We are working on a landscape design for a project on Candlewood Lake. The project started as a total tear down of the existing structure with a total outdoor renovation. Now that the Corona virus is part of our daily lives, the project has recently morphed into a house renovation vs. a total tear down. The most important part of the project from the beginning was the outdoor entertainment space. Although the exterior of the house will remain the same, the project will still include the entire landscape to include new outdoor entertaining spaces, a pool, a shed with pergola and a rain garden/bio retention swale to control runoff into the lake. Not an easy project!

As a landscape designer, the most difficult part of these projects is trying to work within the guidelines of the town Inland Wetlands Commission and First Light.
Plants used within these projects have to be native vascular plants from CT. Although the list is extensive, once you start eliminating plants that have naturalized, the list isn’t so extensive. Also, plants that nurseries and a lot of professionals consider native are neccessarily native and aren’t available for use. Hydrangea arborscens, Echinacea purpurea, Amsonia varieties, XXXX are just some of the plants that many consider native yet are not truely part of our Connecitucut landscape. When creating a planting plan, There is a certain process we follow to get the full impacr results many of our clients hire us for after viewing our portfolio. when designing planting plans. It is hard to come up with enough plants based on our design style with many layers of plants. With this project, all plants need to flower during the ‘swim season’ because it’s the only time the homeowners use the property.