THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994 TAG: 9406130319
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, SPECIAL TO BUSINESS WEEKLY
DATELINE: 940613 LENGTH: Medium
In today's garden-crazed environment, homeowners with the means want their yards transformed into works of art. Growing trends in the landscaping business include herb gardening and the use of lighting to create different garden effects, area nurserymen say.
{REST} People are asking for landscape creations: gardens with flowers that attract butterflies, crime-deterrent landscaping to discourage peeping Toms and prowlers, child-safe landscaping, landscaping without jagged rocks or bushes with poisonous berries, plants that don't catch fire easily, and even gardens with plants that don't require much water.
``It used to be that people just lined their walkways and they'd call that outdoor lighting,'' said Shawn Anderson of Basnight Land & Lawn in Chesapeake. ``But outdoor lighting is creating a big difference. It brings your landscape alive for 24 hours instead of just 12.
``People are working a lot more and they don't go away on vacation as much as they used to,'' Anderson said. ``So when they come home, they want something nice to come back to. They want a little escape, even if it's just sitting out in their gazebo.''
To help clients better visualize landscaping ideas, Anderson uses a relatively new form of computer imaging. Photos of a client's house and yard are taken and scanned into a computer.
When the picture pops up on the screen, the client and landscaper can move items around. Computer imaging programs allow landscapers to place trees and redesign a client's yard on a computer before printing out a color photograph.
``I could take a picture of a tree in your yard, scan it into my computer, save it and then place it on a picture of someone else's house,'' Anderson said.
The computer program has images of hundreds of flowers and trees for clients to test out on screen. With just a push of a button, clients can see how yellow roses instead of white gardenias will look in their front yard or how a tree would look to the left of the house instead of the right.
Once the new landscape is designed on the computer screen, Anderson uses the color scanner to make a print-out of what the house will look like.
Anderson's company offers computer imaging only for clients who are having jobs of more than $2,000 done. To have a consultation with a working blueprint done through the computer, Anderson's company charges about $200.
Whether you use computer imaging or not, planning is a must, said Brian O'Neill, owner of Southern Meadows Landscapes Inc., Norfolk, who cited some do-it-yourself horror stories.
``A lot of times people will buy something and not even know what it needs or where to plant it. They'll buy it and walk around their yard with it in their hand looking for a place to put it,'' he said. ``They'll plant something in front of a window and it'll grow 6 feet tall and then they're always having to trim it.''
by CNB