Fall is a great time for landscaping and gardening

Not everyone appreciates fall as a great time to complete landscape projects. One great thing about doing a landscape project in the fall is being able to enjoy it for a full season next spring. No waiting for a busy contractor to get it done before the in-laws come for the may long weekend! Also fall is great time for planting too, plants that will be going dormant soon still have time to establish root systems and will come up in spring to fill out in their new home. Below is a patio/walkway we just installed with a clay brick paver in a herringbone pattern.

Alcorn Job

Here is a great example of really tricky difficult work. Two yards of soil removed with buckets, all that stone hand bombed down into the back and a narrow alleyway with irate neighbours not wanting our truck blocking the lane. Came out pretty nice though.

Oriole Parkway Job

We found some old shut off valves on site and decided to fill them with coloured recycled glass and outdoor epoxy to complement the metal work.

Sorauren Job

This job was replacing an old beat up driveway. We used sand for the base and joints since it has a lower pH than limestone, percolates water and therefore will be beneficial to the large Acer sacharinum (Silver Maple).

Euclid

This is a wet lay walkway using china silver grey square cut flagstone and a coursing stone garden edge. In order to make the curve for the client we installed the square cut flagstone first set the line and then cut the curve in one shot.

Introducing the exterior property and garden inspection

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Kingslea continued

Here is a great shot of how the crumbling steps were replaced and tied into the retaining wall.

kingslea coninued

This shot shows how we tied our patio into the curvy edge of the pool.

Kingslea

Here are a couple before and afters from kingslea. We used real clay brick for the patio and kingston hue for the wall.

Munro Residence

This project was completed just before the first big freeze in early December. We built a large temporary structure to keep snow off and increase nighttime temperatures. This is a cinder block wall on a concrete footing. We clad the exterior with tiger stripe coursing sawn top and bottom. We hand chiseled the stone and installed with no mortar joints to make it look like a dry stack wall (matching dry stack walls around the property installed last year).

Munro Continued

Here is a nice shot of the back garden.

Ellis Park

This was a tricky job involving multiple poured concrete retaining walls clad in tiger stripe natural stone. We even had to have a pump truck deliver the concrete as the walls are two flights of stairs above street level. In addition the planting and stepping stones are actually sitting on the garage roof! The middle shot shows how we finished the corners on the retaining wall. I actually shaped those corner pieces myself. Enjoy.

Warwick

Difficult space = our specialty

Cottingham

The cottingham project involved a geometric zig zag shaped walkway design by Victoria Taylor. We used Halton 'Autumn Brown' for the walkway and Northern Natural Split drywall for the retaining wall and step. The variation in colour is particularly striking when the flatwork is wet. You can also see the level of detail where we cut custom stones to fit around the existing drain (bottom right). We also planted large swathes of grasses and daylillies in the garden beds (of course we need to wait until next summer to show you).

Efficiency = Productivity

Strategic placement of materials ensures that we will have the materials we need where we need them. This reduces hours of moving heavy stones around the jobsite, saves time, money and reduces worker fatigue

Cottingham excavation

The excavation at cottingham illustrates the importance of having a design. We excavated precisely for the patio to ensure that we were not wasting time, energy and money on moving soil that did not need to be removed.

Yews of the world unite!

While working on the Cottingham installation we got involved with a very large mature yew (Taxus x media). The client agreed that we could prune it for shape, but ultimately decided to remove it entirely. Pictured here is the final plea for mercy, or is it defiance? Yew decide.

Stewart Residence

Sometimes you get a client who really lets you be creative. This project involved mixing different types of stone in leaf and berry shapes. The outline of the leaf and stem is actually coursing (twice the thickness of flagstone and installed first). The green leaf pieces were then custom fitted so that the cuts look like veins. Each piece was hand chiseled to give a more natural look. The Ecoman crew really stretched to bring this project in on time and budget. Special mention goes out to Mike who's attention to detail and commitment to quality were a critical component of the finished product.
P.S. I hope to get good pictures of this with plantings and other touches in spring

The beauty of a dry stack wall

People always ask me about the difference between dry stack walls and mortared walls. The example pictured here is a dry stack wall meaning it is built without mortar or concrete footings. This wall has been built using natural stone. One nice thing about dry stack stone walls is the fact that they can be rebuilt from time to time. This particular wall has been rebuilt four times in thirty years! We rebuilt this wall the summer before last and it has held up quite well. PS If you look closely you can see that we rebuilt this wall with hand tools, look for chisel marks on the top right (no loud gas powered saw on this project).

Mixie Mixie

Reclaimed brick and ledgerock.