Amsonia Landscaping

For Greg from Oakville, dry laid armour stone retaining walls.

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:48:04 +0000

Here we got two nice dry laid armour stone retaining walls that we built for Greg in our beautiful home town Oakville. The stone average height is 1 foot, we did two rows, which made the wall about 2 feet high. The stones vary in weight, anywhere from about 400 to over 700 lbs each. We went with a light color armour stone in order to match with the colors of the house. The reason for the walls, was to replace the ugly old wall, make the lawn easier to cut on the other side and also they definitely made the entrance look much nicer.

Low maintenance backyard with interlock garden walls for Bryan

admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:17:40 +0000

Here we also have a very interesting project. How do you change a really ugly backyard, to something pleasant with a low budget. It is definitely a challenge. Bryan wanted to keep the current interlock paving material, but also wanted to add a little more. How do you add new interlock pavers with out it looking like they were added to the old? Well, you get a completely different color and you mix them up! That part actually turned out quite well. Also besides the backyard being just plain ugly, it was overgrowing with plant material that was just too big for the space, well at least definitely the way it was used.

Now with the new law of no “weed & feed” a lot of people are getting rid of grass. Having a nice lawn, without weeds and healthy looking grass with out that fertilizer became quite difficult and a lot of people just don’t want to deal with it. So many people choose the path of a “low maintenance” property, which means most of all, no grass.

Well, good use of material, space and good lines that work well with each other we have created a backyard that is definitely pleasant to use once again!

Wood deck replaced with interlock patio, for Paul from Oakville

admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 02:52:22 +0000

People now seem to be getting rid of wooden decks and replacing them with interlock patios. Why? Well, a wood deck does require constant maintenance and the wood does seem to loose its nice looks after a very short period of time and it is very hard to get it back. Also you get a little bit more privacy being much lower to the ground which hides you behind your fence.

When we were building this patio, we took quite a few pictures of the progress. This way you get to actually see how each part or stage is actually done. Of course these pictures do not give you a complete and in detail illustration of everything that is involved, but it does at least show quite a bit of the most significant parts of the progress of a job like this one.

On this job, we tried to use more grays, which would match the patio a little better with the paving in the front, which is built from gray flagstone, that way we keep constant color of the paving all around the house. We have also freshened up the “reading area” underneath the tree and made it appear bigger. The whole backyard without the wood deck has made the backyard look much bigger as well. The tumbled interlock material gives off a very relaxing, unique and aged look. Another nice job completed in our home city, Oakville.

First project of 2010, for Elaine from Oakville

admin — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:27:12 +0000

Here is the first job of 2010 and it was done here in Oakville. This project was done for Elaine and of course as any job, there were issues that needed to be addressed. What we had to deal with here is that there was a city drain located on their backyard that collected water from all the houses backyards that were around there. This drain had to stay functioning and also we could not block access to it. What Elaine wanted is to minimize maintenance by getting rid of the grass and maximizing the use of the backyard. Also obviously the access to the front door needed to be upgraded and somehow made to be much more noticeable. The design was fairly simple, as functional as possible and also elegant which I think created a perfect solution to this project.

The material that we have used here was Unilock, Antara for paving areas, Hanson, Antique RB Wall for steps & wall, river stones, flagstone stepping stones.

Ontario Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:45:07 +0000

8% PST and 5% GST taxes are being combined into one 13% HST tax that will come in effect starting July 1, 2010. What difference would this make to the cost for services such as landscaping? The difference will be 8% increase on the labour part (labour is usually about 50% of the job cost before tax).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonized_Sales_Tax

http://www.taxtips.ca/gst/onhst.htm

http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/en/taxchange/

Comments are welcome regarding this if anybody is interested.

For Wojtek and Irena from Etobicoke, interlock walkways and steps

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:17:57 +0000

Wojtek and Irena needed to update their front and make the side of their house usable. We basically used the same design for the front as it was good. We tried to make the job more affordable so we used some less expensive material, but at the same time still very nice, with which we could make the job nice. For areas where there was already paving, we removed the old paving, dug up the old base material and re-done it properly. Also for the new paving the base was done properly as well, which is something that can not be seen on the pictures. The color also added more life to the house. It wasn’t too much, but just enough to make it more happy.

For Paula from Oakville, front yard with walkways and armour stones

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:53:35 +0000

Paula wanted something creative for her front with round curves and large armour stones. So we dug it all up and created something as close to what she wanted as possible and at the same time functional and comfortable to use. She was very happy when it was all finished and also better than what she expected!

For Catrina from Oakville, interlocking paving around swimming pool

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:31:58 +0000

This job was a lot of work, a lot of garbage to clean up and a lot of cutting. Interlocking around the swimming pool not only made the space much nicer and more usable, it also made it more specious. Very nice landscaping project, another one to be proud of. We also did some sodding after.

For Michka from Oakville, asphalt and interlock driveway, and walkway

admin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:29:34 +0000

Michka wanted to re-do her driveway, she wanted something nice but not too crazy. So we ripped out the old driveway and walkway, re-did the base for them and built it new. The new design was fairly simple, yet beautiful, with the use of nice colors that work well together and smooth lines. Yet another nice project!

For Arleen from High Park, natural stone steps, patio and pond with waterfall

admin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:31:21 +0000

Arleen wanted a pond with a wide spread waterfall. The waterfall was to make enough noise so that she could hear it inside the house and she did! Also the whole project was built from all natural stone, which includes the natural sandstone steps, natural sandstone paving, large retaining wall built from armor stones, our beautiful pond built from pink muskoka granite stones and river stones spread here and there. Very beautiful project.