Landscape Design for Virginia, Maryland and DC
Ok, your framing is up and you have the solid foundation for a deck. Now you have choices – what decking to use, and what type of railings? Decking I break decking up into four categories: pressure treated, composite, exotic hardwood, and other. Here’s a little more info on each: Pressure-treated lumber: this is the [...]
Happy New Year! As is tradition, MJ’s mom came down from Massachusetts for Christmas. Since sitting in the living room staring at each other is only fun for so long, we did the tourist thing and went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. If you haven’t been, you really need to go. [...]
I stumbled across this great site called Writing Prompts today. The premise is simple: each post is a writing prompt that the blogger uses in his class to get his students writing. I love writing, and it’s something I really need to spend more time doing. As I was clicking through the site (procrastination, thy [...]
I’m still getting requests for consultations, but things do slow down this time of year. I even take off the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s, although that’s mostly because 1) my home office is also our guest room and 2) who wants to see their landscape designer that week? No one, that’s who. [...]
Last week I talked about the ledger board and the footers, the first steps in building your deck. Today I’ll cover the next steps. Posts The standard spec for a deck is for it to be supported by 6″x6″ pressure-treated posts. Not only are these sturdier than 4″x4″ posts (the old standard), they’re big enough [...]
Winter and I have a challenging relationship. I don’t love the way business slows down for a few months, I’m not a fan of the fact that it causes my construction jobs to take longer, and let’s be honest – I’m not a fan of being cold and wet. Winter in this industry often leads [...]
When I took this business full time in 2008 two of my first clients were Pat and Allyson Kearney, owners of Old House Vineyards in Culpeper. In the intervening years I’ve done a lot of work for them, including landscaping their home, a new wedding pavilion at the winery, and most recently the tasting room [...]
My name is Dave Marciniak, landscape designer and owner of Revolutionary Gardens, and I use jargon. I’m deeply sorry. However, the fact is that when it comes to building everything has a name. It’s easier to use the technical term than a long-winded explanation. A great example is the French phrase “l’esprit de l’escalier.” It’s [...]
I hate it when people throw around industry jargon like we should all know what it means and I’m as guilty as anyone. When discussing the beginning of a landscape design I’ll talk about site analysis. If you’ve ever wondered what all is involved, here’s a brief overview of my process. I’ve gotten it down [...]
This morning I found this video that I think does a brilliant job of illustrating why a good design process involves time. Students were given a basic clock drawing to flesh out and given first ten seconds, then ten minutes. What does this have to do with landscape design-build? Everything! Time is money, no [...]
