Landscaping Design

Services Provided: This particular project had a rather confusing beginning. In this situation, the owners of the home wanted to increase the size of their front yard while also improving the quality. Site work versus landscaping fast became a confusing issue between the home owners, the builder and myself. Now there were several items that the home owners wanted to address. The owners are an older couple whose children and family members live in the surrounding houses. It is a rather large house for the two of them, but since their children and grand children are so near, it made sense to develop the yard into a place where they could come and play. Besides, there were other greater issued that needed to be addressed. The first of which was that the house “looked like it was sinking into the ground” according to the home owner. The second was that there was no real definable front yard. The driveway came right up to the front door. It was as if the path created by the horse and buggy a century ago was just simply paved over.

The first order of business was to level out the finished grade of the yard to expose the house foundation. The second order of business was to push the driveway as far as possible away from the house. To achieve all of this, it was necessary to fill in a fourteen foot deep section of the lot without interfering with the natural drainage from the adjoining lots. It was also necessary to remove a sixty inch high mound of earth directly opposite the three car garage. This presented an interesting problem because where the mound was and where the driveway was going to be was within thirty-five feet of an in ground swimming pool. What made it so interesting was that the top surface of the new driveway was approximately twelve feet below the top of the swimming pool. This required a tiered structural wall designed to hold back the soil surrounding the pool. It became a rather expensive element in the overall design but it was well worth it in the end. One of the other major concerns were these tall, ancient trees located all over the lot. Some of which fell victim to a blight a few years back and never recovered. It would have been impossible to have the front lawn that they desired with these trees in their current location. So they were removed and it changed the dark, dreary lot into a beautifully lit yard. It was truly a pleasure to watch this home be transformed from a forgotten place out in the country to a family show piece.