‘Best in Show’ Winners

Two decades of Southeastern Flower Show and Atlanta Home Show

Unique Environmental Landscapes took the top award for medium size booths at the Atlanta Home & Garden Show held at the Cobb Galleria March 20-22, 2015. Unique’s eye-catching garden was a popular spot all three days of the show, attracting the attention of landscape design/install seeking residential patrons. Highlights of the garden included a custom built natural waterfall pumping 4800 gallons of water per hour, a wood burning fireplace, Coral Bark Japanese Maple which was beautifully accented with uplights. A good deal of the plant material in the garden was selected from the Southern Living Plant Collection, a favorite in Unique’s plant palette for the Atlanta landscapes. To finish off the garden, Unique placed beautiful (and comfortable) furniture from Casual Image on Belgrade’s Lafitte Rustic Slab paver patio so patrons could picture themselves enjoying this beautiful landscape garden.

Relax in front of the fireplace in Unique Environmental's garden at the Atlanta Home & Garden Show.

Relax in front of the fireplace in Unique Environmental’s garden at the Atlanta Home & Garden Show.

A peek into Unique Environmental's garden.

A variety of shrubs, trees, and flowers used in Unique Environmental’s garden.

Unique has “Award Winning” Year with Urban Ag Council (UAG)

Unique is one of the longer standing members of the Georgia Urban Ag Council (UAG,) formerly known as MALTA. Once again for 2014 they had numerous award-winning landscape entries for their projects in the Atlanta and Georgia market. During the annual UAG awards banquet in February they took home:

  • 3 Grand awards, the top award presented by UAG
  • 2 Distinction awards
  • 1 Merit award

In addition, Unique was the winner of the environmental ‘Green Star’ landscape award, as well as the recipient of one of the prestigious “Judge’s Choice” awards.

Unique’s owner and landscape designer, Todd Guilmette, said it was one of the better years in Unique’s UAG history for award-winning projects. Unique feels their “unique” concepts in design have afforded them this honor.

One of their projects, pictured here, was the transformation of an unusable space below the homeowner’s deck. The yard sloped off and the deck steps  made the space pretty much ‘off limits.’ Unique says they receive an increasing number of calls for these situations. At this property, they modified the deck/stairs, extended level ground space and built a patio and fire pit as well as added a small water feature and extensive landscaping.

Please visit the gallery on our website for additional photos.
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Unique Environmental Wins Prestigious GA Urban Ag Council Awards

UELawardsThe Georgia Urban Ag Council has recognized Unique Environmental Landscapes with a number of prestigious awards for their work on residential and commercial (HOA) landscape projects throughout the Atlanta metro area. We are thrilled that the judges recognized the value of our work.

Entry Category: Residential under $50,000 Design/Build/Installation
Award EarnedGRAND
Entry Name: Residence
Comments: Turned challenges into positives. Excellent handling of drainage, all stone matches, makes you want to walk through – KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK.

Entry Category: Residential under $50,000 Design/Build/Installation
Award Earned: GRAND
Entry Name: Residential Project
Comments: Raised property values – landscape is not an asset. Nice contrast of circle shapes with square. Not just good from stree, good from inside. Well-told story, good narrative.

Entry Category: Residential $50,000-$150,000 Design/Build/Installation
Award Earned: GRAND
Entry Name: Residential Project
Comments: Concrete and terrace level created a destination. Love the redo of the pickets, matches the house. Spaces for all ages to enjoy, very inviting.

Entry Category: Small Space Design/Build/Installation
Award EarnedDISTINCTION
Entry Name: Residential Project
Comments: Nice evergreen structure. Japanese Maple echoes brick color nicely. Huge difference from start to finish, raised property value.

Entry Category: Seasonal Color – Commercial/HOA Design/Build/Installation
Award EarnedMERIT
Entry Name: The Ridge at Vinings Estates

If you’d like to have an award-winning landscape design, contact us today!

Unique plants for your winter landscape

Does your landscape needs some interest this winter? Try incorporating in these two shrubs and an evergreen perennial into your woodland landscape plantings.

Daphne odora is a classic southern fragrance.

Every southern landscape needs Daphne odora to welcome in the fragrance of winter. This evergreen flowering shrub creates a unique feature to your winter landscape, flowering from late January to early March, depending on weather conditions. Its fragrance summons the thoughts of what spring will be.

Daphne is a great plant for a woodland or shade garden, growing only 3 to 4 feet tall on maturity. Mixed in with plantings of hostas and other later spring blooming perennials, it creates a great seasonal mix for your pathways and woodland garden.

Need a winter flowering fragrant shrub for your landscape?

Think of planting Edgeworthia (Paper Bush) shrub. Edgeworthia flowers in the winter months and is a great woodland plant for your landscape. Mix them in with evergreen ferns or heuchera to create nice woodland plantings that are seasonally interesting.

Upside down tulip? No, it’s Hellebores.

Sometimes that’s what Hellebores (Japanese lantern) look like when they bloom. This winter blooming perennial is quite interesting for a woodland garden landscape. The blooms with shades of pink to white make up the color array of this hardy evergreen perennial. Incorporating again Hosta, evergreen ferns and Heuchera along with other early spring and summery perennials creates a long-lasting array of seasonal interest in your landscape.

Unique is Presented with Two Urban Ag Council Landscape Awards

Unique Environmental Landscapes will be presented with two Distinction Awards at the annual Urban Ag Council Awards Dinner this evening at the Gwinnett Center. The awards are both for residential landscape design/install projects completed by Unique. The first project in the ‘over $150k’ category is in Millen, Georgia where the client requested a tropical resort in their backyard. The other project in the ’75k – $150k’ category, is located in Kennesaw, Georgia. Please visit the Urban Ag website for a complete listing of all winners   http://www.urbanagcouncil.com.

Unique Environmental Displays Excellence At 2010 Flower Show

 

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     The 2010 Southeastern Flower Show has come and gone and we hope you were one of the attendees, because it was definitely worth the trip to the Cobb Galleria.  Unique Environmental built a beautiful 900 square foot garden with the theme “Come on over!!” calling out to all who strolled our way.

      There were a number of fine gardens on display, each with its own flavor and style.  Unique’s was designed to offer a feeling of comfort and casual elegance, with lushly planted backdrops framing a lower terrace, with boulder accents and specimen Japanese Black Pines.  Stone steps led to an upper seating area, which showcased a truly unique water feature, fire pit, and, of course, more lush, yet subtle plantings.  A privacy fence protected the rear of the garden and was adorned with window boxes overflowing with trailing nasturtiums, variegated ginger lilies, fleabane, Princess plant and glacier ivy.  This garden was a great example of the style of landscaping for which we are known- comfortable, colorful and, well, unique!

      Aside from inquiries about the garden itself, the most frequently asked question was “how long did it take you to put this together?”  Well, here are some figures on that:  actual production time at the show took approximately 400 hours, which accounts for set-up and break down.  Add to that the design process, the pre-construction time building stone columns, the privacy fence and so on, collecting the various components and plant materials, transportation, time in the garden during the show and finally, relocating the plants and materials back to our facilities and you can add another 200 hours or so.  Whew!!!  Quite an undertaking!

      Was it worth the time and effort?  Along with meeting thousands of very nice folks during the show, Unique also won a number of awards for their efforts, including the MALTA (Metro Atlanta Landscape and Turf Association) Trophy, the Ann Lyon Crammond Trophy, the Georgia Lighting Company Trophy, the “Best Maintenance” award, and perhaps the most gratifying, The People’s Choice Award which was determined by the votes of the shows’ attendees.  Yes, a ton of time and effort but many fine memories and most importantly, a feeling of satisfaction knowing that we were able to showcase our style and flair and capability to produce a truly Unique landscape.

Unique Receives Distinguished MALTA Awards for 2009

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At the MALTA Awards banquet on January 19th 2010, Unique Environmental received three awards for Installation and Green Innovation. The Design Team of Todd Guilmette, Matt Cofer and Erik Rieffel lead the Koushel and Howell Projects.

MALTA is metro Atlanta and Georgia’s premier landscape organization for professionals involved in the landscape design, construction, and maintenance industry.

Every year entries are submitted in early November for projects completed that year, Unique Environmental has been grateful to receive an award every year thus far. This year however, Unique Environmental received the highest honor of Judges Choice Award for Landscape Installation Under $75,000. The project, led by Matt Cofer, was for the Koushel Family and turned out magnificent. 

The Unique Environmental Team will carry this momentum into the Southeastern Flower Show in two weeks!

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Koushel Residence (photo taken by Laura Guilmette)

Unique Environmental used the ideas of Mr. Koushel and added our blend of plant texture, and color, as well as hard scape design and installation to create this picturesque and functional landscape.

-Jesse Edmondson