North Carolina
The Captain’s Quarters
New Bern, NC.
You may not believe that the before picture is even the same house, but I promise you it is!! This is what I would refer to as our “little labor of love” house. When I first met the home-owner he was just in the middle of adding onto the back of the house. The fence wasn’t up, you could see directly into the back of the neighbors house, there was grass, but literally nothing else.
Now my client, a Navy Captain and a very meticulous guy, knew the backyard needed a great deal of TLC, and was so kind to put his faith in me and allow me to transform his yard. When we began we knew we were going to approach this project in phases. First of all his soil is not ideal, and we had to do a lot of research to make sure the plants we used not only survived, but thrived. So we began by just creating curved grass lines that flowed through the yard, and planting our foundation plants and trees.
The next phase was incorporating the river rock, the crab orchard step stones, and the Techo Bloc patio. At this point we really had a great layout, and the foundation of this landscape was set! Since then we have revisited the yard multiple times to incorporate seasonal perennials, move plants that really weren’t loving their location, and have done multiple walk through’s to see what the landscape wanted. We have spent approximately five years bringing this yard to life. This is a great example of what time, attention, and a good maintenance regime will do for your yard.
A Family Affair
Oriental, NC
It really is true that a little goes a long way. That was certainly the case regarding this beautiful home on Broad Creek. It happens to belong to some of my extended family. Basically, all of my family is in Arizona, so when I moved across the country my aunt reminded me that her brother-in-law lived just about an hour from New Bern. We hadn’t seen each other in the six years since we had moved to North Carolina, but when they needed to refresh their yard they, they remembered that I lived close by.
When they called and wanted me to update the landscape, I was so excited we had an excuse to get together. They were not sure what they wanted to do, but they did know that it had to be fairly low maintenance. They also needed something more permanent for the grill to sit on and they needed to address the water falling off the roof leaving holes in the yard.
That is when I was inspired to use beautiful multi-colored river rock to disperse the rainfall from the roof. It looks great and adds texture to the beds but is also functional. I also added boulders and natural step stones throughout the landscape. Then we removed some of the tired plants and extended some bed lines. Next was the addition of more vibrant colorful plants which provide year round interest. Of course, we replaced the make-shift grill pad with some sturdy, yet appealing pavers, and the pièce de résistance …the landscape lighting!