Desert Crest Press

Desert living has made use of courtyards for centuries as an intimate open air room. Today southwestern architecture continues to work beautifully for creating custom courtyard designs in a number of areas where there is an door for access from inside the house. Some homeowners choose to use lots of plants to frame the walls of their courtyards, and others prefer the lower maintenance and clean minimalist look.

We recently finished this Phoenix courtyard design’s installation. It is small, but very lovely in travertine stone tile enclosed by an ornate wrought iron gate and stationary side fencing. Very much in keeping with Southwestern desert style. Many homes in this part of Arizona offer just such a corner that lends itself well to a courtyard application. However, just as we find with newly built homes, if the builder included a patio, it will be nowhere near what the homeowner needs or wants. One of the most popular requests for landscape design and installation we get is for outdoor living spaces and pool decks of either pavers or natural stone tiles.

Travertine pavers are both elegant and relaxing as an outdoor flooring or paving choice for foot traffic. It would surely make sensational looking driveways, but is far too fragile to take the weight and pressure of vehicles. For sidewalks, patio and courtyard designs though, it is the perfect upscale paving material in any Scottsdale or Phoenix landscaping and outdoor living spaces. While it has an overall coloring that is light enough to deflect heat from the sun, the streaks of darker color running through it add a great deal of interest and beauty to the stone.

Phoenix courtyard designs can take on any shape you prefer. For some homeowners more privacy is desired and they have us use masonry walls to enclose the area. As with all facets of landscape design, this can be determined by the proximity of neighbors as well as the resident’s planned use for the space.

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An essential part of any Arizona home is an inviting approach for guests and curb appeal. We make the most of courtyards in our Southwestern architecture. Whether you want traditional adobe or natural stone walls to enclose and add ambiance to this semi private outdoor room, both compliment home designs here in the desert.

Unlike the majority of other landscape design components, hiring a contractor to plan and install your front courtyard requires masonry skills for its most important element … the walls.

The use of an open front porch as is popular in many regions of the country, but they aren’t technically a room. Courtyards in Scottsdale serve as outdoor rooms that extend beyond a public area solely for greeting guests. Granted, the front porch is a gathering spot on a hot evening in many locations, but these home features are public areas open to any bypassing traffic. Here in Arizona, courtyards are a private to semi-private space and many make use of them as a cooling, relaxing place in addition to using them as sort of an outdoor foyer.

Today’s courtyard walls can be low or tall, depending on the preferences and taste of the homeowner. Natural stone masonry walls are popular for enclosing courtyards in Scottsdale and many other Arizona locations. These courtyards become a handsome accent to our adobe home walls. For a more fluid look that blends beautifully with a house’s exterior, stucco courtyard walls are the perfect choice. This allows your stone mason to match the color of your home or even accent it in certain parts of the design.

Stucco courtyards allow for less geometry used in the shape of the walls, such as the curves seen in the image above. This particular courtyard is shaded most of the day, offering a welcome space for both arriving guests and the members of the household. The same pavers used in the sidewalk approach were used to create the courtyard floor and bring a welcome accent color and texture to this outdoor room’s appeal. The traditional open iron gate and lighting fixtures add much to the overall exterior design.

Once inside this enclosure, a courtyard fountain adds to the cooling of the space as well as to its overall decor. Water features are a popular addition to the design of courtyards in Scottsdale and around greater Phoenix as well. Naturally, you’ll want to include low maintenance plants in beds or attractive containers to soften the masonry and assist in cooling the air in your private outdoor room.

The result on this particular courtyard’s design adds great value not only to the curb appeal of this residential property, but also to creating extended and useful space to retreat from the sun, yet enjoy fresh air. Working with Desert Crest to design an install a courtyard makes the process smooth and without the hassle or delay of calling in other companies to handle different parts of the construction. We are licensed and insured to do the entire project from breaking ground to the final touches.

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The creation of Anthem courtyard design can typically be challenged due to limited space. Anthem landscape designers will pay special attention to vertical space in a small area such as the example shown here. Small potted trees with taller trunks, tall plant pots, use of stands as well as hanging plants can help provide greater depth perception in a small space when considering courtyard design.

Choice of lush green foliage plants by professional Anthem landscape designers plays well against the color of natural Arizona stone and paving stones flooring. A little color provided through red-flowering plants sets well against the neutral earth toned patio furniture surrounding a central courtyard fountain. The addition of splashing water assists as a cooling mechanism, and adds to the soothing aura of the secluded outdoor living room courtyard.

Also, what  Anthem courtyard does not conjure up images of natural stone used in a variety of design elements? For example, the walled circular water element dominates the outdoor social space created with this particular Anthem courtyard design.

Courtyards have been in human use since 3000 B.C. used for many purposes – cooking, working, recreating, gardening and even as a place to house animals. Through the centuries its use has evolved as a favored outdoor living room for socializing and family time in temperate climates. The modern creature comfort provided by air conditioning has replaced the time-tested function for an open courtyard in Anthem providing cooling relief from the hot interior of a desert home.

However, cooling technology has not replaced the courtyard as a favorite outdoor living room in which to withdraw for casual and intimate conversation and socializing. This is why professional landscape designers in Anthem include central elements such as a fire pit or water element as shown here. The design follows traditional elements used in creating small gardens where little use of permanent plant beds is employed. Instead, a mix and match assortment of potted and hanging plants adds to the ability to constantly present a different look relocating plant elements when desired.

A careful courtyard design in Anthem for limited space will provide a great deal of the elements most homeowners seek – fresh air, security, peaceful and amiable social gathering space. Every home in Anthem should have an outdoor living room courtyard.

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Get instant relief from the Phoenix sun with custom pole ramadas on your patio, pool or courtyard.

The Pueblo people, like their neighbors from Mexico also made great use of the ramada structure. Their summer shelter was many times a pole ramada to take advantage of any air movement. The original construction of the pole ramada were made from sapling trunks tightly fitted together and lashed into place with vines or brush woven to form a crude sort of rope. Pole ramadas are right at home in your Phoenix landscaping and patio designs. They have always been a great style to use with adobe architecture. This authentic Arizona ramadas design will be lower priced than other styles more commonly seen in The Valley.

Some people call pole ramadas vigas latillas, but this isn’t quite right. The structural building style for this shade shelter is the most authentic ramada to Southwest United States regions. While they do have vigas or posts and the roof is topped with strip poles in their most natural state, they are not quite ‘lattilas’. It is possible to have a true lattilas roof on your patio ramada, but this design would require more labor and more lumber to build. To accomplish instant shade in your outdoor living area in Phoenix, you will be wise to stick with the true pole ramadas design. Of course, one built today will not have the traditional vines holding the roof poles in place.

You'll enjoy almost solid shade with the well constructed pole ramada over your outdoor living room in Phoenix.

Lattilas are actually short sawn poles of equal length that are used beneath the flat topped roofs of the authentic period adobe home. The lattilas are tightly fitted together between roof vigas and were originally design to stop most of the dirt from the mud roof from sifting down to dust the inside of the home. Modern builders of homes in Pheonix and the rest of the southwest still use the peeled Ponderosa Pine latillas roof. When working on a slim budget to add relief from the sun to your patio or courtyard, pole ramadas are a much better choice. These ramadas will be easier to build and require fewer materials, both of which keep the cost of construction lower than other types of ramadas for shade.

Having custom designed and built pole ramadas allows you to get the perfect shape and size to cool off the patio. There are many different ways to apply these simple and natural looking ramadas to your patio designs and pool areas. A long narrow swimming pool could easily have a shaded end by erecting a pole ramada for enjoying the water out of direct sun. Corner pole ramadas built in an el or triangular shape are also possible when you have one custom built to suit your personal needs on your Phoenix property. The simple style will beautifully compliment your Arizona home, without question.

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Focal point natural stone walls with adobe coping blend beautifully in this Arizona landscape design.

The easiest way to traverse grade changes is exactly the way most builders treat them, sloped rather than steps. Homeowners in Arizona will find that there are some problems with keep landscape stone and the soil where it belongs on the fast, cheap and easy way to deal with inclines or declines in property grading. Adding character and low maintenance beauty to your Phoenix landscaping calls from retaining walls and steps.

Home improvements like this require you to work with a mason first and a Phoenix landscaper to renovate your planting areas and lawns after the hardscape is completed. It makes a great deal more sense to hire a masonry contractor that is just as talented in landscaping as they are working with adobe and stone. You will have a lot less hassle dealing with one company as opposed to two and your landscape construction will be completed far faster.

Coordinating natural stone used in retaining walls with smoother, more uniform pavers for the sidewalk and steps can create some very high class, beautiful landscape design features. Not only that your Phoenix desert landscaping

Understated elegance and exceptional use of color. A semi-private Phoenix courtyard landscape design that is clean and very well coordinated.

ground cover stone won’t be rolling out onto the neighborhood sidewalk. The entire appearance of your Arizona home will be much more clean and maintained if your xeriscape stone isn’t spilled out onto the sidewalk, creating a hazard for people strolling by.

Leveling sloped ground in larger areas on your Phoenix property, your will gain a lot more useful space for outdoor living rooms. This front courtyard provides stunning use of natural stone walls and pillars in the perfect color to create just the right amount of décor drama with this Arizona home.

Wide steps leading into the semi-private shaded courtyard provide a grand, sweeping welcome to all visitors. Night time safety and added attractiveness is provided by the outdoor lighting blocks in the paving stones steps. The most wonderfully effective landscape contractors in Phoenix have an excellent eye for color. This is extremely important to having your Arizona landscaping turn out beautifully.

The finished effect here is understated elegance that makes excellent use of the dark trunked mature tree at the back of the front courtyard as a dramatic focal point and welcoming shade in just the right location. The masonry stone walls, xericaping rock and the paving stones sidewalk and steps all blend so beautifully. Add the well placed desert plants and you have a professional landscape design anyone in Phoenix would be proud to call home.

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Custom courtyard fountains for Phonix homes can be very unique. Beautiful use of color and form with this more sculptural looking custom courtyard fountain.

Adding water features to your Phoenix courtyard or patio setting creates an element that is both soothing to your psyche and a natural cooling benefit. Custom designed outdoor living room fountains allow your water feature to coordinate perfectly with your taste and the home’s architecture. There are many things that can be used to create very unique courtyard fountains for the Arizona home. It can be rather ruggedly handsome using native Arizona stone or very traditional and elegant in nature.

Stone orbs and those made from frost tolerant clay or other sculpture materials can give a water fountain feature a very interesting look. The addition of a stop such as is used in the top photograph will alter the music Phoenix fountains will make.

Making use of natural stone constructed as masonry gives you the opportunity to creating a waterfalls feature that is geometric instead of appearing like something stumbled upon in nature. Such a mortared basin and waterfalls wall can be tucked into the corner and erected along the wall of the house. The same type of outdoor living room fountain concept can be crafted from three dimensional

Native Arizona stone makes a sharp looking patio waterfalls fountain.

pavers. This is done by building 2 pillars as ends and a low freestanding wall to create the waterfalls channel in. Channel waterfalls like these can be backlit with colored fiber optic lighting for wonderful nighttime effects.

It is also possible to custom install the traditional fountains you can find at Phoenix garden and patio centers. They can be combined with mortared natural stone pools or sculptural ones in many different sizes. The use of tiny fiber optic lights can add a lot of beauty and needed illumination to dramatically change the look of the courtyard or patio.

It is popular with Phoenix homeowners to also add custom water fountains in other places in their landscaping too. Some people request having the perfect design to accent the approach to their front door. Situating a water fountain feature near you bedroom or office window can also allow you to reap the soothing benefits of the cascading music through an open window. Working with an experienced custom water fountain designer will ensure that your new Phoenix water feature will hold up to the drastic changes in our desert climate and be long lasting for many years of enjoyment.

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Natural beauty in patio designs using Arizona flagstone and stucco elements.

Not everyone wants pavers for the surface of their sidewalks or courtyard and patio floors. Here in Arizona, the climate is perfect for long lasting flagstone paving. Complementing our adobe architecture is easily done with stucco as part of your outdoor living and patio designs. Combining both stucco and Arizona flagstone in your courtyard and patio design is an excellent enhancement to your home and lifestyle.

The elements of Phoenix landscape design that work well with stucco construction are items like your ramada pillars, patio seat walls, courtyard walls or outdoor fireplace and barbeques. The stucco can be made to match the color used in the walls of your adobe home or to accent it by echoing the colors in the Arizona flagstone paving. With barbeque islands, the counter top is formed with a capping of either smoothly honed natural stone tile or ceramic. Deciding with of the selections of built in barbeques capping works best will depend on your patio design and taste.

From beehives to barbeques, stucco and stone are perfect partners in Phoenix landscape design.

Using Arizona flagstone in your Phoenix landscape design blends so beautifully with the surrounding countryside blend of the available buff, oak, rose, Sedona red and gold tones that are found in the rock formations here can make patio designs very unique. Flagstone paving can be installed all on one level or in stepped designs for multi level patios that add wonderful dimension to outdoor living area designs. This also allows flagstone to lend itself quite nicely to impressive sidewalks and courtyard flooring that flows.

Stucco is a material that can be applied to many different shapes far easier than crafting them out of natural stone and brick. Using stucco in your Phoenix landscape design makes it very simple to have curved walls and seats, round pillars or square all according to the look you desire when the installation project is finished.

Applying light and dark values of Arizona flagstone colors can create some very beautiful effects in all the elements of your Phoenix patio designs. Working with our native stone also makes it possible to include more than just flagstone cuts of the same colored rock. Incorporating boulders as accents in the landscape design or walls of your home’s structure and stucco is a great way to pull everything together using different forms and textures.

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There are some very lovely plants that will deal with light to moderate shade in your Phoenix landscaping.

In fact, many plants that will take full sun will be more productive at flowering and even bearing fruit if they have some shady protection from the blistering afternoon summer sun here in Arizona.

The most attractive vines for foliage and blooming will be those that prefer light to medium shade. When it comes to true Xeriscape plants that vine and do well in the shade you will want to use flowering Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans). Depending on the selection, Trumpet Vine can bloom in soft melon to vibrant flaming red accented orange. Just as in most regions of the country, Phoenix landscaping plants that like a shadier situation do require consistent moisture.

Don’t despair, this is easily provided without you needing to remember to keep them moist with automatic drip irrigation. For moister soil and vibrant orange blooms in light shade, Cape Jasmine (Tecoma capensis) is a rambling vine that looks gorgeous cascading over walls. It is also useful for screening and will tolerate the sun so is a great candidate for creating shade and privacy beneath your patio ramada shade structure. Cape Jasmine is somewhat drought tolerant, once established in your Arizona landscaping.

Some of the most handsome flowering vines for your Phoenix courtyard walls or other shaded areas give you the choice of some really wonderful blooms and even lovely scents. For purples and lavender colored blooming, take a look at Purple Vine Lilac (Hardenbergia violacea). In bloom showy sprays of light grape hued flowers add an excellent showiness to the evergreen foliage. This particular vine does well in shade and tolerates drier conditions than many climbing plants well suited for shade plantings in your Arizona yard.

Beautiful shade landscapes in Phoenix ... visit our website.

For part shade landscape design in Phoenix, the vibrant yellow blooming Cat Claw Vine (Macfadyena unguis-cati) will create quite a show rambling along and spilling over courtyard walls or trellises. While drought tolerant, you will be far more please with the lush, shiny evergreen foliage with the addition of drip irrigation. There are other plants that can be successfully grown in light shade for climbing walls in Arizona landscaping, but the rest of them are not as hardy as these selections are.

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