The Essential Role of Tulsa Landscape Lighting Design

Often, when people think of an outdoor living space, they only think of the landscaping or hardscape features of the outdoor space. But there’s another important aspect of landscape design – outdoor lighting. 

Landscape lighting is an important part of your Tulsa landscape design. Landscape lighting serves many vital functions in your landscape, especially when homeowners often just get to enjoy their homes at night or on the weekends. If you don’t have outdoor accent lighting, then you’re not getting the full benefits from your outdoor living space. 

Outdoor lighting offers safety. One of the most important advantages of having Tulsa landscape lighting is the added safety and security it provides.  With properly placed outdoor lighting, guests can walk safely down a stone pathway or garden stairs. Visitors can also be safely guided to your front door or down your driveway with the right landscape lighting. If your children get home late after practice, outdoor lighting can also help to keep your children safe as they enter the home. 

Burglars are often also deterred by a well-lit home and landscape. It’s important to keep areas by doors and shrubs well-lit so as to prevent thieves from having a convenient hiding place. Landscape lighting can also help prevent your home from looking unoccupied and thus more of a target for burglars. 

Landscape lighting showcases the beauty of your outdoor environment. Outdoor lighting can help to accent certain important aspects of your home or outdoor living space. It really can transform the look and feel of your landscape and make it come alive even more. 

“Soft lighting in a dark outdoor environment is nothing short of magic. It provides a warm, inviting ambiance that beckons us outdoors,” The Landscaping Network noted. “It creates mood, romance, and drama. It adds interest and intrigue to any settling.” 

No wonder then that, as The Landscape Network added, nightscaping is “one of the hottest trends in outdoor home improvement today.” 

But as they went on to mention, landscape lighting can be a challenge for homeowners to install by themselves. Knowing where to place the lighting and what landscape elements to highlight can be tricky. Professional Tulsa landscape lighting installers like those at Oklahoma Landscape use specific methods and techniques to achieve the right look and feel for outdoor lighting. The style of the landscape lighting should really complement the architecture and personality of your home. 

Balanced lighting can really enhance your pool, outdoor kitchen, or other landscaping or hardscape features, but this landscape lighting also needs to take into account changes that could happen to your landscape over time or throughout the various seasons. 

Outdoor lighting allows you to get full use out of your outdoor environment. Tulsa landscape lighting is key to getting the most benefit from your outdoor living space. Especially when the days get shorter, landscape lighting can help you to still be able to entertain family and friends outside comfortably. Outdoor accent lightingalso creates the perfect atmosphere for entertaining, bringing a lively feel to your outdoor living space. 

There are so many great reasons to have landscape lighting designed and installed in your outdoor environment. From increasing safety and security to allowing your landscape to really come alive at night, custom outdoor lighting is a must for your Tulsa home and landscape. Talk to our Tulsa landscape lighting specialists today about the custom designs they can create for your home. 

(First photo by Stephen Calsbeek)

Tulsa Pool Builders Designing Pools Now For Summer

Although it is still winter in Tulsa, now is a great time to start planning for next summer, especially planning your new swimming pool. The Tulsa pool builders at Oklahoma Landscape can start designing the best custom swimming pool for your home. 

Why build a swimming pool for your Tulsa home? Here's just a few of the reasons many have chosen to build a pool in their Tulsa backyard. 

Your own personal resort.

Staycations are increasing popular. Many Tulsa residents love the convenience of having in their own custom pool. And custom Tulsa pools today are much more than they used to be. These pools can be part of a complete outdoor resort with infinity or vanishing edges,waterslides, waterfalls, zero entry or beach entry, tanning shelves, and other features. Today’s custom pools can have all the amenities you’ll find in a world-class resort hotel pool –except you don’t even have to leave your home. Thus, these custom pools also allow you over time to save money on expensive family vacations at resort destinations. Escape after a long day or long week at work and relax in your own custom designer swimming pool. 

Great for entertaining. 

Whether you’re throwing a party for your children or entertaining friends, colleagues, or clients, a custom pool makes the perfect backdrop for entertaining guests. Have a barbecue by the pool in your nearby outdoor kitchen or watch the game by the pool in your custom outdoor environment. Whether guests take a dip in the water or just relax by the pool and talk, your custom swimming pool becomes the centerpiece for a great evening of entertaining. 

Increase the value of your home. 

Although pools are an investment, they can significantly increase the value of your home and property.  They also make your home more attractive to buyers if you later decide to sell your home. Building a pool in your backyard is a great investment that will last and provide years of family fun and entertainment. 

Do things as a family. 

Swimming pools provide families with a fun activity they can all do together. Spend more time together as a family during the summer in your own backyard outdoor environment. Create lasting memories for years to come with your pool and outdoor living space. 

These are just a few of the many reasons Tulsa homeowners decide to build a pool. To ensure your pool is ready for next summer, start planning now! The Tulsa pool builders at Oklahoma Landscape can help design a custom pool to fit your lifestyle and landscape. We can design and build an entire outdoor environment for your home complete with an outdoor fireplace or fire pit, outdoor kitchen, dining area, and much more!

Build Your Own Outdoor Living Oasis With a Custom Tulsa Patio

Custom patios for Tulsa homes today are more than a just a spot to grill or place lawn chairs. Patios act as the foundation for functional outdoor living areas and are often the hub of summer activity for the family.  

These custom Tulsa patios serve as an extension of a family's indoor living space, and provide the perfect area for outdoor dining, relaxing, entertaining, and much more. Not only do they provide more functional living space, but they can also increase the value of your home and property. 

Although many people see patios as mere concrete slabs, patios in Tulsa can be custom designed using a variety of materials including pavers, flagstone, brick, stamped concrete, and cobblestone. These patio materials can be chosen to match the architecture and style of your home. 

While the patio can be built as a direct extension of your home, it can also be built away from the home as a completely separate area in order to create a focal point in the landscape. Also, instead of one large patio area, you could separate the patio into multiple outdoor living spaces based on how you want to use your outdoor living area. 

Patios become the foundation for a world of outdoor entertaining. They become the basis of a luxury outdoor kitchen or outdoor fireplace.  The design of the patio sets the tone for the outdoor environment, and the materials used can determine what theme the outdoor living space will have – whether modern, Mediterranean, Old World, Tuscan, etc. 

Outdoor kitchens and fireplaces have really become popular in Tulsa as places to gather, relax, and entertain friends. There are a variety of different styles of patios and outdoor living areas to choose from depending on their function. The Landscaping Network lists the four most popular patio styles as dining patios, bistro patios, living room patios, and sundeck patios. Whether you implement one style and function or incorporate all of them into your outdoor environment, good planning is key to an effective and inspiring outdoor retreat. 

Thus, having a Tulsa landscape designer help with the planning and building of the patio and outdoor living space can really prevent problems and create the most durable and most valuable outdoor environment. The landscape designers at Tulsa’s Oklahoma Landscape can design a patio to match your home, your landscape, and how you want to use the space. Thus, a well-planned patio and outdoor environment can considerably enhance your home and help you get the most use from your backyard area.  

Call Oklahoma Landscape in Tulsa today to see how we can help you create the perfect outdoor living space – starting with a well-designed patio area.

How Commercial Landscape Design Can Improve Your Tulsa Business

Sometimes business owners can overlook an important aspect of their company, something that can actually have quite a large impact on their business. Although commercial landscape design may not at first seem like it will greatly affect a business, there are a number of ways that landscaping or a lack of landscape design can impact a company - either for the good or for the bad.

First impressions are most important. 

Business owners are well familiar with how important first impressions are for a customer. But sometimes owners can focus on how the inside of their store looks without realizing that the inside isn’t exactly the first impression the customer may have. When a customer drives up to your store, what do they see? A beautiful and eye-catching landscape design can really impress customers even before they reach your front door and even attract new customers. If two similar businesses were next door to each other, wouldn’t you first walk into the business that was most attractive on the outside? Effective commercial landscape design can help a business stand out amid the competition. Landscape design can take into consideration the personality or brand of the company and successfully reflect that brand image with unique landscaping elements.

As with first impressions, we often do judge a book by its cover, and the same can be said with businesses. A well-manicured lawn and good landscape design can tell a customer that the business owner is diligent, pro-active, and interested in delivering quality. On the other hand, a building without any landscaping can give the opposite impression of its owners.

Attention to landscape design at a business can also tell customers that the owner is concerned about the environment, is eco-friendly, and is interested in creating a pleasant atmosphere for his employees.

Increase employee productivity.

Studies have shown that employees work better at companies that have attractive commercial landscape design and other natural elements.

Regarding a commercial landscape design project at PepsiCo World Headquarters, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) noted that the improved outdoor environment “resulted in lower turnover, less absenteeism, shorter lunch hours, and greater productivity.”

“The quality of a person’s physical surroundings has a real and profound impact on their attitude and performance as well as their enjoyment of a place,” the ASLA noted.

Thus, adding more greenery and landscape design to your business, possible even with outside benches, fountains, or other decorative landscaping elements, can help increase job satisfaction for employees and promote a peaceful, happy environment for employees and customers alike.

Improve market values. 

Commercial landscape design has also been shown to help enhance the market value and curb appeal of a business.

“The proof is in the data, with 99% of real estate appraisers confirming that plants enhance tenancy and the sales appeal of commercial real estate,” E-Landscape Specialty Solutions of Maryland noted. They noted that commercial landscape design provides an “instant wow” factor to a company, providing the quickest way to give a “face-lift” to a building’s façade.

Thus, commercial landscape design can quickly and easily refurbish the look of an otherwise older building, giving it new life, literally and figuratively.

Good landscape design and maintenance might even help to deter crime.

“In a California study, landscaped areas were relatively graffiti-free, while open, no landscaped areas were graffiti targets,” Terra Flora Landscaping in West Virginia noted. “Well planned and maintained landscapes are seen as safer than unmaintained plantings.”

And there’s many other benefits to Tulsa commercial landscape design including significant energy-savings when landscapes are designed specifically with these elements in mind.

The Tulsa landscape design professionals at Oklahoma Landscape can engineer the best landscape design plan for your commercial property. We can take care of all your commercial landscape design and lawn maintenance needs so that you can focus more on your business. From office parks to apartment complexes to hospitals, we can provide you with a custom landscape and lawn care maintenance program for your specific commercial goals.

Let us take the hassle out of commercial landscape design and maintenance and keep your property looking great all year round.

Adding Privacy to Your Tulsa Outdoor Environment

Lilly, the list expert at Listotic shared some clever ways to add privacy to your outdoor space, on both a small and large budget. Here is some of the ingenious ideas she found, as well as some that we’ve discovered.

Planting for privacy.

As Tulsa landscapers, we’re partial to plants. They can serve a variety of purposes, including acting as a natural privacy fence. Privet hedges will provide the most privacy and can give a more formal appearance to your outdoor space. But you can also grow your own living wall using a variety of plants, trees, and shrubs like Italian Cypress, Emerald Green Arborvitae, Gold Cone Junipers, Skyrocket Junipers, and other evergreens.

You can also create this living wall of plants by hanging pots in tiered rows. Choose just about any plant or growing vine such as Morning Glory to grow a layered wall of privacy plants to separate your space. Another idea is to build a garden using potted herbs or other potted flowering plants. This garden wall may not provide complete privacy, but it will give you more room in your herb garden.

Listotic also suggested purchasing Faux lvy for immediate privacy along an iron fence or trellis, as well as planting bamboo for a tall and dense screen of foliage planted either in the ground or in a planter. Another great suggestion using plants is to line your outdoor living space with tall garden pots. These large pots easily add height to your plants and shrubs while also creating a very decorative privacy screen for your landscape.

Enclose your outdoor living area. 

Sometimes it’s easier to add privacy to just your outdoor kitchen area, deck, or other smaller outdoor space rather than creating a partition around your entire yard. Building a pergola or adding lattice panels with growing vines on a deck or other outdoor structure can add a notable amount of privacy. You can also add curtains made with outdoor fabric around your pergola or outdoor structure to enclose your outdoor kitchen or dining area. These outdoor curtains are also great for creating your own luxury resort cabana area next to your pool or spa.

Create either permanent or mobile walls. 

If you want something more decorative than a plain wooden fence, but want an optimal amount of privacy, a stone wall may be just the thing your outdoor living space needs. A wall constructed of natural stone that matches the architecture of your home can add a sophisticated charm to your outdoor environment and add value to your home and property. The Tulsa hardscape specialists at Oklahoma Landscape can build a decorative stone wall that gives you added privacy and can transform the look of your backyard.

For a less permanent privacy fence, you could simply use re-purposed doors or shutters to separate the yard or block the view to an area.  Outdoor privacy screens are also available that are great for enclosing a small area of the yard and can easily be moved.

When designing and building a complete Tulsa outdoor environment for your home, our landscape architects keep your outdoor privacy needs in mind. Using the best hardscape materials, we can design your outdoor living space so that you can have the privacy you need to comfortably “find yourself outside.”

Dream Tulsa Outdoor Environments - Resort Amenities Right at Home

Sometimes our lives are just too hectic to plan a two-week vacation across the world, but imagine taking a vacation day or two and retreating to your own private outdoor oasis. What would your dream destination include? The Tulsa landscape designers at Oklahoma Landscape can design and build the outdoor living space of your dreams. There is just one downside. With these outdoor environments right in your backyard, you may never want to go back to work.  Check out these ideas for creating your perfect vacation getaway – right at home.

The Perfect Camping Spot

Create your own Yellowstone-inspired camping spot with a custom fire pit made of natural stones. Add built-in stone seating around the fire pit for a cozy night by the fire roasting marshmallows and telling stories.

Building a water feature that sounds just like a babbling brook in your backyard will give you the feeling of camping out by a river while also blocking out some of the noise of neighborhood traffic.

A Hawaiian-inspired Resort

Enjoy the serenity of the islands, not just for a week, but throughout the summer in your own Maui-like retreat. Often, visitors to the Hawaiian islands love to spend their days just lounging by the luxury pool areas of their resort hotels. Why not create that resort in your outdoor living space? A custom pool with a swim-up bar area, waterfalls, and spa will allow you to unwind from all the stress of the work week, without even having to pack or board a plane. A “sunshelf” or beach entry for your pool can provide a practical and luxurious atmosphere,l allowing you to enjoy sunbathing while still staying cool in the shallow water. Infinity pools are also very popular at resorts and now are more often a part of the custom pool design for homes in Tulsa.

Our Tulsa landscape designers can create the perfect outdoor environment for your particular vacation style allowing you to relax and enjoy a tropical resort getaway in your own backyard.

A Romantic Italian Eatery

Maybe your perfect vacation destination would include more of a Tuscan or Mediterranean landscape. Why not add a luxury outdoor kitchen built in the style of a fine Tuscan restaurant in your outdoor living space? Outdoor kitchens today can come with an innumerable amount of amenities including stainless steel appliances, refrigerators, sinks, built-in cabinets, wine coolers, and plenty of counter space, making entertaining a breeze.

Add an al fresco dining area near your outdoor kitchen, maybe under a pergola with growing vines, for the ideal outdoor party area.

Custom outdoor fireplaces also create the perfect atmosphere for either a cozy romantic night spent at home or entertaining friends with the warm glow of the fire in the background.

Whatever your vacationing style, the Tulsa landscape designers at Oklahoma Landscape can design and build an outdoor living space to match your dream destination. While one vacation may last only a week or two, investing in your own backyard outdoor environment will result in years of memorable occasions and the opportunity to relax in your own resort-like retreat any time you want.

Winter Home Security Tips from Tulsa Landscapers

Fewer daylight hours during winter can mean an increased security risk for your home and family. What can you do to stay safe this winter?

Make sure your home is well-lit. Landscape lighting not only allows you to utilize your outdoor living space more but can also help to deter thieves. Outdoor lighting for walkways and paths also help to keep guests safer as they walk up to your home after dark. Outdoor lighting systems connected to motion sensors and surveillance systems can also help to keep your home more secure at night. Lights and various electronics inside your home can be set on timers so that your home looks occupied throughout the day.

Keep your landscape well-maintained. Burglars often look for signs that homeowners are away, so keeping your landscape maintained, even when you’re away on vacation perhaps with help from a Tulsa landscape maintenance company, can help make sure your home looks occupied.  Also, make sure any trees or shrubs near your home do not become overgrown, providing a good place for burglars to hide or block visibility to your front door. Shrubs that have thorns planted next to the home act as a great deterrent for thieves.

Make sure all your doors and windows are locked. Many of us like to open our windows or patio doors this time of year when it starts getting cooler outside. When opening these windows or doors, be sure to place dowel rods or locking pins in the tracks to prevent someone from easily opening them further. And lock your front door, even if you’re just in the backyard or will just be away momentarily.

Always be mindful of your surroundings. With shorter daylight hours, many residents may not return home until after dark. Thus, it’s good to always pay attention to what is going on around you as you walk to your car or home and not be distracted by looking down at a cell phone. With school in session again, many teens may walk home from school or be out late with after school activities. Remind teenagers to always walk with a group if possible in well-lit areas and on well-known streets, avoiding short-cuts in alleys, etc. Make sure they know how important it is to have a safety routine when they get home, immediately locking the door and calling to check-in if they’re home alone.

Make sure valuables are out of sight. Can a burglar easily see your big screen television in your living room? Although large windows or glass doors are elegant and a nice home design, these easy-to-see-through home elements can attract the wrong crowd if they’re not covered. Thus, it’s good to walk around the outside of your home and make sure expensive items are not visible from outside.

Don’t tell burglars you’re not home. That may seem obvious, but often residents can unknowingly tell burglars they’re not home by announcing their vacation plans on social media sites and changing their message on their answering message to include their vacation plans. Burglars can also see many of these sites, and then one simple status update can let them know your home will be unoccupied for a week. Also, although it may seem convenient if you’re expecting someone and in a hurry, don’t leave notes on your door when you’re not at home.

Keep in mind these security tips to keep your family safe this season. And for help with your landscape design or outdoor lighting, call us today at 918.296.9679.  Oklahoma Landscape can take care of all your Tulsa landscape maintenance or landscape lighting needs.