Specialties

As a multi-discipline company, we have many specialists on our team. We have four areas of specialty however that we are well known for.

Landscape Design

Our designs are the foundation of the great work that we perform. Kim Girotti, our staff designer and horticulturist, has been with the company over 25 years and can truly help you find that “hidden beauty in your property”. Her expertise extends beyond the realm of structural landscape to include horticulture…the key to a truly beautiful property. Her horticultural knowledge begins with the soil, and considers all important factors that affect the finished job from site conditions to your needs as a family. Some designers such as retail garden centers often use designs as a means to sell plants, and as a result, these designs are often “over planted”, very light on structure, and often do not meet the customers needs for day to day use, ease of maintenance, etc. Check the credentials of the designer that you are considering. Often they are structural contractors with only field experience in plants and horticulture. As a result, the finer points of horticultural design such as seasonal colour changes, leaf and bark texture, and the seasonal variability are lost. Problems encountered with less qualified designers often don’t appear until a year or sometimes longer after the job is done. It is heartbreaking to see a $200.00 focal plant dying in the shadow of a $20.00 shrub planted next to it because the designer did not realize how big, or quickly the $20.00 shrub would grow.

Here are some comparison points that are important to consider when choosing a designer:

Designs done by garden centers often require the homeowner to provide measurements for the designer. The designer often does not even see your yard, and as a result has only what you tell them about the soil, drainage, shade, slope, trees on abutting properties, etc. to rely on when it comes to drawing the design. We are often called by customers to “rework” these designs, and usually find that they are not even to scale, meaning that quantities of product are inaccurate. We often find that issues such as slopes, grades and drainage are not addressed. Often the garden center design is “free”, if you commit to buying several hundred dollars worth of shrubs at full retail price. These designs also tend to lack structure as the impetus of the designer is to “push plants out the door", and have as little of the purchasers budget spent somewhere other than the garden center. And while these designers knowledge of structural landscaping is weak or non-existent, we find the opposite with some contractors who lack a horticultural background. When having this type of firm design for you, beware the obvious lack of detail in the design—everything from specific plant names and sizes, to product names on structural items. This move is designed either to hide the lack of knowledge and inexperience of the designer, or to leave you with little choice but to go with the contractor who did the design because it lacks enough detail for someone else to quote on the job. A quality design can only be done with a balance of the various landscape disciplines and your needs in mind.

Water Features

A specialty that we are well known for is our water features. This includes pond design and installation, as well as pondless waterfalls, bubbling rocks, and a host of other variations on the water feature theme. Our professional water feature installers are educated by Aquascape experts and have the hands-on training necessary to not only install beautiful low-maintenance water features, but also to provide quality workmanship, outstanding customer service, and knowledgeable assistance to our customers. We can truly amaze you with what a modern water feature can add to your yard. Please peruse our gallery of photos to get a small glimpse of how these features can enhance your home and your lifestyle.

C.A.C- Certified Aquascape Contractor

Our professional Water Feature Installers have completed the education and hands on training by Aquascape experts to become Certified Aquascape Contractors. Not only can we install beautiful low-maintenance water features, but also to provide quality workmanship, outstanding customer service, and knowledgeable assistance to our customers.

Landscape Lighting

We have added Landscape Lighting as a speciality because we believe our customers deserve the whole package. When you get home from work in the late afternoon or evening you should be able to look or go out and enjoy your brand new outdoor space or landscaping project regardless of the time of day. We believe that lighting up the outside of your home is much more than just putting a light into the ground. The best landscape lighting design takes the whole house and the whole yard into consideration to create a thoughtful, cohesive and beautiful end effect.

Just look at the difference Landscape Lighting can make!

Professional outdoor landscape lighting adds beauty, character and safety to your home. Path lights, accent lights and deck lights enhance the unique styling of your home’s outdoor lighting, while offering the functionality and peace of mind of a well-lit outdoor space or hardscape design. Does your property have some trees that casts a wide canopy? A colourful shrub that adds a gorgeous pop of colour to your planting area? Or tall grasses that sway beautifully in the evening breeze? Up lighting these key features in your design will add stunning dimension to your property and can highlight those focal points that would otherwise be missed in the evening hours.

Adding accent lighting to a natural stone wall, water feature, or hardscape element like a seat wall or pillar will direct the eye to the textures, shape and movement of items, adding depth, ambiance, and attention-getting visuals. We can find the hidden beauty in your property, and make sure you can enjoy it any time of day or night!

Natural Stonework

Natural stonework is a specialty of ours that is often avoided by other contractors, simply because it requires a great deal of skill and “artistic bent” on the part of the designer and installer. When done properly, natural stonework enhances a yard in a way that no pre-cast or man-made brick or block can do, elevating the finish and texture of the yard beyond compare. Many less experienced contractors like the “Lego” style of precast concrete brick and block that are on the market today for both vertical and horizontal surfacing. These products have their place, however, natural stone provides a finish that offers as sense of both luxury, and timeless style. Natural stone requires “the feel” of a skilled artisan installer, who can envision the finished structure, and use the stone as the medium for his mosaic. Ultimately, function is paramount, but without beauty, the essence that is created by the use of natural stone is lost. Our portfolio is testament to our skilled and artistic use of natural stone in our landscapes.

Drainage

Another specialty we are known for is drainage. Not as glamorous an issue as water features, however, every property requires proper drainage to be useful and functional. Please call us with your drainage issues and see how over 35 years of experience can solve a problem that leaves other contractors guessing.