The front garden was planted some 20 years ago when the homeowners bought the property. Over time, the garden became overgrown and weedy…site preparation for this garden took two days and filled three commercial disposal containers!

The impressive horizontal rock wall feature dominates and frames the property foreground. Seven columnar Blue Arrow juniper punctuate the landscape beautifully against the silver stone face. These striking evergreens create balance and verticle interest and will mature to a tidy 4 foot width and stunning 12 foot height. Five were placed on the right of the driveway, and two on the left closer to the home.

Older gardens sometimes have valuable mature evergreens that can provide inspiration for the design. Here, a lovely juniper was crowded by several large shrubs and overgrown lilies. Its silver blue-grey foliage was repeated in large stands of Japanese carpet juniper and perennial pink dianthus…these three plants were retained in the garden and formed a basis upon which to develop a new design.

The mature juniper stands out in the new design with repeated blue-green upright columnar and low-growing Japanese carpet juniper evergreens. Variegated weigela foliage and big bloom hydrangea varieties brighten the garden from spring till fall.

The garden path connecting the upper garden to the road had lost its way…the informal rock border had tumbled down over the years and tired daylilies and weeds had overtaken the area.

The renovated garden path on the upper right side stands out as an integral and inviting element of the garden design. Functionally, the path is more convenient to access the right garden area for watering and garden maintenance.

The dramatic rock wall lacked impact due to a hodge-podge of perennials, weeds and tumbled stone fragments. The beach stone along the top was out of place with the craggy beauty of this gorgeous natural stone and was removed as part of the renovation.

The ledge of the rock wall was weeded, spent perennials removed and mature stands of pink dianthus retained. Low maintenance heath was planted in hard to reach areas with deeper soil deposits. These low growing, woodland plants will bring rich pink tubular flowers in early spring.

A lovely stand of birch trees bordered the lower left driveway. Eroding soil, dead deciduous trees and debris reduced the impact of the silver bark and curb appeal in a high visibility location.

The crew edited dead trees and debris, pruned, tidied and mulched this area. Light now illuminates the silver bark of the birch trees, shines late afternoon sun on the garden and bounces off the rock wall. This is a case of a relatively small change making a big improvement to this property.