1:36 p.m. 21/12/2009

Happy Holidays - Christmas Hours

Happy Holidays everyone and many thanks to all our wonderful clients from '09 for letting us create upheaval in their back yards in the name of beauty.

The Project Landscape team members have their Christmas holidays all planned out, for some it is to spend time with family in Taranaki, others are fishing in the Coromandel or just chilling out at home.

Isn't it great to have Christmas in New Zealand where you can spend warm days at beaches as beautiful as the one pictured left?

Our Christmas Holiday hours are:
Closing 12pm Wednesday 23rd December
Returning 9am Monday 18th January

See you in 2010!

10:27 a.m. 14/12/2009

What We're Working On - Access Granted

Steep Sections mean retaining walls - in this instance, existing retaining walls that block the access and flow around the property.

To link a lower, private courtyard with the main entertainment area, we designed a timber staircase with two landings and a visually light balustrade.

This staircase sits outside of the retaining wall, so that the wall can still be used as a garden bed. We are picturing lush, forest type planting, billowing out from between the steps. Lots of ferns, Ligularias, Clivias and variegated Liriope - Divine.

9:34 a.m. 19/11/2009

What We're Working On - Pickets

The first length of an updated take on a picket fence, complete with a custom designed pedestrian gate.

This picket fence encloses a front garden, making it more private and lending it some structure.

The removal of the 'picket' part of the fence creates a clean design against the rambling backdrop of planting.

The client pre-painted all the pickets (Resene 'Quarter Canterbury Clay') and all that is left to do is a few finishing touches on the gate, hide the nail holes and a final coat of paint.

Sweet!

3:33 p.m. 11/11/2009

P.S. Monique featured in latest Weekend Gardener

Moniques talent as a landscape designer is being well recognised after her outstanding success at the Waikato Home and Garden Show.

The fortnightly publication, The Weekend Gardener has Moniques beautiful garden featured on page 23 along with an equally beautiful photo of the designer herself, proudly displaying her Gold award.

Be sure to grab a copy (see cover opposite) and check it out.

Also, if you didn't manage to get to Taranaki for this years Garden Fringe Festival then you must diary it in for next year! We happily spent a day wandering around some inspiring North Taranaki gardens and wished we had planned time to see more. Photos to come...

11:25 a.m. 2/11/2009

News! - Helen achieves accreditation

It has taken Helen quite a few months of intense work to put together her submission for the Landscape Industry Association of New Zealand and after that was a month long wait while the examiners scrutinised the work.

The industry association is nation wide and represents professionals practicing landscape design, construction and maintenance. Each individuals work is quality assessed before they qualify for admission so the public can be assured that companies showing the Landscape New Zealand brand are among the best in the industry.

We can now proudly display the Industry logo (see right) as Helen's submission came back with these words from the examiner,

'Both projects show a high level of design competence and in my view this is one of the best applications I've seen'

Congratulations to Helen!

8:36 a.m. 14/10/2009

Gold for Monique!

It was a very successful 09 Waikato Home Show for all with Monique also being awarded Gold for her 'Landscape Design' category.

Moniques design was titled 'The New Hope Garden' and was a courtyard designed for rejuvenation and restoring the spirits.

Zingy citrus coloured walls provided a backdrop for a peaceful display of green and white planting, predominately ferns and a water rill ran gracefully through the garden.

Congratulations Monique on your fantastic success!

11:24 a.m. 6/10/2009

Project Landscape Scoops GOLD!

We have had three very long weeks of hard work and late nights but it has all been worth it as we were awarded Gold in our 'Exhibition Landscape' category.

Everyone here is thrilled with the win and even though we spent yesterday and today pulling our display apart we still have about a million photos to help us remember what we created.

Monique also entered a design in the courtyard category and was awarded Gold as well! She now brings the 'Golden Trowel' trophy back to our office and it can take pride of place on the bookshelf.

Congratulations to Monique and to the other award winners. More photos of our display will be featured in our Project Database and I will blog about Moniques site next time. Keep an eye out.

7:58 a.m. 25/09/2009

Yup, Even in the Rain

Yesterday marked one week to go until the 2009 Home Show, for us this means half way through the build up of our exhibition landscape.

Yesterday was THE worst weather we have experienced this year, for us that meant we had no choice but to get totally drenched and we soldiered on with creating our masterpiece.

Forget our usual work methods with trucks and dingo's, canoes would have worked better and as the drainage systems gave up and went home we resorted to bailing out our gardens with buckets.

BUT, it is all part of the fun and come wednesday we will look back with the relief and pride that makes us want to return to do the whole thing again next year.

'See You At The Home Show'

10:05 a.m. 10/09/2009

What We Are Working On

THE Funkiest Courtyard Ever!

When this client told us they had chosen the colours Resene 'Belladonna' (deep vibrant purple) and 'Lucky' (chartreuse green) for their future courtyard we replied 'Wicked!'

What once was a muddy backyard surrounded by a broken down, ivy strangled fence is now well on it's way to being a stunning and inviting courtyard.

Plastered planters in different heights divide the space and the lines of concrete provide strong directional flow to the seating area.

The plaster and concrete work has been completed by our good friends at Anthos Landscapes and soon our team at Project Landscape will be in to provide the finishing touches.

We can't wait to see what it will look like once the plants go in!

2:41 p.m. 1/09/2009

The Chosen Ones

After much, much, much deliberation we finally said, 'Enough is enough! Lets just order the plants already.'

We went for a bold, eclectic and asian inspired garden for the planter beds at the front of our building.

Dietes grandiflora - Upright growing, blue green leaves and white iris like flowers are planted along the back of the beds. The Dietes flower at this time of year.

Banksia 'Birthday Candles' - A low growing, ground covering banksia. Large, orange flowers stand up above the foliage, looking like birthday candles.

Scleranthus biflorus - New Zealand native, mossy like ground cover, these are planted at the base of the Juniperus

Juniperus 'Kaizuka' - A feature plant either side of the entry, Lee who is a bonsai enthusiast, will be shaping these into cloud topiaries and their rounded form will echo that of the scleranthus

12:59 p.m. 26/08/2009

Making Ourselves at Home

Here it is, the front of our new building! Things are looking a bit more polished, with our awesome signage by River City Signs and our final choices on the raised planter bed plants.

Although it feels like the transition into this new building has taken forever and there has been a lot to organise, we are starting to feel comfortable in our new digs.

Feel free to pop in and say 'Hello' you'll find us at 23 Bandon Street, Frankton.

2:37 p.m. 14/08/2009

Almost There - Where?

Here is another glimpse into what will be the new home of Project Landscape Ltd.

The construction team has moved into their new 'digs' but the design studio and office is looking rather bare. We just think that Lee, Andrew and the lads want the place all to themselves, well, watch out boys! Us designers are moving in with our cream couch, cushions, paintings and vases!

The new studio will be a hub of inspiration, excitement and cracker landscape plans. One of the first plans to be created here will be our entry into this years Waikato Home Show exhibition gardens. We hope to equal last years Gold placement with our 'adventure jungle.'

More will be revealed in future posts.

2:27 p.m. 29/07/2009

Adventures at Tihoi - Part Four

Landscaping Conference or Cooking School?

Saturday night at the Landscaping New Zealand conference was set aside for an 'oh la la' dinner to be prepared by the famous chefs Al Brown and Steve Logan from TV One's 'Hunger for the Wild' series.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Steve was injured the night before leaving Al on his own to prepare dinner for 65 ravenous landscapers!

Al, deciding that would just not do, divided us landscapers into 6 teams and appealing to our competitive sides created an 'Entree Competition'

Our groups took turns in the kitchen under the tutelage of Al (move over Gordon Ramsey!) to prepare the set entrees for the evening while the rest of the crowd took turns to yell helpful comments from the safety of the dining room.

To add to the atmosphere our Landscaping New Zealand president (somehow making himself heard over the chaos) provided background music by singing the theme song from Al and Steve's TV program.

We can't say we learnt any new skills and we should probably stick to landscaping but it was an extremely fun night.

9:46 a.m. 27/07/2009

Adventures at Tihoi - Part Three

So while Lee was busy not catching trout, Carolyn and Helen decided to try their hand at skeet shooting.

Joining the rest of the group, all male, they tramped up the road from the lodge and across a paddock where the shooting table was all set up.

To look the part, (and to fool the clay birds) Carolyn dressed in camouflage.

The other landscapers, after a bit of mocking laughter, were pretty impressed that the girls could handle the semi automatic, previously thinking that they would struggle to even pick it up!

After the first few attempts it was fair to say that no clay birds were quaking in their boots, gladly gliding through the sky without fear.

Helen and Carolyn both managed to hit a few targets but Helen spent more time stamping her feet in frustration.

Everyone agreed it was a fair bit of fun but the cold weather and the lure of a feast cooked by the 'Hunger for the Wild' chefs finally drove them back to the lodge.

8:53 a.m. 27/07/2009

Adventures at Tihoi - Part Two

At the Landscaping New Zealand annual conference, amongst learning about all the latest and greatest in the industry, was some time dedicated to planned activities.

At the last moment Lee chose to join the trout fishing group, outing the LNZ president from his spot. (We are waiting on the repercussions from that!)

Although the boat trip was fun, and as it always is on Lake Taupo, stunningly beautiful, the weather was a bit cold and miserable and the fishing was poor.

Lee came away with no trout (karma?) and a bit of frost bite (highly exaggerated!) but gained some new contacts, with the other people on the boat representing a large grade palm company and a computer aided draughting company.

Meanwhile Helen and Carolyn decided to join the big, burly blokes in a bit of skeet shooting. Check out the next post.