Introducing New Lamina Tandem™ Wall: Stacked Stone Look with Incredible Design Flexibility

Belgard is excited to announce the launch of a new face style to the revolutionary Tandem Wall® System. The new Lamina Tandem™ Wall features the look and feel of chiseled stacked stone and can be used to build a variety of outdoor living and landscaping structures.

The new Lamina Tandem™ face style can be used with all elements of the unique Tandem®  Wall System to build complete outdoor living designs. The Tandem® system offers more versatility than any other landscape wall product, allowing you to create distinctive outdoor living spaces that all coordinate and flow together as one cohesive design.

Lamina Tandem WallLamina Tandem™ Wall

Use Lamina Tandem™ Wall to build curved and straight freestanding and retaining walls ideal for a variety of outdoor projects.

  • Control the slope of a yard.
  • Construct a terrace.
  • Build raised gardens.
  • Define the perimeter of an outdoor living space.
  • Create visual separation between outdoor rooms.

Lamina Tandem Column KitLamina Tandem™ Column Kit

The easy-to-install Lamina Tandem™ Column Kit quickly creates columns for a variety of design uses.

  • Wrap around existing posts to enhance a porch or pavilion.
  • Build a mailbox.
  • Augment a freestanding wall with intermittent posts or end-caps.
  • Use freestanding columns to add visual interest or create a grand entrance.

Lamina Tandem Modular GridLamina Tandem™ Modular Grid

Because Lamina  Tandem™ Modular Grid can attach to virtually any wooden frame or surface, it can be used to construct just about any outdoor living structure up to 6 feet in height.

  • Skirt a deck or porch.
  • Build aesthetic walls for hiding utilities and garbage cans.
  • Build a variety of outdoor living structures including outdoor kitchens, fire features, built-in seating, planters and more.

The new Lamina Tandem™ Wall System is currently available throughout most of the Midwest, South and Central Plains regions. Distribution is expected to expand throughout the year.

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The Best of 2017: Residential Hardscape Design Winners

At the 2017 Hardscape North America tradeshow held in Louisville, Kentucky, the U.S. and Canada hardscape industry judged residential and commercial hardscape designs from across North America for the 2017 HNA Awards. These awards are the industry’s top honors for contractors designing and installing projects using concrete pavers, segmental retaining walls, clay brick, porcelain, and combinations of these hardscapes. Belgard was pleased to have products showcased in 12 of the honored designs, placing in 10 of the 16 categories. Homeowners planning an outdoor living makeover in 2018 can pull inspiration from the award-winning and innovative designs from these residential categories. Click on the galleries below to view slideshows of photos from each project.

WHIMSICAL PAVER PATIO

PROJECT CREDITS  Category: Concrete Pavers, less than 3,000 SF (WINNER). Contractor: Paver Designs, LLC. Designer: Justin Hampton. Product: Dublin Cobble®.

Tranquil Backyard Oasis

PROJECT CREDITS  Category: Porcelain Pavers (WINNER). Contractor: Pacific Outdoor Living. Designer: Terry Morrill. Product: Noon Porcelain Pavers

Dramatic Entrance

PROJECT CREDITS  Category: Concrete Pavers, more than 3,000 SF (Honorable Mention). Contractor: Mirror Lake Designs. Designer: Michael Shawn Kelly. Products: Urbana® Stone, Old Word Paver™.

Eclectic FIRE PIT PATIO

PROJECT CREDITS:  Category: Combination of Hardscapes, less than 4,000 SF (Honorable Mention). Contractor: Precision Landscapes. Designer: Jeremy Rose. Products: Urbana® Stone concrete pavers (primary patio), Noon porcelain pavers (fire pit patio), Weston Stone® retaining wall (fire pit, garden walls, seat walls), Arbel® concrete pavers (seat wall backrest).

Eco-Friendly Walkway & Driveway

PROJECT CREDITS  Category: Permeable Pavers (Honorable Mention), Contractor: Dominion Pavers. Designer: Sasser Construction. Product: Aqualine Series™ pavers.

NEXT WEEK:  Despite the cold temperatures, now is the ideal time to start planning a pool installation to have it ready for the spring!