Recently, two types of designs have struck my fancy. Both are in regard to front, and to the extent they are visible from the street, side yards as well. First, using plants in a sculptural way to achieve a formal structured and layered look. This can be interesting with a minimum of colors (other than shades of green) since texture and shape give this design interest. One of my favorites is to start with zoysia grass as the first layer, then add minima jasmine, and subsequent elements that could include boxwood, ilex schillings, loropetalums, camelia, shrub roses, eugenias, african iris, day lilies, podocarpus, Italian and Arizona cypresses, some of these being clipped in a variety of different shapes (where appropriate). This somewhat formal look is very deceptive because it looks high-maintenance but isn't!
The other style is to greatly reduce lawn and replace with many ground covers and small shrubs combined with river rocks and rock gardens. We did a series of rock gardens along a curving walkway- all with different themes- tropical. oriental, lilies, succulents and east Asian. The result was visually stunning as well as being low maintenance and green. Our guideline at Laurence E Fosgate is that beauty means not only being appealing to the eye but being eco-friendly.As much as that sounds idealistic, it is eminently practical. Eco-friendly in the end means spending less money and work while producing better results. If that's not beautiful. I don't know what is.
No comments:
Post a Comment