At Peer Landscaping, we believe your yard and garden should provide you with a place to relax and destress. When you think about your ideal landscape design, there are many different ways we can create a garden designed for peace and healing. We want you to be able to go outside after work and just unwind in your own natural oasis. Here are just a few of our favorite features which can elevate your outdoor space and give it a truly customized feel.
Consider some water features for calming sound
Few things are as peaceful as the sound of running water. Combined with the visual beauty of a well-designed waterfall or water feature, such as a fountain, and you’ve just elevated your space into a peaceful spa in your own backyard. Adding the calming sound of water to your garden means you are engaging another one of your senses, for an overall experience of connection to nature. We will use local shrubs and flowers to compliment your water feature for a stunning visual and beautiful scent.
Another type of water feature that is often used as a centerpiece for your landscape design is a small pond for koi or other types of fish. When we are planning your landscape design there are several factors we consider if you want to feature a koi pond. We start by taking into account the unique features of your yard, the geographic region of your home and other external factors, such as sun exposure etc.
Over the years we have learned a few key points to consider when planning the perfect pond. Read on for a few of our best koi pond tips and things to remember when planning your landscaping project. One of the most important factors to remember if you are going to have a stocked pond, is the fish. We need to create the pond in a location that will have your fish thrive, the plants around the pond thrive, and the pond itself do well overall.
Here in Southwest Florida, fish in ponds are in danger of overexposure to high temperatures. Part of every landscape design we draw up with a koi pond includes sufficient shade coverage from trees or shrubs to ensure the water remains at a temperature where the fish can thrive.
Bird Baths/Butterfly Gardens
Gardens are about beauty right? And what enhances that beauty is the addition of butterflies and bird song. But it takes the right plants and flowers to attract specific butterflies and birds to your yard.
If you enjoy local wildlife and want to attract birds, butterflies or other visually appealing local creatures to your space, adding a feature which will allow you to see them regularly can be the ideal choice for you. For example for bird watchers, we suggest having us install a bird bath to match the overall style of the garden and attract beautiful local birds to the space. These can either be a small feature of the design or can be the focal point, depending on the wants of the client.
If you are a butterfly lover, our team has worked with many clients who love Southwest Florida’s butterfly population and we have the know-how to incorporate native plants which attract butterflies with the overall design to create a natural butterfly garden. The most popular butterfly in our area, and for most of the country, is the monarch. Beginning their migration from the northern and western US, the monarch passes through Southwest Florida en route to Mexico, and we even have many stay here due to the warm weather and humid climate.
Be aware that to attract butterflies, you should be prepared to see some of your plants getting eaten by caterpillars. While that seems obvious, people get upset by it sometimes. But what attracts the butterflies is not only the flowers with pollen they crave, but also plants that offer the right food for their larval caterpillar stage. That means the milkweed that we plant to attract Monarchs will be eaten up by monarch caterpillars and may need to be replaced regularly.
Other types of butterflies thrive in the area and are nourished by native Floridian plants. The bright yellow cloudless sulphur butterfly eats a bright yellow plant called senna, painted lady butterflies are less picky and feed on many types of local flora. The state insect of Florida, the zebra longwing butterfly, feeds on firebursh, dewdrop and porterweed. These are just a few of the species known to frequent our area. Including these locally-available native plants along with a landscape design which lends itself to open spaces can help bring butterflies directly into your backyard. We can incorporate these plant species with any design and many of our current clients can attest to how much butterflies love these plants.
Relaxation Areas for Prayer and Meditation
Most people want their outdoor space to be usable and comfortable, so we never forget your comfort when we are designing the space. Whether it’s a bench, swing or custom made outdoor furniture set you’ve fallen in love with, we incorporate it into the landscape design to allow you to enjoy your landscaping up close and comfortably.
We have been seeing an increasing number of requests for landscape designs which feature prayer gardens and meditation spaces. Whether you are looking for a place of quiet reflection, a place of spiritual communication or a way to remember a lost loved one, a prayer garden can be a feature of your landscape which allows for connection to a higher power. Let’s take a look at some of the ways we design the ideal prayer garden, and incorporate our experience used for past designs to give you the quiet, reflective space in your garden to relax.
Most clients seeking a prayer garden want a space where they can go to be alone in nature. Whether your property has a vast area to be landscaped or you are working with a smaller space, we have creative ways to make your prayer garden its own separate space amongst the rest of your landscaping.
We can use trellises with crawling flowering plants, walkways which end in a circular design with a feature in the middle, walls of hedges and many more design elements depending on the need of the space and desire of the client to create a separated but intimate area for prayer and reflection.
Adding a centerpiece for the garden to be designed around can add a sense of intentionality to the space, whether it’s for comfort or to add a relaxing element to the space. Perhaps it’s a bench, fountain, trellis or larger tree, but having a focal point will help the design of the prayer garden to grow around the important piece.
Adding elements that are personal can help add to the peaceful feeling and the intentions of your prayers. We often have clients who dedicate their prayer gardens to a family member who has passed and want us to add certain sentimental elements to the design, and we love doing that. Adding a loved one’s favorite flowers, an inscription of an important passage or other meaningful item can elevate the garden and add a sense of peace.
