Sunday, December 26, 2010

Container Gardening

Vegetable Garden
Even the smallest patio or terrace can boast a crop of vegetables or a garden of flowers either in planter boxes, containers or a combination of both, there are many ways to successfully venture into the world of container gardening and living in a fast paced city should not hold you back from doing so, often times things can become a bit overwhelming and we long for a peaceful escape into the great outdoors, that is why more and more Urban community gardens are popping all over many parts of the city.

Cedar T&G Planterwe often receive requests from homeowners and garden enthusiasts to build custom planter boxes, we design in a variety of styles and sizes all suitable in construct and safe to grow a large variety of enjoyable edibles, Tomato VineContainers can also fit perfectly inside planter boxes making them easy and convenient for you to move around share and do so much more, one of the most important factors in edible growing is choosing a safe fertilizer, avoid chemical fertilizers that can make plants inedible, growing edibles in containers is extremely fun however it can vary a little bit from your standard yard garden, the soil in containers is unlikely to get organic enrichment the natural way so remember to work compost inside the containers.
Container Gardening

You can purchase compost at any garden center, compost encourages earthworms and other beneficial organisms whose activities help plants grow providing the needed nutrients improving the soil.
  • Drainage: is very important choose containers that have a good number of holes in the bottom this will ensure proper drainage, that way your edibles will neither drown nor parch.
    Container
  • Sun: Your balcony or terrace should receive about 4 – 5 hours of sun every day, preferably morning and late afternoon when the sun will be less intense, be mindful of this when choosing a location for your containers or planter box.

  • Watering: A sprayer attachment on a garden hose or a watering can is a great way to water your container plants, just make sure the water is cool let the water run for a while especially if the hose happened to be in the sun for a good part of the day, hot water can retard root development.

Urban Garden

An urban garden right at your fingertips, even in the biggest city, small apartment, the possibility to reconnect with the natural world through gardening is possible, put that balcony to work or complete that roof top garden you have always been dreaming of, we can still take pleasure and enjoy gardening without giving up the advantages of a big city metropolitan lifestyle that we also enjoy.

Share Veggies
Soon enough you will find yourself sharing some of your wonderful edibles with family and friends even meeting other dedicated enthusiast like yourself within the community, exchanging gardening tips volunteering at your local community garden, hanging out at the local garden center wondering why oh why did you ever skip out on this place, and you realize hey! I’m an Urban Gardner now!!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

2010 Highlights - Carroll Gardens

Roof Top Terrace 2
Welcome to our second post of 2010 Highlights, this memorable roof top deck was built in the heart of Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, the area is named after Charles Carroll a revolutionary war veteran the longest lived signatory of the declaration of independence, this distinguishable neighborhood is very engaging, quiet streets with long gardens and brownstone row houses, the area is home to many great Café hot spots, antique shops, boutiques and restaurants, and a superb appreciation for beautiful outdoor spaces.

Roof Top Terrace

This brownstone apartment enjoys an exclusive entrance out to a very spacious roof top terrace making this an ideal place to host family outdoor events, or to simply retreat on a calm Sunday morning with a favorite book in hand enjoying the good weather right at home, the beauty that lies beneath this deck is given by the multi-chromatic look of this upscale and durable composite decking, a vibrant deck constructed at its best to endure time itself, a low maintenance option that will keep its current and any future homeowners happy.

Open Space  Rosewood Roof Top Deck

The platform and walk able Plexiglas was a very interesting feature that we constructed for this project, it made an ideal location for the homeowner to station his gas grill.   Plexi-Glass Platform

It was a pleasure seeing this outdoor space take shape an excellent highlight of the year.
stay tuned for other great postings.

Friday, December 24, 2010

2010 Highlights - Boerum Hill, Brooklyn


Its official in a couple of days 2010 will be departing, leaving only but a great memory of the wonderful homeowners who we met along the way and the projects we had the opportunity to design and build for them, it’s that time of the year to showcase some of our great work, the following will be just a short highlight of the adventurous year we had.

We love building roof top decks in Boerum Hill Brooklyn and the surrounding areas, a former Brooklynite myself knows there is always something great going on here, among many great hot spots Brooklyn is home to the TV show talk Stoop with NBC’s Cat Greenleaf who interviews actors, musicians, politicians on her own stoop, speaking of Boerum Hill there is a very nice outdoor space we had the opportunity to design and build for a wonderful client in that area.
The location would once again be a roof top, an old deck was
in need of being replaced, the space held a great view and immediately design features started to flow in, after finalizing on a design the demolition phase would begin, a couple of pictures were provided by our client 2 of which we digitally stitched together (right picture) to get a better view of how the old deck looked in its better days, the picture (below) detailed how we encountered the
deck before we removed it, this project would include a board over board fence, the deck surface would be constructed with a beautiful Mahogany Composite that was very vibrant and would do wonders for this outdoor space, to top things off a Cedar Pergola would be
installed creating a nice lounge type retreat area where seating could later be placed if desired, we designed the following rendering to visualize how certain design features would look.
Here is a comparison between the Rendering and Project Photos (below)
See more pictures in the slide show (below)

This great outdoor space was magnificent to build, it merits a place in our 2010 Highlights, stick around, we will be positing more great outdoor spaces.