Welcome to our Summer edition, and as always thank you for your calls and comments about our last article. It is a pleasure for me to publish and show the landscapes we do. Telling the story of how each yard came together is fun for me, and in- sightful for you. It is now May 3, 2023, as I write again. The title is always a challenge, and this one was just as challenging. As I think about this job, the goal of all contractors, regard- less of their profession, is to service their clients well. It is what keeps us in business, and the reason why we are hired. Some of the stories I hear from our clients about prior contractors, are shameful. I feel as a profession we have lost the concept that we are here to serve. It is you the client that has the need, and we the professionals that need to perform the task so as to complete and fulfill your need. The yard we are going to talk about had many opportunities to do just that because some of the work was outside our usual scope of expertise. However, it was a pleasure to serve and help our featured clients.
Dave and Jan’s job was completed between February and March. From start to finish, it took us six weeks. We did many different things to complete this yard. Drainage behind the house was plugged with tree roots, which is very normal for houses that are 15 years and older. We corrected that. Concrete was needed in a specific place where the pavers had loosened, so we removed the pavers and added concrete. Normally, it’s the other way around, but this was a sidewalk, and the paver style was dated, so I did not want to reseat them, especially with all the things we were doing. I wanted to be economical where we could. Dave and Jan had bought a patio cover from Costco to replace the prior patio cover that was crushed after a huge Oak tree fell on top of it (see picture). It was a pleasure to put the new one together for him. The high winds, and the frequent rains this last winter caused it to fall, which was the impetus of
redoing the landscape. The paver patio was damaged, and the style was very dated. I keep paver and block catalogs with me, but Jan wanted more color in the pavers. She went paver shop- ping and found a style and color that she liked. Once the old pavers were removed, we had to remove the Oak roots before we could reestablish a solid base for the new patio. The whole yard was completely redesigned. We made the lawn a bit nar- rower and shorter. The prior lawn was about 15’ longer, which I did not see the need for. I wanted to introduce more textures and color, so I needed to increase the planter beds. I could not increase the width of the planter beds along the pool because they were fixed, but along the lawn I had room. The next con- cern was privacy. With such a large Oak tree being gone, there was a stark lack of privacy. We sought to recreate the privacy by buying five 24” box trees. We used my favorite medium size tree, the Acer Rubrum October Glory, which is an American Maple with gorgeous fall color. You see them while driving around in the fall. Their foliage is very red with a maple like leaf.
The clients, Dave and Jan, were great to work for. Dave walks with a cane, so I paid close attention to safety, and did every- thing with that in mind. There were so many things we did, from assembling patio furniture, to removing the broken pool slide supports. We had to cut into the aggregate pool deck and then patch it. It’s a bit of a trick because the aggregate used 30 years ago is not the same as today. We replaced the walkway going from the lawn to the side yard to match the new pavers, and built a walkway to the shed. The lawn sloped down by the trees, so when we shortened the lawn, we built a retaining wall to make the lawn area level. It was a fun job. Night lights are the crown jewels of any nicely executed landscape, and Dave and Jan happened to love night lights. So, we lit it up. We added enough lights that a helicopter could land.
The yard will take several years to come into its own, and it will definitely be a yard that I will follow up on, so you may want to keep this edition to compare photos when I show it again this fall.
Gardeners, I hope you have your summer garden planted. We have a community garden for my men and I. We planted it mid-April. If you do not have your garden in yet, do it as soon as possible. Remember to plant tomatoes 2” deeper. Though it may look funny right now, make sure you give the squash plen- ty of room to grow – at least 4’ from each other. Until next time, Good Gardening.