Professional Landscape Service Provider
Artistic Landscapes designed this natural stone firepit to have an opening in the ‘front’ to allow for better visibility of the fire. Based on the location of the patios and the expected seating arrangements, nearly 100% of people will be sitting facing the open side of the firepit. The steps to this patio were built from reclaimed granite, thus we installed a piece of reclaimed granite as the front threshold of this firepit.
Depending on the your preference, we may design your patio to include multiple accent rows around your patio or driveway. Attached are projects with a two accent rows of pavers. One picture shows the same paver installed next to each other and the other picture shows two pavers that are different in color and style.
One of the items to consider when designing your walkway or patio is whether or not you would like a decorative stone to accent the border of your project. The accent stone is often manufactured to the same specifications as the pavers or bricks which you use for your walkway or patio.
The goal of using accent stones is that it frames your work. Think of the border rows as your frame around your art (the main part of the walkway or patio). If you like contrasting items, then you will admire a stone that is darker than the main part of the walkway and with a different finish/texture. If that looks seems to much, then going with a border that is similar in color, or at a minimum a light color, will be best for you. We have designed walkways and patios with contrasting colors, similar colors, with multiple accent rows as well as no accent rows and they have all looked terrific. Attached are projects with a single accent row in a contrasting color, similar color and without any accent row.
We created a formal paver walkway that leads from the street to the front door and connected this walkway with a walkway that leads to the driveway. The rounded front steps have been there for years, thus we designed our walkway to highlight the curve of the steps by installing a dark colored (charcoal) accent paver. The charcoal colored paver was installed in a similar style as the bottom step to help highlight the steps. The natural stone finish on the Techo pavers fits in very nicely with some exposed ledge that is on the property.
This week we completed the construction of natural stone walls using Blue Mountain natural stone for a family in Georgetown, MA. The walls, brick walkway, reclaimed granite steps, plants and landscape lights will be seen by many friends of the family tomorrow night at their get together. But, last night, they had other guests and this is the feedback which we received today “We *love* it! One of our friends said that it looks like it should be in a magazine. 
And we agree!”.
Pictures will be forthcoming…
We have completed the construction of this Natural Stone Retaining Wall for this Lynnfield, MA family. The cap, the stones that are at the top of the wall, are mortared together and the entire top of the wall is solid. The cap is a combination of exposed mortar and natural stones. In the area behind the wall, we added loam and compost with new plants and finished the area with mulch.
This wall allowed us to construct the patio into this family’s backyard hill and will provide additional seating around the patio. Artistic Landscapes can create the backyard room which you want. Please call us at 978.317.9875 or contact us through www.Artistic-Landscapes.com. 
This natural stone wall is near 24″ tall and just needs to be capped. The cap is the stone that finishes the top of the wall and helps the wall keep its integrity over future years. It is extremely important to create a solid cap as the cap keeps water from penetrating into the wall (water that gets inside the wall will eventually compromise the wall through freeze/thaw cycles).
As you can see from this picture, 3/4″ gravel is used to backfill the wall and allow for better drainage and the center of this 18″ thick wall is filled with mortar. More information about having us build you a solid, beautiful natural stone wall can be obtained by contacting us at 978.317.9875 or through www.Artistic-Landscapes.com.
The sub-base (the existing soil) was compacted after excavation prior to us adding 3/4″ crushed gravel as our base to the natural stone wall. The wall is going to be approximately 24″ tall. The gravel extends in front of the wall as well as behind the wall. The gravel behind the wall is very important for drainage. We installed a 4″ drainage pipe behind the wall and ‘day lighted’ it at each end of the wall. The drainage pipe is an insurance policy if water begins to drain slower than expected.
Stones are laid in a linear fashion and secured together with mortar. We make our own mortar by mixing Portland I/II with concrete sand and water.
This Lynnfield family had some large evergreen trees removed, because if a tree fell it would have likely landed on a house. We were hired to make this area usable and a new space where guests could enjoy a cookout. First, we removed the root systems of the evergreen trees. Secondly, we excavated the hill so that we could have a level area to begin construction.
Slabs are concrete pavers with a surface area greater than 100.25 sq. inches. Installation of slabs should occur after the concrete sand is compacted. Set the slabs on the compacted concrete sand then sweep polymer sand into the joints. Manually move the polymer sand down the joints then mist the polymer sand to activate the polymers. Do not run a compactor on the slabs.
