It’s hard to beat the rustic image and ambience of aged timber when it comes to landscape design. It brings warmth, texture and character to a home's overall landscape. Using recycled timber from historic structures brings history and charm to your planting beds, borders, outdoor furniture, fences and much more.

The Nelson Tasman landscapes really do inspire us when it comes to designing you an outside area that is in keeping with your home, but also in keeping with the natural surrounding landscape. Even if your property is modern, mixing it up with recycled timber can really add a point of difference to your outdoor area. Modern and old really do go well together with a carefully thought out landscape design.

The best recycled timber (strong, dry and free from asbestos or lead paint) is sent to various flooring and furniture manufacturers to be integrated into their products, but you can get your hands on smaller quantities of salvaged timber for your landscape design projects. The advantage to using recycled timber is that the wood is fully dry and seasoned, giving it durability and strength.

How to source recycled timber.

Recycled timber abounds if you know where to look.

• Architectural salvage shops, which can be particularly good for finding intact useful items like reusable doors and old barrels
• Specialty timber yards that prep and dry reclaimed wood for resale to the public
• Old buildings that are being torn down
• Wood shipping crates and barrels from wineries, breweries or olive oil companies

What makes it sustainable. 

Recycled timber falls under the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra. You are essentially giving a second life to a material that would otherwise be sent to the trash. By using recycled materials, you also are not purchasing newly cut trees.

You can use recycled timber for so many outdoor structures and it really does give an earthy and rustic feel to your outdoor area.

Here are some inspirational ideas below where you can incorporate recycled timber:

Retaining walls

Pergolas

Outdoor shelving

Garden bed edging

Outdoor furniture

Raised planter boxes

Steps and pathway edging

Fire pit area

If you are looking for an experienced hard landscaper based in the Nelson Tasman region, contact Andrew at Get Scaped Landscaping and Design. We are happy to discuss all options with you in order to achieve your desired outcome.