Building ideas

Angie Lewin is the artist for the green revolution.  Not since William Morris has an artist combined patterned abstraction with horticultural specificity.  Her hand-made prints show seed pods and grasses, clouds and moonlight, islands and cliffs.  Her linocuts and wood engravings are both specific and universal, a quality that has made her one of the most demanded printmakers in England.

Angie was not always strongly connected to the natural world.  For years Angie lived in north London as an illustrator.  When she and her husband decided to buy a holiday cottage on the coast road in Norfolk, everything changed.  The clifftops and saltmarshes of the North Norfolk coast inspired Angie to return to print making, a discipline she had studied in graduate school.  Angie had previously studied garden design in her thirties, but found it took the joy out of gardening.  But it did open her eyes to plants.  "I became fascinated by the structure of plants," says Angie, "especially those that were about to flower or had flowered already."

Her style is recognizable: the colors are a retro palette, and the arrangement is a mix of arts and crafts and mid-century modern.  But her eye for horticultural detail elevates her designs.  In her prints, you can feel the connection between plant and place, and its this element that makes her work strikingly original.  You get a sense from her work that if you see the plant well enough, you will know the larger landscape.  Though nature is abstracted, the ecology is still present. "I like looking at the landscape through the plants," Angie says.   

Goatsbeard, dandelions, cow parsley, fennel, and sea lavender--Angie is able to turn gardeners weeds into expansive landscapes.   The process is laborious and time-consuming.  For each print, Angie begins by sketching.  The sketches become detailed sketches, which then get cut into the wood.  Each color necessitates a separate block, each of which takes up to a week to cut.  If she makes a mistake while cutting, she has to start from the beginning.  The final piece is printed on delicate Japanese paper, one block at a time.  Since everything is done by hand, Angie only runs small prints.  "I have so many sketches that Im always keen to move on to the next print."

The end results have attracted attention.   Angies prints have donned the cover of garden writer Noel Kingsbury new book, Natural Garden Style.  Kingsubry has long trumpeted the value of the structure of plant, not just its bloom or color, so her art was a good philosphic fit.  In addition, Angie has completed covers for Leslie Geddes-Browns Garden Wisdom and Jeremy Pages Salt.  Author Leslie Geddes Brown explains, "The whole book was, in its turn, inspired by the art of Angie Levin, who brings her own vision of the natural world to her work." 

To learn more about Angie Lewins work, you can visit her website.

Landscape Designs for Small Spaces often require more forethought and planning than whats needed for larger Spaces. A Small garden can include the traditional cottage garden or a contemporary spot at the back of a semi-detached situated amongst a conurbation; inner city roof terraces also lend themselves to Landscape Designs for Small Spaces. Invariably, for those with busy lives, perhaps with a full-time job and family to juggle, maintaining a garden comes way down on your list of priorities. So it is important that any Landscape Designs for Small Spaces take this factor into account. Naturally, that same family you are juggling will often need to use your Small garden for their own individual agendas: a place to store the family bikes, somewhere tranquil for al fresco eating and a safe place for your children to play. Landscape Designs for Small Spaces need to take all these activities into account.

Garden Design Requirements

To get the best from any garden design, you are going to want to write your ideas set down so that you can play around with different ideas. There are lots of computer-based programs you can use for drawing, although pen and paper are often just as good for the initial layout ideas. If you are intending to employ a professional garden designer you need to locate one whom you are able to work with and who is prepared to work within your overall budget while, at the same time, implementing your ideas. Before you get to the point of employing a professional, make sure you know what you realistically want from your garden and how much you can realistically afford to lay out on putting your ideas into practice.

Dont forget that you will need somewhere to store your summer garden furniture, your family bikes, the lawn mower and all the other paraphernalia that goes with outdoor living. Another thing you need to consider is whether you want your garden lit and, if so, the kind of lighting you intend to use. Planning permission is something you must remember not to overlook with any neighbourhood objections taken into account. Neighbors opinions are important when it comes to Landscape Designs for Small Spaces. After all, you dont want to fall out with your neighbor and, if their objections are particularly valid, you could find that your planning application could be refused.

Plants as an Integral Part of the Design

Keeping plant colors to just two or three can encourage your Landscape Designs for Small Spaces to be more effective in terms of an illusion of space and an overall greater impact. Rather than choosing plants with a wild array of different colors entirely, work your way through the different hues associated with a couple of base colours. Add texture and height to compensate for your lack of ground space: this will provide additional interest and carry the eye upwards. Soften the backdrop of tall walls and fences with espalier shrubs or fruit trees. The art of espalier has enabled even the Smallest patio to provide room for a fruit tree or two to grow.

The key to using plants as integral parts of Landscape Designs for Small Spaces is to repeat just a few varieties. For instance, you can mix and match apple, pear and plum trees espaliered against your boundary walls then, following your choice of colors, pick just two or three varieties of plants and stick with those, planting them within your design to maximum impact.

Outdoor Lighting added to your front yard Landscape Design plan is an element that should not be forgotten. Outdoor Lighting will not only show off your beautiful Landscape when the sun goes down, but also aid in security and safety.

There are countless Lighting features you can purchase from the local building supply stores or online, but what fixtures will light the areas you want can be confusing. A flood light pointed in the wrong position can be blinding to invited guest or neighboring homes. Over Lighting a small specimen tree or under Lighting a large tree will look unprofessional.

As a Landscaper, like to start by studying the natural light in my yard provided by the moon, especially how a full moon casts a gentle glow and creates soft shadows as the light filters through a tree or illuminates a garden area. In garden Lighting, the effect will seem most natural when it imitates nature.
Illuminate focal points and safety hazards more brightly than less important areas. Arrange the Lighting to show visitors where to enter the driveway and in which way a path leads to the front of the house. If your street is lit by street lights, you may not need much Lighting. If there are no streetlights, provide some soft lights for the driveway. Remember to avoid bare lamps at eye level and other sources of glare. MoonLighting (lights placed high in the trees) can provide the soft Lighting needed for this situation. Lighting at the garage door and parking areas is critical to the safety and security of homeowners.

Make sure to hide the source of the light, it will look much more natural... remember the light should be seen not the fixture. You can hide the fixture high above the ground or use several smaller lights rather than one large bright light.

Your Lighting will be more attractive if you combine several techniques in the garden. For example, you might use moonLighting from tall trees as the main light source, then add occasional accent Lighting from low fixtures, and decorative area Lighting for the entrance of the home.

Keep fixtures out of the way and make sure to choose the location carefully so they wont interfere with mowing the lawn, walking, or plant growth.

Ideas for security Lighting

It isnt necessary for security Lighting to be harsh or glaring. It doesnt even need to be real bright. You can use attractive Lighting for illuminating safety on the main paths as well as security on the homes corners, porch, side and back doors, and any spots intruders might enter the property.

Tom Hoff is a Las Vegas Landscaper who owns his own company, Modern Landscape. To learn more about installing a front yard Landscape Design, check out his landscaping website. Be sure to also sign up for his free Landscape newsletter where hell show you how to save money installing your own Landscape.
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