Creating elevation changes in the landscape can make your space more functional and visually intriguing.
Our landscape designer Jesse walks you through some of the thoughts behind designing with elevation change using retaining walls.
If you’re looking to build a retaining wall or replace an existing failing retaining wall, we can help. Get started at building your retaining wall here.
If you’re building a set of stairs on a solid surface, it can feel like you’re wasting a lot of product in order to build them. Not with Oakville Stone’s natural stone step and filler option. You can get the look of the same stone from the side profile, but hollow or filled with crushed rock in the void.
You can check out the specs of our landscape steps here in our online store.
Paving stone can be one of the strongest, beautiful and most flexible pavement systems around. Instead of settling for poured concrete that can crack and shale even within the first year, paving stone is designed to withstand our freeze-that climate and provide a stunning look for decades.
What makes paving stone the number one option? Let’s explore a few of the reasons:
Appearance
In addition to being strong, let’s be honest – it just looks good! The variety of finishes, colours, shapes and sizes combined with an infinite number of laying patterns provides the most aesthetic value in your landscape.
Many of the latest paver styles come in a standard 3-piece pattern that can be accented with things like soldier course borders, accent bands, area rugs, insets, and more. All of these options can be used to create visual intrigue, richness, contrast, and break up sightlines.
Winter Durability
Small, high density units resist cracking and pitting from freeze-thaw cycles and salts. Properly installed compacted base provides a solid foundation to minimize movement, but also allows pavers to flex and return to form if movement does occur. The texture of most paving stones also creates a less slippery surface during the snowy and icy season.
Strength
Proper base construction for pavers takes a little work but will ensure decades of longevity. Base preparation for pavers typically involves excavating 8-12” of native soil and compacting low fines base back up to ensure a stable structure. Typical base preparation for poured concrete is nowhere near this depth or compacted to the same rate. That’s why you constantly see the base failing under concrete, causing cracking and failure.
Pair that with the fact that dry-cast concrete pavers have substantially better compressive strength than poured in place concrete (broomed, stamped, or exposed), and you’ll be giving yourself the best chance for success. That compressive strength is one reason you won’t see pavers shale on the surface like poured concrete tends to do.
Low Maintenance
Stained or broken pavers can easily be replaced without patches and last for decades. If you do experience movement, pavers are much easier to lift and re-level than poured concrete. You don’t need to saw or jackhammer it apart to re-level.
Integral Colour
One upgrade to standard concrete is to add colour and stamp out a pattern that tries to mimic the look of pavers. This colour is often just a surface face colouring, not integral throughout the concrete. So, when it starts to shale or gets chipped, the result is not pretty.
With most pavers, the colour is integrally mixed throughout the stone, meaning that if one does happen to chip, the colour will remain the same.
Warranty
The Belgard pavers we carry come with a Lifetime Transferrable Warranty when installed to ICPI specifications. That’s putting the manufacturer’s full weight behind the quality of their product. That’s something that just does not happen with poured concrete. (Find full warranty details at www.Belgard.com/warranty)
Whether you’re looking to install your own pavers or want someone to install it for you, bring us your plans so we can get started on the process. We’ll walk you through all your design options, product takeoff and requirements, pricing, and installation best practices.
Not all artificial turf products are created equal. Watch to see Sean’s breakdown of our Bella Turf line of artificial turf and what makes some turf worth more than others.
As published in August issues of Neighbours Magazines
Could your yard use a little spruce up? Maybe you’ve just developed your yard and need to finish it off. Here’s three yard projects that we can help you out with to push your yard over the edge:
Add a Splash of Colour with Decorative Rock or Mulch
If your shrub beds are looking a little drab, the easiest way to breathe new life into them is by adding a rich coloured decorative rock or
mulch. Black Rundle Rock is one of the most popular items we carry, but you can also hit other colour notes with our various sizes of Rainbow Rock or Purple Sparkle. Or if you fancy something a little lighter to shovel and more comfortable under foot, we also offer a variety of recycled rubber mulch products in black, red, brown, and even green. Either way you go, a top up on your ground cover adds colour contrast to your grass, plants and other aggregates and helps choke out weeds. You’ll want to make sure you’re adding at least three inches of depth in combination with some good quality landscape fabric to achieve your best weed control.
Soothing Water Features
A fountain, bubbler, pond, or pondless waterfall adds another dimension of sound and visual focal point to your outdoor space. There are so many design options available in a variety of different sizes to fit every space. Focus on high impact areas like your front entrance or backyard patio. Maximize your enjoyment by locating it in a spot that’s visible and/or audible from windows. We have several different water features to choose from to fit your design style and available space. Whether it’s a fountain that sits directly on your deck or patio, a bubbler rock or urn that disappears into an underground basin, or a grander pond or pondless waterfall, we can help find the right feature for you.
Let There Be Light
As we move into the fall, the days get shorter and the time we have to enjoy our yards become less and less. Low voltage LED landscape lighting is simple to install, requires little-to-no digging, and hardly uses any electricity. Your average residential backyard can often be effectively lit with 5-7 fixtures, some wire and a transformer that plugs into your outside outlet. That’s something that can be done on a budget ranging from $750-$1500. If the idea sounds intriguing, but you’re not sure where to start, we offer on-site or in-store landscape lighting consultations to make sure you maximize the impact of your dollar.
All three of these projects can be done as a weekend DIY that we’re happy to walk you through. Alternatively, if you’d rather have someone do it for you, we can find someone to get it done as well.
Get started at www.TheRustyShovel.ca with a consult request, or visit our showroom hiding behind Staples at 680 Angus Street in Regina. We’re more than just great landscape supplies – we’re Landscaping Made Easier.
As published in July issues of Neighbours Magazines
If you have a landscaping project ahead of you – we want you to start it with us. Whether you’re developing a new yard from scratch or renovating an existing yard, doing the work yourself or hiring it done, our team makes it easy.
Here’s how it works:
If you don’t know exactly what you’d like to do yet, we’ll set up an appointment for our landscape designer to come out and meet with you for a consultation and work with you to develop a plan that will be both aesthetically beautiful and functional. The plan can be as simple as a pencil sketch, or as intricate as a computer drafted blueprint with 3D renderings of your new space – we’ve got a solution for every budget and project size.
Once that plan is complete, or if you already have a plan and know what you want to do, the next meeting takes place with one of our materials specialists. Working from your plan, these specialists will work with you to select the products that will bring your plan to life – considering your budget, style, and functional requirements. From there, we do a takeoff of all the materials required for your project.
Now that we know exactly what your yard is going to look like and what we’re going to build it out of, now is the time to decide whether you want to build it yourself, or have someone do some or all of it for you. And either way is just fine with us.
If you want to tackle the work yourself, we have an endless library of how-to videos and articles for you to reference during your build. Whether it’s a sprinkler system, patio, retaining wall, putting green, water feature, or landscape lighting project, we’ll make sure you have all the information to complete your project properly to give you the greatest chance for success. We even offer a Site Setup Service where we come out to stake out your yard and shoot elevations to make sure you are building everything just as the plan intended.
Don’t want to tackle the work yourself? No problem. We don’t offer installation services directly at The Rusty Shovel, but the reason for that is half of our business is dealing with professional landscapers who do offer those services. That’s why we developed our Contractor Referral Program. After working with you to determine the scope of the project and what products are required, we can shop your project to our network of contractors and secure quotes for installation on your behalf. This isn’t something that we take a markup on or get some sort of kick back from. It’s just our effort to bring more efficiency to the process and ensure that you get the most accurate quote in the timeliest manor. Our hope is simply that you choose our products wherever possible for your installation.
So, if you have a landscape project in your future, let us help simplify the process for you. You don’t need to organize a parade of landscapers through your yard and try to sort out whether everyone is quoting on the same project scope. We’re your one stop from plan to product selection, material takeoffs to quotes, DIY or installed for you.
Get started at www.TheRustyShovel.ca with a consult request, or visit our showroom hiding behind Staples at 680 Angus Street in Regina. We’re more than just great landscape supplies – we’re Landscaping Made Easier.
After designing over 300 yards the last few years we have boiled down all of that experience into what we saw as the hardest, yet most crucial part of the design process: “explaining the final design and vision to the client”. Now this is not a knock against our clients (you are an A+ bunch), however, taking all of the images that the designer sees in his/her head and then reducing those images to a 2D drawing leaves many concepts lost in translation…no matter how thorough the design notations are. That is why we have shifted away from offering the option of getting either a 2D or a 3D computer rendering and instead are offering only the full package now. That is, 2D take off plans (hardscape, planting, and lighting) and the fully rendered 3D model of the design. Client understanding, and project success have been continually achieved and exceeded once the full 2D and 3D package was given to a client and/or contractor. To improve the customer experience even more we have added onto our software capabilities and now deliver the 3D design in photo real renderings with both a daytime setting and nighttime setting so the client can see what their landscape lighting will do when the sun goes down. This capability is the next generation of landscape design.
Take a look at the included video to see and hear Jesse talk about what makes our new process so valuable.
Every year as spring approaches, preparations begin for the upcoming landscaping season. Whether you’ve been a landscape contractor for decades, or you’re putting together your game plan for your first year in business, the upcoming season brings exciting opportunities, a few challenges to overcome, and some great projects to add to your portfolio. As you prepare for the year, you may be looking at an empty tool trailer waiting to be filled, or the tools in your full trailer may be in need of some replacements or upgrades. Either way, we’ve taken the tools from our suppliers and put together a bit of a “dream trailer” tool list, some must-haves, and a few tools that might not always be on everyone’s radar, but that can greatly improve efficiency while reducing fatigue and potential injury.
This list cuts through the noise of all those large catalogues and gives you all the info you need, and all you have to do is click the link to see:
Click Here
The Super Pro from K-Rain has become our go-to gear drive sprinkler head at The Rusty Shovel. We love it because it offers a ton of performance benefits along with being simple to install and adjust – all at a competitive price point.
Have a look at the video to learn how to adjust your K-Rain Super Pro Rotor.
Belgard Hardscapes are some of the most beautiful and enduring that you can find. Take a look at their 12 steps to installing paving stones like a professional below.
