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As energy conservation and efficiency become more and more prominent issues, there are increasingly alternatives for low voltage landscape lighting. Vista Professional Lighting, one of the widely available low voltage landscape lighting manufacturers we use, has a great variety of options for lamp types, including LED bulb options. LED are a great alternative to halogen, xenon or other bulb types. Like the more and more common compact florescent bulbs (CFL) used indoors to replace the standard filament light bulb, an LED fixture can use 75-90% less energy than a conventional lamp for the same light output. LEDs also have the advantage of a much longer lifespan, 5-10x longer than other lamp options. These fixtures can be more expensive, but the benefits of increased life span and reduced energy consumption help mitigate the initial cost of the fixtures.


For more:
-Vista's LED options

Good gate hardware can be difficult to find. Rocky Mountain Hardware has some of the best gate hardware currently available, with a wide variety of styles and finishes to choose from. Quality comes at a price however. The latch sets can run from $500-$1,000, as these are the same grade and type of forged brass latches featured in Rocky Mountain's regular hardware line.

There was an article recently in the Chronicle detailing the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's new set of rules design to limit emissions from wood burning fireplaces. While outdoor cooking itself is not directly regulated by this rule change, many municipalities have recently made the requirements for outdoor fireplaces more strict.

Provisions of the new rule:
- Limits excessive visible emissions from wood-burning at all times.

- Requires cleaner burning technology such as EPA-certified wood-burning devices, pellet stoves, low-mass fireplaces or masonry heaters in new construction or when the stoves are sold, resold or installed.
- Prohibits the burning of garbage, plastics, chemically treated wood, waste petroleum products and other inappropriate materials.
- Requires labeling and disclosure of the moisture content on wood sold for use within the nine-county district, including instructions on how to dry the wood if it has a moisture content greater than 20 percent by weight. Sellers of seasoned firewood must properly label it as seasoned.

Fires used outdoor for residential cooking won't be regulated.

For More:
Bay Area Air Quality Management District

The Chronicle had a small article over the weekend about an interesting electric patio heater with a style different from the typical stainless steel gas patio heaters. Blue Rhino, who will probably most familiar to people as the company that does propane tank exchanges for Barbeques, has a new line of the electric heaters coming out soon that give another option for outdoor heating when gas may not be practical.


Blue Rhino's New Orleans patio heater. Photo courtesy of Blue Rhino Global Sourcing Inc.

Doing some research for local suppliers for a statue for a Zen/Asian style garden, we stumbled up Routes Gallery in San Anselmo. Their intimate store front in San Anselmo has all sorts of stone, concrete, and wood Buddhas and other statuary that would work well as garden accents. Definitely worth a look if you need an interesting accent for an Eastern style garden.

Selecting the right landscape light can put a great stylistic accent on a finished landscape. The question becomes which of the many brands of light to select. For our projects we mostly use two manufacturers, FX Luminare and Vista Professional that provide a broad range of landscape fixtures. There are many different manufacturers that offer differing styles or niche products for specialized applications. Here are a few different options for landscape lighting:

FX Luminere: A great selection of high quality copper landscape fixtures. Classic landscape styling and application types.

Vista Professional: A very wide selection of styles, applications, finishes and bulb options including LED landscape lights

Hadco: Specializes more in commercial lighting and fixtures, but does have a residential landscape line tending toward more utilitarian and modern styles.

Unique Lighting: Low voltage landscape fixtures with Brass finishes and craftsman inspired styles.

Kichler Lighting: Makers of light fixtures and landscape lighting fixtures. Landscape line has more variety and ornate and custom fixtures for specialty applications.

Lumiere Lighting: Line and Low Voltage fixtures by this Cooper Lighting subsidiary. The Lumiere line features sleek, modern fixtures in different metal finishes.

BK Lighting: Featuring modern styles and customizable options with many different bulb options.

Hinkley Lighting: Beautiful detailing and metal finishes are available in their landscape line.

I received a catalog recently for Earthstone Studio, a stone fabricator out of Georgia, which has some very interesting natural stone fountain designs. In addition to fountains they also supply granite garden statues, lighting enclosures, planters and stone furniture. Definitely worth a look as another option in natural stone materials.

Garden Design Online had interesting post about Fire by Design, a firm from Las Vegas, that specializes in design and component systems for remote controlled fire accents for water features and other landscape applications. We have also seen an increased interest over the past 5 years in inclusion of fireplaces, firepits, and outdoor kitchens as the most popular landscape accent items.

I wanted to put in a plug for a fellow San Luis Obispo Alum and amazing artist and woodworker from the San Diego area Aaron Smith. His furniture out of beautiful natural woods like California Walnut have an interesting and dynamic quality that are definitely worth a look. He's open to commissions as well, so who knows, maybe he can be convinced to create a unique custom outdoor patio seating or table for the garden.

Here is a follow-up to a post on an Outdoor sculpture we were working on in the spring. The sculpture, by Los Angeles artist Bruce Gray, is stainless steel with magnetically suspended cables. We mounted the sculpture onto a basalt pillar for a striking garden accent. Here is a full description:

This is a stainless outdoor version of "Suspension." It is made all in stainless steel, and the magnets on the frame and cords are bolted through for permanent bonding. Those are high powered industrial rare earth neodymium iron boron magnets on the ends of the cords, and also on the frame of the circle, to hold the magnets in place by magnetic force alone. This version has a solid stainless rod on the bottom to be mounted into a chuck of basalt rock that has been acquired by the client. (24" x 24" x 3" plus 5" mounting rod)

I posted an entry earlier in the week about Design Within Reach, which specializes in modern furniture. One of the example images I posted actually came from Modern Outdoor, another supplier of outdoor furniture that has interesting designs for tables, chairs and other outdoor furnishings.

Images from Modern Outdoor Website

Finding the right type of furniture, planters, accents and other garden knickknacks to set off a landscape design can take a great design and elevate it to another level. For gardens with a modern style, Design within Reach (DWR) is a great resource. They have a wide catalog of outdoor furniture and planters with a clean modern design aesthetic. Some of it is quite unique and almost over the top- great for adding a touch of whimsy to the garden.

Images below: Outdoor dining table with benches, Large plastic chair and modern ottoman.

(Client Photos)

We are working on a current project where the client found an interesting magnetic metal sculpture to be integrated into the garden design. The sculpture, done by Los Angeles sculptor Bruce Gray, uses high powered magnets to suspend cables in a stainless steel hoop. Gray's work, featuring an assortment of metal creations is worth a look- it has appeared in various television shows and movies.

Image of Suspended Metal Sculpture from Bruce Gray Website