Tuscan Inspired Landscaping Ideas
Posted: Wednesday, August 25, 2010
by Malkay
http://www.handytix.com
Let's face it, many of us yearn for that ageless, rustic Tuscan inspired appearance for our exterior spaces - soft earthy colors, weathered cast iron or natural stone patio furniture, large weather worn stone planters or urns, and a grape vine growing over rustic looking wooden pergola .
Of course it's not really possible to re-create an enchanting Tuscan look where climatic conditions are vastly dissimilar and structures are built in vastly different styles and with different building materials. But nevertheless, with a bit of work and the the right choice of materials, it's feasible to produce at least a semblance of a Tuscan ambiance within your courtyard or patio.
After that you need to work on the surface area . To avoid back breaking work and cost of ripping up concrete and re-laying with natural stone slabs, a much more simple and expedient solution is to use modular interlocking deck tiles. These tiles can merely be laid directly over the top of the existing surface . They don't use any adhesives since each tile is locked to the neighboring tile with inbuilt connecting tabsand effectively "floats" on the surface. These days, you can obtain interlocking deck tiles in a wide range of surface materials, but for a Tuscan look, your best option would ordinarily be natural sandstone interlocking tiles such as those supplied by HandyDeck .
After you have installed the tiles or pavers , then you can start on decorative items . Try to locate a number of large planters or urns. Rather than going to the expense of purchasing natural stone products, you can purchase very good reproductions made from cast cement which are treated to give an antique texture. Remember that a couple of large and attractively designed planters or urns will always look better than a larger collection of smaller objects.
Now you can turn to the furniture. Preferably you should select rustic cast-iron furniture or if expense is no object , you could choose a stone bench or two, a couple of stone seats or even a stone table.
To finish, you need to choose some plants to use in your urns or planters and around the area you have just created. You really want to be using plants which have a Mediterranean ambiance and not bright, gaudy plants. Generally speaking, the most suitable plants those with greyish or brown strap like leaves. If you have the space, you could also install an arch or pergola and train a vine to creep up and over the pergola. Alternatively you could attach panels of lattice to one of the walls and train an attractive selected vine to grow up the lattice.
Needless to say all this cannot be achieved in a single day, but then Rome was not built in a day either. But with a bit of patience and good planning, you can eventually be enjoying your own special corner of Tuscany, right in your backyard.
Marco Keyes writes about quick and simple ways to improve decks and patios using both traditional and advanced materials including modular deck tiles.
This Article has been viewed 425 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.