Landscape Construction

Even with a large property, it can sometimes be challenging to design an outdoor space that everybody in the family loves and can utilize to the fullest. That was certainly the case for this landscape design near Harrisburg, PA, for a family with four active boys.

We’ve been fortunate to have been provided countless opportunities to work with clients on a wide variety of projects over the years. One of the most common areas of focus is backyard living spaces. A great way to get the most out of a backyard is often accomplished by adding (or renovating) both a patio and a deck. Patio and deck combinations are a great way to fully maximize the use of your living area, not only horizontally, but vertically, too. An upper-level deck that leads down to a lower level patio will absolutely give you lots of fantastic outdoor living space to use and enjoy to the fullest.

The natural setting of this backyard, which backs up to surrounding woods, was one of the aspects that the homeowner of this property loved most. It was a peaceful and perfect environment for the avid gardener and for someone who truly loved being engulfed in nature. However, the functionality of the property was something that was desired to be improved upon. Since the homeowner enjoyed entertaining and spending a lot of time outdoors, a solution to remedy the condition of the sloped backyard was needed so the space could be utilized to its full potential.

It can be frustrating when a finished area begins to have problems—particularly if it was the result of improper construction. Even if you love how an outdoor living area looks, you want it to function well, too. That was the case at this Reading, PA home.

There’s nothing wrong with having a backyard living area built over the years (as opposed to all at once). In fact, phasing is one of the best ways to incorporate multiple outdoor living zones into one complete space. But that’s all assuming it’s completed in a way that looks like all of the spaces were always meant to be one. When it’s not, it can negatively impact the entire look and functionality of the area. For this particular landscaping project in Strasburg, PA, there were multiple existing spaces that were built and added over the years by different contractors—and every single one looked like it was built as a separate project. The individual areas lacked unification and it was quite obvious that this outdoor living area was designed and developed over time. That’s why the family was looking to redo all of the individual zones to make it look and function as one intentional space.

Sometimes an existing outdoor space just doesn’t work. You may try to make the most of it but there comes a point when you realize it’s just never going to be the backyard that you love. An outdoor living area like this can actually start to have a negative impact on your overall enjoyment of the outdoors—and for that reason (among others), may be worth renovating.

If you’re thinking about installing a new patio, then you might be wondering about what kind of pavers are available now. The last thing that you want is to have a professional patio installed that looks like it was completed with pavers from the local big-box store. If you’re going to invest in a professionally installed patio, then you will want something that looks unique. You certainly don’t want to feel as though you have the same pavers as everyone else seems to have—you want something truly your own.

Do you feel like your backyard dreams aren’t living up to what you want them to be because your patio isn’t all you wish it could be? Is your time outdoors falling short because you don’t have enough reason to stay out there and truly enjoy yourself? Getting maximum use out of your yard and enjoying your time spent outside just isn’t going to happen if you have a boring back patio.

If you’re thinking about having an outdoor living project designed and built for your Reading, Lancaster, York, Lebanon, or Hershey, PA home then you may be thinking about your landscaping budget—that is, how much of your hard-earned money you are willing (and able) to invest in the project. Of course, we understand that a lot of homeowners go into the process with absolutely no idea what to expect cost-wise. After all, it’s not something that your friends may choose to openly talk about and if you’re not familiar with the industry, understanding costs for projects may be a challenge.

Is your outdoor living wishlist growing bigger than your budget? If it is, then you’re not alone. When push comes to shove, most homeowners, regardless of means, have bigger dreams for a space than they actually plan to spend on it. And that’s okay—because it’s great to dream big. We only live once and there’s nothing wrong with putting some thought into what you really want, if your budget would allow for it.

One of the most critical steps in bringing your outdoor living dreams to life is the design phase. This invaluable process is where ideas start to evolve from mere conceptions to reality. Given the value of a great landscape design, it’s important that you fully maximize your first step in this process, the landscape design consultation meeting. If you're considering or have already scheduled a landscape design consultation with us, then this article is perfect for you. In order to get the maximum benefit out of your consultation, here are 6 questions you should ask yourself in advance.

A patio under a deck can be a great way to get even more use out of your backyard. When designed and built well, you’ll have the deck for upper level entertaining and that space can flow seamlessly into your lower level entertainment zone.

When this York, PA family moved into their new home and set up their existing patio furniture, they were dismayed to find that it barely fit. Chairs were practically falling off the edge of the tiny concrete patio and there was hardly any room to move around the space. The family knew that they needed a bigger patio—not only to accommodate their furniture but to properly entertain. This led them to start looking for the best patio builders in York, PA.

Deciding to have a large landscape project completed at your home is an exciting endeavor. Of course, whether it’s an outdoor kitchen, a patio, a pavilion, or all of the above, you want to be sure that it’s built right. That means hiring a landscape designer to professionally complete your design. But excellent landscape design isn’t exactly cheap and you want to know that investing in it will be worth the cost. You may have been searching for “landscape design near me” online but you’re still not exactly sure what you’re going to get for your expense. The last thing that you want is to invest a lot of money into a “design” that took someone a measly 15 minutes to sketch.

While slopes can certainly pose major challenges, it also creates the opportunity to have a property that is truly unique. When designed and built properly, slope challenges can be turned into a multi-level property with tremendous appeal. That was the case for this Leola, PA landscaping project. The property had a major slope and the previous landscaping didn’t incorporate it into the design in any way.

Just as homeowners are looking to expand their living area with outdoor spaces, churches are also looking to extend their usable space to the outdoors. As your church grows, you might be thinking about how you can expand and improve your campus for visitors and attendees.

Whether you already have (or you’re looking to add) functional outdoor living space, then you might be thinking about outdoor organization ideas. However, you want solutions that are going to be an attractive enhancement—not something that’s going to be an eyesore.

Are your ideas for your outdoor living area bigger than your budget? If they are, you aren’t alone. Oftentimes, homeowners have grand ideas that they’d like to see brought to life but they simply can’t afford to do them all at once. That’s not a problem as landscape design for your Lancaster, PA home can be phased—as long as there is a strong professional design to begin with.

With a daughter in high school, only a year away from graduating, these Lancaster, PA homeowners were eager to turn their backyard into a space where their family could make long-lasting memories. Of course, they also wanted it to be a space that could be used in the years ahead—when their daughter would return home from college or maybe even have a family of her own.

Your driveway is the first part of your home that people see. It’s an opportunity to set the tone for your entire property. Whether you’re looking to revamp an existing one or install a driveway for the first time, you may be considering different material options.

When guests pull up to your home do they feel that wow factor? Do they feel welcomed by your beautiful and inviting front yard landscaping? Or are they instantly turned off because of overgrown shrubs and outdated hardscaping?

Building a pool is a big investment and you want to be sure that you’re making wise choices about its design. After all, you want the pool patio to enhance your pool’s beauty and value—not detract from it.

Lancaster County is known for its unique blend of residential areas and rural countryside. The picturesque views of sprawling farmland are part of what makes the region so charming. Small towns throughout the county each have their own specific personality. It’s no surprise that one such community in Lititz, PA was voted the “Coolest Town in America” in 2013. Lititz homes are highly sought after. In fact, it’s quite desirable to find a home that has one of the stunning views that overlooks the countryside. For this reason, when you find that perfect setting, you want to ensure your Lititz, PA landscaping goes a long way in enhancing that view.

Being able to spend more time outside with family and friends was a top priority for these Ephrata, PA homeowners. The existing concrete patio was too small for entertaining and our clients needed additional living space for grilling, dining, and visiting with family and friends. They desired a fantastic space for entertaining—but needed to stay within the confines of their budget. Making some creative choices allowed them to have the space they’d dreamed of without breaking the bank.

Your outdoor kitchen countertop is an important detail of your overall outdoor kitchen space. It’s where you’ll prep and cook your food on your outdoor grill and will likely include a seating area for your family and friends to socialize. When designed properly, outdoor kitchen countertops can be the showpiece of your kitchen. But when not done properly, your countertops can turn your dream kitchen into a nightmare. The wrong choices can really have a negative impact. For instance, instead of enjoying time seated at the countertop, you can’t sit there because the dark stone you chose is burning hot. Or perhaps the spatial layout of your kitchen wasn’t taken into account and you barely have enough room to squeeze into the cooking space or move around in your U-shaped kitchen.

Even a small backyard can be spectacular. That was the case for this historic estate, which had a sprawling front yard, but not a tremendous amount of space to work with in the back. The new homeowners (who had recently relocated there) had a lot they wanted to accomplish with the yard and it required maximizing the available space to get as much out of it as possible. Projects on the wish list included a patio design that incorporated various entertainment, dining, and living spaces. More specifically, they desired a cigar patio off of the sunroom, a dining patio for guests or family dinners, an entertainment area, and a cozy fire pit zone. It was a tall order for a small space and required some out-of-the-box thinking.

No matter what type of landscape design you are investing in, chances are you want something completely unique. A cookie-cutter backyard that looks like everyone else's on the block just won’t do. In fact, you’d love to incorporate some of your own personal style and preferences into the project to make it truly your own. While an ordinary landscape contractor might point you toward standard design ideas that they’ve used many times, you want creative, out-of-the-box solutions, and a landscape design company that can handle them. Finding a landscape designer who can take your ideas and run—turning them into something spectacular and truly unique, is what it’s going to take. Here are seven examples of homeowners in Lancaster, Reading, and York, PA that found that type of solution.

You’re outside, cooking up a delicious meal on the grill, and you’re enjoying your Friday night—that is, until the fighting over what’s playing on your outdoor audio speakers begins. The kids want to listen to the newest hits while they’re swimming in the pool, but you’d like to have your favorite tunes playing in the outdoor kitchen area. And besides the fact that you can’t all seem to agree on the same music, you may be frustrated by your complicated set-up. You either have cords running from inside the house or have to remember to charge your bluetooth speakers, all to just to enjoy a little music. It’s far from ideal and you may have decided you need a better solution.

Whether it’s boiling a big pot of corn outside, grabbing a cold soda from the fridge, or even just having a place to neatly tuck away the trash, it’s the outdoor kitchen appliances that can make or break the convenience factor of your brand-new outdoor kitchen. They might seem like small details, but it’s appliances like these that really complete the space. After all, nobody wants to take a seat at the bar only to realize they have to trudge all the way back to the house to get a cold drink. And when you’re in the midst of cooking raw chicken, it’s not enough to just wipe your hands on a towel. You want to be able to actually wash them in a sink with running water.

Imagine spending time in your beautiful new outdoor kitchen, connecting with family and entertaining friends. What is integral to that outdoor experience? The grill, of course. While it is ultimately just one piece of the outdoor kitchen for your Harrisburg, Lancaster or York, PA backyard, it’s a pretty crucial part. After all, you’ll use the grill to prepare your meals and that’s typically why you’re gathering outside in the first place. Even the act of grilling is an experience, and it’s fun to have family and friends gather round while you cook up something delicious.

Water is said to be the most powerful element on earth. After all, it carved the Grand Canyon. With that kind of power, just imagine what water can do to your backyard. Whether you already have a wet backyard, or you’re worried about water problems in the future, water can not only be a nuisance but destructive. Every time it rains you could find your yard sloshy and difficult to use. And if you invest in a patio in a wet backyard, your water problems could get worse and cause big problems for your new outdoor living area as well as your home itself.

Imagine planning your gorgeous custom dream home and finding out later that it is spectacular in every way except one—the outdoor area. It would feel like a major letdown. Whether it’s a boring and not-so-functional patio or landscaping hillside areas for getting the most use out of the land, outdoor areas have the ability to really burst your dream bubble if it doesn’t fit the look and function of the rest of the space. Unfortunately, it happens more than you’d realize.

When you own a property, you want to be able to use the outdoor living spaces to their fullest. The last thing you want is for them to be difficult to traverse. But that’s exactly what can happen if you have steep slopes in your yard. In some cases, these grade transitions can be dealt with by a professional analyzing the grade of the site and creating a landscape design that gradually transitions elevations from one area to another with sloped mulch beds, lawn areas, or even paver stone ramps (especially helpful for aging homeowners). However, there are some properties that will require a different approach.

A pergola is an attractive way to enhance the quality of your outdoor living space. There’s something romantic and elegant about a pergola that other structures simply don’t offer. A pergola can make your outdoor space unique—plus, it serves some important functions, as well. While you may think you want to add a pergola to your outdoor living space, what you may not sure of is the best way to go about doing it. If you add a pergola, you want to ultimately end up with something picturesque and perfect, but you don’t want to have to do a ton of research on your own to get there. If you choose to add a pergola, you want to find a company that understands how to design and build it in a way that takes the guesswork out of the process for you.

You’ve been thinking about a pool for a long time and have finally made the decision to have it built. It will be a great way to encourage the kids to spend more time at home this summer, to entertain family or friends, or even just to cool off after a long day. And it will be so much more enjoyable dining al fresco now that you can dine pool-side. As you begin the process of thinking about it, you want to know how long does it take to build a pool. You may have decided that you simply don’t want to go another summer without a pool. That’s why you want to know when you should start the planning process in order for it to be ready-to-go come swim season.

When tackling a project as important as a backyard renovation complete with a new pool, you want to work with the best company for the job. It’s a big investment and a space that you plan to enjoy for many years to come. Knowing that your decision in hiring a contractor will impact all of this, you should be determined to choose wisely. Of course, the most typical pattern of thought when having a pool built is to hire a pool company. It sounds logical, after all. There are some amazing pool builders in York, PA and surrounding areas like Lancaster, Reading, and Hershey. But the truth is that we’ve seen some pool companies fail to think of some of the pool design essentials that would make your space truly complete.

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably experienced what it’s like to have workers come to your home that you’re not exactly comfortable around. You hire a contractor to complete a job and suddenly you feel as though you have to cover your children’s ears because of bad language or you can’t even step out for a quick errand because you don’t trust them alone on your property.

Every project we do at Earth, Turf, & Wood is exciting for us since it means we get to help bring our clients backyard dreams to life. But some projects certainly stand out. This project, completed just outside of Reading, PA is one such endeavor. In addition to providing beauty and functional use to this client's backyard, this project received two significant recognitions on the national stage.

Nothing quite extends your outdoor living space like a pavilion. Incorporating a pavilion gives you some shelter and allows you to find respite from the heat or even from inclement weather. One of the first questions we ask when designing a pool and landscape pavilion is: How do you plan to use it? The answer to that question will then dictate everything that goes into the project. While some may just want a space to sit and eat others may also want to be able to cook in the space, so we’ll design a pavilion with outdoor kitchen. As you think about what you might want to incorporate in your landscape pavilion design, consider these popular must-have design elements.

Outdoor kitchens are an incredibly popular addition to any outdoor living project. In fact, about half of the projects that Earth Turf & Wood designs and installs include a kitchen. The goal of an outdoor living project is always to keep people outdoors by eliminating any reason to have to go in and out of the home—and that’s exactly what outdoor kitchens provide.

Imagine being able to walk outside and practice your chipping and putting any day of the week? For the golf enthusiast who spends every weekend on the golf course, why not consider a putting green for your backyard? After a long day at work you can destress by putting a few rounds and perfecting your skills. Before you know it, you’ll be beating par every time you hit the greens.

Once pool building season begins the pool companies in Lancaster, PA and its surrounding areas are looking to get as many jobs done as they can. The sad reality of this way of doing things is that (in most cases) they just want to build a pool, pour a concrete patio, and move on to the next job. Unless you hire them for any ongoing maintenance of your pool, their relationship is pretty much over after it's built.

When thinking about an outdoor living space, it is your hardscaped areas that tend to bring the most value. A patio is where you entertain, share meals with your family, or even just sit outside to read a book or enjoy the nice weather. Adding a patio provides a lot more versatility to your outdoor space. Patios are incredibly popular so it’s no surprise that a lot of companies build them. But you’ll likely find that natural stone or paver patio costs can really run the gamut.

You’ve made the decision you want to build a pool. Now that you’ve decided the project is a “go,” you are about to embark on an exciting journey that will end with your brand new swimming pool. But it is your next steps, in selecting from pool contractors in Lancaster and Reading, PA, that will be critical in the outcome of that process. Choosing the right pool professional to carry out your vision will make all the difference.

Gone are the days when an outdoor kitchen consisted of just a grill, sink, and at most, also including a refrigerator. These days, outdoor kitchens are more elaborate and customized than ever before. We believe that Outdoor kitchen plans should be personalized for you and your specific lifestyle whether it’s how you like to entertain or what your family regularly enjoys your backyard oasis.

When a retired couple in York, PA wanted to have an outdoor family entertainment area completed, they knew they had to find the right professional for the job.