Irrigation systems and gardeners

There is a huge misconception in Encinitas and San Diego that the gardener you hire is qualified to do the work he claims he says he will do. The typical M.O. for most gardeners is that when something looks a little off color just add more water and anything your garden need will cure itself.

Such was the case over at one of our client's homes, where they called me over to check out a leak, or supposed leak. I've been in this game a long time, and experience told me that since I did not see any craters blown open in the dirt, the chances of a leak in the proportions they told me was not going to be there. So, after my visual inspection, the next thing I wanted to see is the irrigation controller. It is a Hunter control, made right over in San Marcos. All I series controllers use a remote access device called a "Smart Port", and it was never installed. This device, if put on the outside of the house gives anyone who has a radio control the ability to set, check, and run the system without ever entering the home. (Naturescape Landscape Company carries those radios in every service truck we have) The clock appeared normal, until I got to two stations that were set for 2 hours of watering in the middle of the night. This was the flooding problem, as ground does not absorb water the same way as in places where it freezes over winter and gets allot more rain.

The gardener assured the client the system was properly set. Gardeners, are not, I repeat, are not licensed landscape contracting firms. Most have little more knowledge than to cut, and trim, and at best, they make obscure geometric shapes, urban assault balls, and cork screws out of perfectly healthy plants. The damage they do to irrigation systems just by qualifying themselves in the eyes of the public goes far beyond a simple goof here and there.

This is all the more reason to hire an irrigation professional when you have issues with your system. If we can ever be off service, please call 858-794-8444.

Until next time, have a great day!

Columns and the overuse

The typical California yard is tiny in comparison to anywhere else in the country. So tiny is the yard that most people can barely fit a full length SUV from their garage to the sidewalk without a significant part hanging over the front walkway. With tiny spaces to use, there is some obsession with using columns in places that money could be saved, and more tasteful things such as walkways could be built. In the example above, I like to refer to this as the courthouse stairs. Most entry doors are no more than 4' wide, yet someone found the need to construct a staircase wide enough for a congressman to perform unspeakable acts. The use of rubble faux stone and used brick is far too busy to think with a full brain.



The picture to the left shows yet another configuration of columns and stairs, in yet another 20' wide space. Apparently the builder wanted to accent the cap, so he chose a dark stucco to do so giving the appearance the striping on a ships gunwalls. To the left of the stairs, not shown is a walkway leading from the driveway. Better use of this space would have been to have one or the other, and loose at least one set of columns, preferably both sets. The random stone on the stairs works well. so what does the builder do? Adds a stone tile with a 45° pattern giving the appearance of another weekend project thought out after the fact.






Straight from the basement shops that sell all that crap you get for such a deal, are these stairs and columns, complete with Salteo tiles. Not only are these tile poor in quality, ( the average Mexican Salteo lasts about 3 years in the sun before popping apart) they are very slippery when wet and can cause accidents. The hodge podge on the riser gives the appearance that someone ran out fo tile and just used whatever box they got their hands on to finish the job. The front yard width is even less than the others pictured offering a very cluttered look at this home. I don't know if it the Spanish influence in the area, or if there are simply, too many choices, and too many undescisive people, but there are some serious after thoughts going on around these parts.

A well planned landscape has a vision, a purpose, and continuity. It makes the best use of the space available, and it does not clutter. It also fits into a budget. Imagine all the more fun stuff you would be able to install in the back yard, if, the money used to build the stuff you did not need, or that you could find at every neighbors house along the block, did not get built. You can make the front of your home look so much more inviting at a fraction of the cost by not copying the neighbors. You can also keep yourself out of jail. That's right, keep out of Jail. Let me explain....You just come to what you thought was your home after a great dinner and good bottle of wine. You fumble for the keys as you walk up the walk and place them in the door....Somehow, the lock does not turn. Next thing you know, the police are there and you get charged with breaking and entering.... As you wait for King Stahlman to come bail you out, it dawns on you....That custom landscape your contractor just created, looked so much like the neighbors, it cost you a night in the slammer!

At Naturescape Landscape Company, the work we install is YOUR dream, not the neighbors, so,
when you come home, your key will be in YOUR door!

Until next time, have a great day!

Dreams to Reality, and Budgets

Anytime I'm interviewing a prospective client and they ask me what exactly are all the things we do, the answer beside the self explanatory, is pretty simple. I tell them to just go out in their yard, and close their eyes. Put themselves in a place that they can only dream of at this point, and pay attention to the details of what is around them in that vision.

My job, is to use my expertise and make that dream a reality, within a realistic budget. So, maybe there is this special place you have just been waiting for in your yard and you need a great company whose employees will listen to you, and respond to what you envision. That company would be the Naturescape Landscape Company, right here in San Diego North County.

Need your bank held up?

A great deal of the many wonderful things we build at Naturescape are retaining walls. In case you have not noticed, San Diego is filled with slopes, hills, and valleys, and of all the many reasons we build walls, the most frequently used reason is to maximize ridiculously tight spaces, or add usable space to a property.

Our team has been NCMA (National Concrete Masons Association) certified, and we continue our education on walls and structures as often as there are classes available to take.

In the case of the wall pictured, the homeowner wanted more space added to the area where their kids could play, so, they had us build this 14' tall by 200' long wall of of Keystone Century Wall. As written, the job sounds like a simple procedure, and if you think that, you more so than anyone reading this blog need to absorb the next part of the post.

WE began by excavating a trench to accommodate the bottom course of the wall. As a standard rule of thumb, there has to be 1" of wall buried for every 1' in elevation the wall is above grade. As we dug in, water began bubbling from the ground in a spot where no water should have been....It turned out that the swimming pool had been leaking since it was installed 8 years prior. to add more difficulty to the job, it was leaking at a fitting right in the center of the spa, just under the gunite. After we tunneled into the hill, the repair was made. We then had the arduous task of drying the earth so we could use it to fill behind the wall.

Along with the DG based soil, we also use class 2 roadbase for fill, and topped the job off with 2' of growers mix. While the wall was being built, Geo-Grid, an earth stabilization product, was placed every 3rd course of wall, 12' back into the slope. This was, if the earth got wet, and the soil got heavy, the grids would hold the wall from falling over on it's nose. Soil was compacted to 95% proctor scale, and tested by a soils engineer for each 2' of earth we brought in. A gravel layer, 1' thinks was used behind the wall, and perforated pipe placed in the gravel, with a discharge pipe under the footing to take the water to the street.

Permits are required for any wall over 3' in elevation, and in many cases around the county, soils tests and a grading plan is required before the building department will approve the wall.

In recent months, I'm sure you have heard of the Mount Soledad land slide, (2007, LaJolla) along with the Arroyo street landslide in Oceanside (2004) and Bluebird Canyon in Laguna Nigel.

Still, with all these wall and earth failures, there are people who are hell bent on building that wall without permits. In one extreme case, a homeowner in Solana Beach was told by the city not to build a wall....He thought he was going to save money by using illegal aliens and untested back fill to make his project. Dozens of truckloads of dirt, and Keystone wall were used, only to have them fall down in 2004 during a wet winter. The repair is just about completed as of this writing, and to save several thousand dollars of cost, this homeowner has spent nearly $600,000 in soil nails and shoring.

Retaining walls are a necessary structure in San Diego, however, they are also one of the most expensive items you can build. Before going out and making a mess of things, or causing bodily injury to someone who might be in the way when the wall fails, call a pro in. Call Naturescape.

In San Diego, outdoor living is for everyone

50% or more of what you pay for housing is what it costs for sunshine, 25% more than that for a fun view.

There are those of us who, work hard, pay for what little we have, and can enjoy a half day a week outside. Because we only get that half day, driving to the beach would take allot of the time we have, so we hang at home, even though we pay for that beach. You are in that group of people who really deserves to build a backyard dream. So, get up, open the back slider, walk out, and enjoy the weather you pay so dearly for in a tropical landscape you might just see on Maui rather than San Diego.

Imagine yourself in this incredible gazebo, water flowing over the rocks of your spa, Mai Tai in hand, stereo turned low, watching the San Diego sun set over the ocean. No where else in the country can you get the varietiy of sunsets, mountain, or ocean views like we do here.

You may say, " well, what if i don't have an ocean view?" The answer is simple. Let us build you a beach entry swimming pool with tropical plantings all around. You may not have the ocean, but you have the next best thing, that is actually better in so many ways. Better in the sense that you don't have to worry about feeding parking meters and giving blood if you get ticketed. Better in the sense that you won't have 50 people conglomorating every Sunday to beat bingo drums and anoy beach goers. And better in the sense that you won't have to start your car and burn $4.00 a gallon fuel. Just peel off your clothes, get into beach wear, and jump in.

Design-Build Landcape Contracting

Ever wondered what some folks do for a living after they tell you who they are employed by? I don't know about you, but I have one of those wandering minds and quite often I find myself going in every direction but where I had intended. Some of that comes from being an employer rather than an employee, and all the hats we wear filling that role, the other portion of the mind drift comes from the left brain creative side. With a job description titled Design-Build,, then Landscape Contractor, we simply took the guessing game away for you.

There are many techniques and styles in this great industry, and the point of this post is to differentiate between how our style works, and how our competition's styles work.

The competition

With the competition you sit down, tell the designer what you want to achieve, and they come back with a sheet of black lined blueprint paper on a one dimensional, horizontal plane that to many appear little more than squiggly lines and geometric shapes. Further, the ideas, goals and dreams you took your time to communicate so well, get twisted and turned into how the designer envisions your yard should look. There are many reasons for his decision to push you into his vision, the biggest one however, being, that if he can create a landscape from micromanaged modules and shapes, his field personnel can simply install your yard much the same as cutting and pasting a letter on a word processor. Much the same is done with California tract home builders. He controls his costs, and maximizes his profits because he has put that proverbial thumb on his labor. In business, yes, we are entitled to turn a profit, otherwise, why would we continue the stress and strain we go through each week. In cutting and pasting landscape, particularly on a tract house situation, what is created is a one of a kind landscape that looks like every home on your block. There are numerous tracts of houses that as I drive through making my rounds, that I can tell exactly what contractor installed the work simply by the shapes being used. Columns with stairways, for example, are the most overused, inappropriate structures on a landscape, but, since 90% of the houses on the block have them, many people they should get them. The fact is, all they do is costs money that could go toward more useful things, and limit an already cramped space by directing people through them.

The second most overused item is some type of round thing directly in front of an entry door, protruding from the walkway. I have labeled these things G.R.T's, (Goofy Round Things), and the obtrusion created are usually accentuated by inlaying some type of stone or stamped concrete that is so out of form with the theme of the home that it reminds many of the basement entries lined with all the mismade tiles in Tijuana. So badly is this technique used that there are many examples of homes in the 2 mm range that use 7 or more different textures and surfaces in a 30' long front entry walk.

Once again, all these different styles are for the sole purpose of controlling costs and training purposes for the contractor, not the home owner. When the job is done, it looks OK, but if you are like us, a landscape project is the first thing people see when they pass by, or enter your home. This is exactly why OK, rather than perfect, will not work for us.

The way of the

Naturescape Landscape Company

You call us, and we return the call promptly, ask a few preliminary questions, and set a time and date to meet and review your project. We listen, and notate on a file we make for your account, and make a few suggestions along the way. There is a very funny quote from a well known TV cowboy actor from the 1950's that pertains to listening to you....He said, "Never miss a great opportunity to shut up!" Novel idea don't you think? You are our employer, so, we respond to you. Somewhere along this part of the conversation, we will ask you for a project budget, and, honestly, this is one of the most powerful tools you have to make your dream come to life. Since most properties are of similar size, it is very easy to give an accurate ballpark number to tell if what you ideally want to invest is realistic. (As a standard rule of thumb, 10-25% of a home's appraised cost is the budget for a complete landscape, with all the hard scape amenities.)
Most people in San Diego are very affluent, and know what they want to invest before getting a contractor involved, but we don't mind helping educate you if you don't know your budget.

We sketch a few things during the meeting, and then set a follow up meeting where we can show you preliminary drawings, and loose budgets per item you want installed. Finish surfaces play a very large role in determining what budget you will end up with, and we can cut and paste dimensions, surfaces, items, and even plant sizes and specifications to get most people within their budget.

We meet with you to go over any details you would like to see in the final drawings. Now, here is the interesting part about Design-Build work. NOTHING, I mean nothing ever stays exactly as the plans. Once we show your yard taking shape, your vision may change. We may see something that you might like once we get to know who you are and your specific tastes. More often than not, the bulk of these changes can be done within the given budget. And the Design-Build process, really becomes what the title says rather than the same job with a different owner.

The exciting part for Naturescape, being the contractor, is not only seeing YOUR DREAMS come to life, but being a part of creating something within set parameters. Weather it is that outdoor kitchen you always dreamed, a fireplace, swimming pool or spa, or brick paver patios and driveways, we create your vision while adding our expertise. We use smart watering systems that can detect rain, or drought, and adjust automatically to protect your plants, and our natural resources. When the last plant is in the dirt, and the final wheel barrow of mulch is spread, you can be as proud as we are knowing when we are done, no one has your dream at their house.

You can contact us anytime at info@naturescapelandscape.com, or call our office to set up a consultation today.

The landscape contracting business amazes me

Today was a great day. We kept our production schedule on track, completed more work than we scheduled, and are soon to close one project out and move on to the next one. What brings the title subject today was a conversation I had with the contractor on the job who is pouring the slab for the home we are at. He told me something I only thought I knew, which was, that the majority of his business comes from people who call his competitors, and 6 weeks later, they return the calls....

What is up with that anyway? We have a little slower economy than we have had in the past, but in all honesty, the past economy showed us 54 straight months of solid growth, and now what we are seeing is simply, how things are in a normal economy...So, those companies who were just sitting on their laurels after riding the waves in the ocean, are now dead in the water or gone, Even with the cleaning of what I will call the "landscrapers," contractors still don't return calls.

That is one thing Naturescape Landscape Company has always prided ourselves for doing, promptly returning calls....

The so called "bad" economy

We at Naturescape Landscape Company must have missed something when the news media claims things are so bad. We live in the greatest country the world has ever seen. The poorest of Americans are 90% wealthier than 75% of the world, yet we suck in all this negative junk the media spews upon us.

Our company is the best design-build landscape contracting company you could ever hire for many reasons, but I'm only going to give you three.

First, attitude.

Because of our vast knowledge and experience in the landscape industry, we do things right the first time. We build outdoor paradises that YOU, our clients dream to have, unlike some of our competitors who build custom landscapes that look like every other one on your block.

Second, performance.

At Naturescape, we believe very strongly in mechanization rather than manpower. There is no better way to get the job done than with machinery. We were chosen as the poster company for Caterpillar Tractor in 2006, and when a global company that trades on the New York exchange puts it's trust in us, that means you surely can.

Difficult jobs take time, impossible jobs take longer.

From the time you sit down with us in the initial interview, to the time we turn the completed project over to you, every detail you ever dreamed within your project budget is made into reality. That gourmet outdoor kitchen, fireplace, waterfall, swimming pool or spa is just a call away. We offer concrete surfaces, and have been in the brick paving industry longer than any competitor in San Diego. Naturescape Landscape Company is certified by the National Concrete Masons Association to install Keystone walls, such as Country Manor, Standard, and Century Wall segmental walls.

With all the hype about bad this and that, we are blessed with an abundance of work at fair, honest pricing. Most of our jobs are done well within your realistic budget, in the time frame we say they will be done in, so you can enjoy the outdoor lifestyle you pay so dearly for when you live in San Diego North County.

We would love to hear any comments you may have on the newly created blog. You can check out Naturescape Landscape Company in San Diego, North County, at www.naturescapelandscape.com, or www.paversnow.com.