The Challenge:

This property was purchased by an existing client. The landscape had been neglected for decades and was in dire need of a makeover.

The Vision:

To restore this piece of property to its former glory not only with landscape and lawncare but also through architecture and preservation of existing elements that all tie together seamlessly.

The Solution:

• Design and build 3 entrance landscapes.
• Design and build buffer planting with large trees.
• Complete extensive treework.
• Design a new formal garden adjacent to a new addition.
• Design and build 3 sets of stone piers, design and build iron and wood gates.

The Boxwood hedge creates strong lines enclosing the existing porch and proposed patio, creating separate spaces while simultaneously uniting them by creating a strong design element.

The hedge is mimicked in a formal square around the interesting walks leading from the patio to the pool, and from the driveway to the existing formal garden. The square breaks up the monotony and length of the walks, and creates a formal space to travel through. Entrances to this formal space are defined with an arbor covered with climbing roses, giving the garden a vertical element.

The perennials surrounding the new patio were picked for leaf color, leaf texture, and bloom time to ensure that something is in bloom from early spring through fall, with several of the perennials maintaining their foliage throughout the winter. While each chosen perennial exhibits many, if not all of above-listed attributes, some specific examples of attributes influencing why they were chosen follow:

Leaf color: purple and caramel-leafed Coral Bells, silver- leafed Brunnera, purple-leafed Bugbane, white and green leafed Lamium.

Leaf texture: lacy cut leaf of Japanese fern, big leaf of the Bergenia, soft gray leaf of the Lamb’s ear

Bloom time: Hellebore in the winter/early spring; Tiarella, Bleeding heart in the spring; Astilbe, Geranium in the summer; Bugbane, Toad Lily in the fall; Coral Bells and Bergenia maintaining foliage in winter).

The Magnolias provide a formal vertical element for the patio, planted on three corners of a “square.”