A favorite challenge in creating gardens is incorporating children’s play areas and family entertaining. This family of four’s home was located on a main scenic road with no sidewalks, making neighborhood bicycling, skate boarding, and other wheel-bearing sports inaccessible for the kids. There was also a desire to engage in daily basketball one-on-ones. A large back yard lawn was available, but there was no budget to create a sport court for their elementary-age children. The decision was made to renovate and widen the existing front driveway for family play and basketball, and incorporate a circle garden, sitting areas and new foundation plantings. Sunny perennials and grasses were planted on both sides of a quaint garden path which bisected the circle, and provided easy access to school bus stop. From the house, the circle garden doubles as a privacy screen from the passing cars.

The awkward and tiny steps from both formal and mudroom entrances were joined together with a small paved sitting court and the steps were redesigned to be multi-directional and to allow for additional informal seating. All areas were accessorized with containers of spring, summer and fall annuals.

When we bought our home four years ago, we were drawn to it because of the lot size. Unfortunately, the landscaping was overgrown, outdated, unattractive, and unimaginative. My husband and I didn’t know exactly what we wanted, but we knew we didn’t want the same old boring, generic landscaping we see everywhere. We hired Susan Opton and Terrascapes because Susan approached landscaping from a fresh perspective and presented options to us that were unique and attractive. She took into consideration how plants would look “out of season” as well as in season, which means that in the winter, our landscape looks just as attractive as in the spring and summer months. Because our property is on the larger side, Susan put together a master plan that will allow us to evolve our landscape with our budget over time. The other piece that Susan brought to us was the ability to design “hard scapes.” Susan designed and oversaw the building of two sets of stone stairs, a small courtyard, and a large 1,000 square foot terrace. These structures have enhanced the look of our home tremendously and we get compliments on this work all the time. Susan was great to work with and really listened to us. She was patient and willing to make changes along the way when it seemed like the right thing to do. I would highly recommend working with her and would be happy to answer any questions you have.

Jeannine & Michael