Tag Archives: Saratoga real estate

Leafy Mature Trees Add Premium to Real Estate Value

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Like an ocean view or a Park Avenue address, majestic old-growth trees have become invaluable commodities in luxury real estate. Inspired by their sculptural beauty,

Leafy Mature Trees add Premium Value to Real Estate

Leafy Mature Trees add Premium Value to Real Estate

architects are designing or remodeling entire homes around them. High-end developers—once known for stripping tracts of land to the dirt and planting saplings after construction—are now calling off the bulldozers.

“You can’t go out and buy a 50- or 75-year-old oak tree,” said Jack Perkins, vice president of Elm Street Development, a residential developer in Washington, D.C. Elm Street bought an 8½-acre estate near Georgetown to build 1801 Foxhall, a community of 27 multimillion-dollar homes. Before breaking ground on the project, the developer dispatched an arborist to catalog and evaluate every mature spruce, sycamore and poplar tree.

CLICK HERE or http://bit.ly/leafyRE for the article by AMY GAMERMAN Wall Street Journal

Low-water landscapes think outside the box

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By Angela Hill: Oakland Tribune, March 6, 2014

Water-Wise Garden_Photo Courtesy Jeni Pfeiffer

Water-Wise Garden_Photo Courtesy Jeni Pfeiffer

Gardeners, dry those tears — or maybe collect them to water your hydrangeas. Yes, we’re looking at drought-induced water restrictions in the coming months despite the recent rain, and reality soon will place California home landscapes on a permanent water diet — reducing liquid-loving lawns and moisture-gluttonous plants and instead bulking up on water-wise vegetation that’s fit for the future.

But that doesn’t mean we will be left with rock gardens and cactus — not that there’s anything wrong with that. Experts say we can use this as an opportunity to get creative, think outside the boxwood, reimagine lawn areas and go wild with the abundant beauty of natives, succulents and even, yes, cactus in its many colors and structural shapes.

CLICK HERE for the full Mercury News Article