Scrolling through down loads of photos that my face book friends submit, I was struck by this focal point in the landscape made in the UK. I found it extraordinarily beautiful. There were no formal plantings, flagstone or paver patios, or an area to even sit and meditate on the feature. In fact, if you notice that much of the body is indigenous weeds. The head of the mud maiden seems to be a large clump of Iris. I wonder if the flowers are yellow, blue or purple? If they are yellow I guess our maiden is a blond.

The only sculpted form I see in the whole landscaped area is with the creating the head. The rest of the area has nothing more than soil which has been artfully crafted to resemble the shoulder and arm.
What came to mind is that there are so many different ways to make your landscaping beautiful. Most of us don’t have a large enough piece of ground to pull off something like the mud maiden, but majestic beauty in the landscape comes in small packages as well as big.
The mud maiden shows me that in this case of a woodsy area, a truly beautiful landscape does not have to have structured plantings, patios, retaining walls, water features, just a well thought out focal point that truly is majestic.
We have been serving the Vancouver WA area for over twenty years with award winning landscape services.

In fall of 2011 I went up to a property in Kalama when a gentleman called me after looking at my web site and blogs. He wanted a formal garden setting that required different levels, as the property has steep slopes. The idea behind the landscape was for his personal enjoyment and to have weddings held at the site. It has a wonderful view of The Columbia river valley and will be quite exceptional when finished. The only issue we have is that at this point, there is no home, no electricity and no water. I’ve got to say this is the first time I’ve landscaped a property without a home on it. Let alone water or electricity.
The gardens will be quite formal with up to five water features, paver patios (one of which may be a huge chess board), decomposed granite walkways with steps that match the retaining walls we are installing, led landscape lighting, plantings, irrigation etc. It now sounds like the fire pit we have built will have some additions on it by putting a water fountain behind the fire pit.
The landscape designer is Troy Outman with Outman’s Landscape Design. Below I will post a couple of the photos showing some of the beginning progress of the landscape project.
The first photo shows some progress on the formal water feature and a retaining seat wall that will house the fire pit.

The second photograph shows a little more of the hardscaping being done and the outline of the fire pit.

The third photo shows the side view of the formal water feature.

Woody’s custom Landscaping has been serving the Vancouver WA and Clark County area for over twenty years with award winning landscape services.

With all the landscaping emphasis we see regarding outdoor living spaces including: patio areas, water features, landscape lighting, etc., it is particularly important to stress the root of landscaping. That would be softscaping with plant material, turf and trees. In reality over 60% of all our work installed in a year is in the hardscape portion of our industry. It is softscaping however, that really does put the total landscape package together. After all, it’s all called landscaping. Right?

Since outdoor living and outdoor rooms have taken center stage. I thought it would be appropriate to note that without good softscaping most hardscaping looks sterile and without much interest. Note the photo below which shows a nice hardscaped water feature we installed. Now imagine all the plants gone. While the pond would still look good, without the planting the pond would loose it’s value as a meditative and sitting area. Nothing would be there to invite you to rest a spell.

We also love to install ponds and stream beds. Have you thought about what they may look without great trees and shrubbery? Below is water feature five years after planting.

If you want to landscape your back or front yard, please pay attention to the plant material and trees. You will probably be focussing on the cost of the hardscaping since that is the big ticket item. What makes your landscaping stand out are the plants and trees. Hire a qualified landscape designer and make sure the landscape you want installed will be a little bit of your paradise.

Serving the Vancouver Wa, Camas WA and Ridgefield WA areas for over twenty years with exceptional landscaping services.

Below is our newest review and landscape video of our clients front yard landscaping for the month of December.

We dug out approx. 28 yards of soil to create a sunken garden lined with a seat wall made of Pisa II retaining wall units. Under the caps and steps we constructed led lights were installed creating a soft lighting around the patio itself which were interlocking concrete pavers.
Below is the testimonial our client wrote.
- Dec 21, 2011
“Good Guys build park FOR ME!!” was the excited reaction of my Grandsons after Woody & his Guys finished the work at our house. They put in a new backyard landscaping and built a wood chip filled pit for the boys’ swingset, but surprisingly the boys (& I) were even more excited about the sunken front yard patio. By providing a better layout of the yard and making the patio not only more beautiful but more usable our yard seemed to double in size. We have room for a fire pit and adult seating along with a lot of room for the boys to ride their trikes and play with toys while still having enough grass to play on. And then there is the “Park” in the backyard. While they were at it, Woody’s crew corrected numerous drainage problems (installing french and other drains) and lit up both yards with low voltage (read lower electric usage) LED lights. The Guys worked from dawn to dusk and were often very innovative in solving problems, desires and issues resulting from having an older home that was “flipped” at least once. Quality of materials was excellent, price was reasonable and service was GREAT! V.W> Vancouver, WA

Here’s what the front yard finished hardscaping looked like.

We have been serving the Vancouver WA, Camas WA and Ridgefield WA area for over twenty years with award winning landscape services.

Most commonly, a New Years resolution runs something like this. I what to lose X amount of pounds, or you may want to exercise more. They are probably the most popular New Years resolutions I can think of. Well I have a answer to both. How about a new landscaping that includes a outdoor room. If you did your own landscape maintenance on your new landscaping, I think you would see that weight come off and of course you would be exercising at least once a week doing the maintenance and gardening. There are also some other benefits to having a landscape installed for your New Years resolution.

You now would have a beautiful area to enjoy with your family and friends, a place to go to to unwind after work, and landscaping increases the value of your home by up to 14%. You see a simple landscape done as your New Years resolution helps you loose weight, helps you exercise more, works as a beautiful place to unwind with, works as a gathering place for family and friends and increases the value of your home.
So make your New Years resolution today and decide to install a enjoyable new landscape for your backyard.
We have been landscaping the Vancouver WA, Camas WA and Ridgefield WA areas for over twenty years of award winning landscape services.

On this landscape project we removed an old deck, installed a new paver patio with 2 areas that required manor stone steps vs. the existing rotten wood steps,, installed a planter box, installed two seperate stairways to other portions of the garden.
I’ve enclosed a video of some of the work as well as a couple of the finished patio photos. We love our landscape testimonials.

- Nov 8, 2011
Woody and his crew removed our back deck and enlarged our backyard entertaining space with a paver patio, walkway and large planter. In addition, he replaced uneven wood and rock steps through the center of our hillside garden and side garden with Manor Stone steps. We were impressed with how creative his crew was in tackling the hillside steps. Along with looking great, the steps provide safe footing and good access on a steep slope. The products Woody suggested blend beautifully with the natural rock we have in our landscaping. As our project neared completion, we extended a walkway and added steps along a difficult side slope. Woody suggested some fine-tuning before we had a chance to mention it. His crew returned the next day and made the changes to everyone’s satisfaction. Woody’s crew were here, happy, and ready to work at 7AM every day. Each one of the crew was knowledgeable, hard-working and friendly. They showed pride in their work and were able to make adjustments, at our request, as the project proceeded. The finished hardscaping project highlights our mature plantings and garden. Woody’s Custom Landscaping is first rate, easy to work with, creative, and competitively priced. Woody’s will do our next project and we recommend them unconditionally. Barry and Karen
Working the Vancouver WA and Camas WA areas for over twenty years with award winning landscaping services.

A beautiful functioning and good looking pond requires some steps that must be followed and a good filtration system. All of our pond building projects have a skimmer and bio filter is the size allows us to. For this project we indeed had both a bio filter and skimmer. We installed two pumps, one for the skimmer and one for the bio filter. While all the photos don’t show every step of where all the soil excavation went to, it does give some idea of the steps to making ponds with a waterfall. Here’s how we install our typical ponds.
1. Excavate soil for the pond and waterfalls.
2. Install heavy felt barrier cloth.
3. Install liner. We like to install two liners, just to be sure.
4. Install boulders, rockery, piping, skimmer, and bio filter, pumps, etc.
5. Test out water feature and clean pond water.
6. Fill totally and watch to make sure water is flowing how we and the clients want it.
Enjoy the slide show of some of the steps of pond and waterfall building.

Find more photos like this on Garden-Share
Serving the Vancouver Wa area for over twenty years with award winning landscape services.