After 38 years in the landscape industry, 28 years focusing on landscape design and garden installation, there’s not a lot of projects I get really excited about but this is one of those projects. Its not a huge landscape installation project. It’s not even a huge house. It’s quite the opposite. The project consists of a 600 sq. ft. structure. The entire property is smaller than some of the houses we work on at 8700Sq. ft., less than a quarter acre. Why this project excites me is the owners are taking a dilapidated one room schoolhouse and giving it a new lease on life. That’s exciting! I’ve never had the opportunity to work on a one room schoolhouse so that’s intriguing. We were involved in this project right from the start. Creating parking areas and carving the land to accommodate an outdoor living space was part of the design process. Our landscape design covers all four corners of the property. Coming into a project so early and having an opportunity to design the entire property is unique. It happens, but not every day.
The landscape design involved creating parking for 5 cars, something that hadn’t existed previously. Outdoor living will be important considering the structure is only 600 sq ft. The plan incorporated an oversized multi-use entertainment space. The gardens are meant to have a cottage garden feel while providing screening between the parking area and entertainment space as well as the two roads that corner the property. Other features the landscape design incorporates is an art installation to act as a focal point while in the entertainment space and a water feature close to the front door that aligns with the walk that comes from the parking area. This is a work in progress with plenty of flowering herbaceous perennials to come.
Below is the landscape plan for the property. More to come.
