As any gardener knows, there's a lot more to a landscape than the plants.
To make your outdoor living space inviting, useful and easy on the body (i.e. maintenance-free), you've also got to give some hard thought to hardscaping: the materials, structures and lighting that make your lawn and garden functional.
Luckily, exhibitors at this year's Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show, which kicked off yesterday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown, have some ideas for you. Along with decking, ponds, gazebos and fencing, local vendors will be trotting out some of the industry's latest products. Here's a sampling of some of the things you'll find on the convention center's floor:
LED landscape lighting. Light-emitting diodes are everywhere -- why not your yard?
LED spotlights hit the market last year with great success, says Ed Wojciechowski of Edison Light (booth 401), a landscape lighting firm from Boardman, Ohio. This year, it's path lighting. At the show, Edison is showcasing products from Hadcom, Corona and Kichler.
LED lights use 75 percent less energy than traditional bulbs, which means lower operating costs. Because they don't have a filament, they're more durable than a regular incandescent light. An added benefit: LED lighting is extremely precise, so even the most near-sighted neighbor will be able to see the bloom on your prized rose bushes at night.
Fixtures average about $100 per spotlight or pathlight, although if you get into some of the more exotic features, which Mr. Wojciechowski considers art pieces, you can pay as much as $500 per light. For the DIYer, Edison offers packages with wiring diagrams.
Faux stone that looks real. Cast or manufactured stone, a Portland cement-based architectural concrete product that simulates the look of natural stone, has been around for years. But thanks to emerging technologies, it's continually being improved. Today, cast stone -- which can be used both inside and outside the home -- is available in virtually any color as well as in a variety of shapes, sizes and textures. It's also quicker and easier to install than real stone, which cuts down on installation prices. Some popular uses include indoor and outdoor fireplaces, retaining walls, walkways and steps, beverage centers, garden borders and pool decking.
One product that is brand-new to the Pittsburgh market is Rosetta Hardscapes' line of retaining wall systems, which you can see at R.I. Lampus Co.'s booths (231 and 326). These man-made blocks look exactly like weather-hewn outcroppings of real rock because they're wet cast in a mold made from an actual rock. They're also much easier to install, says Bob Welling, vice president of Lampus' landscape products division.
Natural stone, because it is irregular in size and shape, typically requires sorting and trimming, which can lead to costly overruns. Rosetta blocks interlock together perfectly, despite their random look. As such, they can be installed up to four times quicker than traditional stone.
The smallest blocks weigh about 200 pounds and the largest 1,800 pounds, or half the size of a car. Cost is comparable to natural stone, or about $30 per square foot for material and $30 to $50 per foot installed.
While the biggest market for Rosetta is in commercial work (walls can be built in excess of 30 feet with reinforcement, an important feature when you're trying to stabilize hillsides), Mr. Welling notes they also work well in waterfalls and other water features, in small retaining walls and as accents around the yard.
Techo-Bloc makes realistic-looking cast-stone products, too, but on a smaller scale. Check out Allgreen Inc.'s booth (529) to see pavers and curbstones with an aged appearance thanks to Techo-Bloc's patented Tumble Master process. A few products also boast hand-chiseled or high-relief surfaces that imitate the look of slate or quarry stone. Average prices run between $12 and $15 a square foot.
Allgreen, whose "outdoor" showroom in Valencia spans 6 acres, can supply homeowners with a list of 300 contractors familiar with installation. If you'd rather do it yourself, it also holds free DIY seminars (the next one is April 5) in paver and retaining wall installation in its indoor showroom, says owner Hap Evans.
Doing your own stone work can save you up to 50 percent on a project.
"People either give up their money or their time," says Mr. Evans.
Rubber mulch is another popular manmade lookalike. Dragun's Landscaping (booth 713) will have on display Playsafer rubber mulch in traditional black and brown, of course, but also in red, green, purple and bright blue -- which looks perfect next to a swimming pool, says owner Jay Dragun.
More and more homeowners are opting for rubber mulch in their landscaping, he says, because it lasts so much longer, doesn't crumble, disintegrate or decompose (it's made of vulcanized tire rubber) and is completely nontoxic.
"It does what it's supposed to do, which is hold the moisture in for plants," he says.
It's designed for the person who wants to lay mulch one and only one time, says Mr. Dragun.
"It's guaranteed for life."
Of course, getting your lawn and garden in shape for summer also means plants. Jack Hughes of Tropical Forest, a first-time attendee, grows pussy willow, a multi-stemmed woody shrub with silky buds, or catkins, that bloom in mid-spring, on a 10-acre farm in Lancaster. His booth (410) will have 10 varieties for sale, including corkscrew, black and American pussy willow.
Extremely easy to grow (you simply score the cuttings, root them in water and then plant the bundle in a deep hole), pussy willow range in height from 4 to more than 30 feet, depending on the variety. They're also relatively inexpensive: $10 for one bunch, $18 for two or $25 for three.
Women, says Mr. Hughes, are particularly fond of the white-flowered American pussy willow because it brings back good memories of what they picked in the wild when they were children.
"It reminds them of their mother and grandmother," he says. "So not only is it a nice-looking plant, but one that has sentimental value as well."
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