Thursday, January 28, 2010

New Year, New Look.


I've been away for quite awhile, but I have been actively getting a lot moving. As in earth, plants, bricks and mortar. We had determined to redo our front landscape when two maple trees became impossible to live with in their current positions. As far as we can make out, they were part of the natural landscape when the house was built. The owners simply left them with no other shaping done. I tried for years to grow things under them. New plants sat there looking grumpy and tired. Old Bermuda grass continued to creep into the beds that were there and that was a maintenance nightmare. The original foundation shrubs had become overgrown and if we were to keep them manicured looking, a twice a year shearing was necessary. Not my favorite thing to do. Oh, did I mention they were planted about 10 inches away from the brick foundation? Let me tell you, getting to the windows to hang a holiday wreath was interesting!


One of my Master Gardener friends, and landscape designer, Kitty Ellis was game to come up with a design appropriate for the house. She came over one morning and asked me to walk out to the front street with her. She said "Where's your house?" I looked and realized that this large, two story brick house was completely hidden by the maples and the shrubs. That, and a plan sealed the deal. My Tom also wanted to finally put on a covered porch over the front door and some sturdy handrails to bring things up to code. We were now on a roll. First came down the trees, out with the shrubs and most of the grass. A long herringbone path to the front from the driveway was on the plan, as well as replacing the front walk with the same material. You see the shocking result of the initial efforts. We left one giant maple near the street and the two windmill palms at the end of the walk. The new plants would be varieties that topped out at a reasonable height and if a certain shape was desired, then the specimen would naturally grow in that shape with minimal pruning. Certain plants would repeat around the landscape to connect the whole together. Lots of evergreens would give interest in the Winter. Perennials would come later as I would be adding those myself. The right side of the landscape would be more curving beds and lawn. The left side of the front walk would have a formal feel with a gravel square and boxwoods planted around it. The center circle in the square would later be planted with a white tree-form wisteria. Most important of all, a new irrigation system would go in to assist me in keeping everything watered well in a droughty summer. We'll return to this project as I add more photos. The leveling of the landscape was much more upsetting than we thought it would be.

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