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Sentimental Journey

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: GREENER IMAGE LANDSCAPING
TEXT: DEBORAH J. CARR
PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: GEORGE PEET

Hen’s Cove, overlooking Red Brook Harbor in Pocasset, is a small community where everyone seems to know one another. Many residents knew each other’s grandparents, and children roam freely among yards. Because the center of social life is spending time outdoors with friends and family, landscaping tends to be less about rigid or elaborate design principles and more about nurturing family social life, activities and hobbies.

Pete and Christine Way love the familiarity of their neighborhood and appreciate its collective multi-generational history. Pete grew up two houses from his current residence and met Christine when they were toddlers, and her parents rented the cottage next door. Having married the boy next door, Christine says with certitude reflecting the longevity of their relationship and the stability of their surroundings, “We’re never leaving.”

When they built their tall waterfront home in 1996, it was designed to capitalize on the sublime views of the harbor. With all of the living space above the first floor, the delightful view may have had a subtle influence on their landscape perspective. The aerial view of a treetop, the grading of a lawn, the shade of a pathway’s paving and the coloration and spacing of plantings reinforce the significance of an observation point. Having a bird’s-eye view can give special meaning to gazing at the garden.

The last house on a dead-end street, approximately 80 feet from the shoreline, the house replaced a cottage where Pete’s family had summered for more than 100 years. It suggests stability more than formality and their two remodeling projects, one in 2002 and one a year ago, were motivated by the needs of their growing family. With four young children, ranging from ages 4 to 11, they needed more space but didn’t want a house that would overwhelm the landscape or seem incongruous for the neighborhood.
 
LANDSCAPE ISSUES

The second remodeling project precipitated a comprehensive review of their property. While the landscape had been nicely maintained, some aesthetic and structural problems had emerged. The driveway had been problematic since its installation, with ongoing drainage problems. The grade on the house’s addition was too high, resulting in an accumulation of soil against the foundation. Garden beds adjacent to the house exacerbated the drainage problems.

Situated on a quarter-acre lot, the tall house is close to the street and relative to its height, the landscape appeared flat, lacking definition and dimension. Both Christine and Pete thought the front of the house needed a more welcoming appearance.

Many plantings on the property had sentimental value and represented emotional attachments. Some of the loveliest plantings (daylilies, Nikko blue hydrangeas and peonies) were carry-overs from the old cottage; some of the most sentimental had been planted during the Ways’ 13-year marriage, with special trees (white crab apple, weeping crabapple and Fraser’s fir Christmas trees) commemorating births and important family events.

Despite their affection for the plantings, many were overgrown and had overwhelmed sections of the property. Andromeda and rhododendrons created a privacy buffer for the ground-floor windows, but were overcrowded and too close to the house. Impressive (but also overgrown) rhododendrons lined the driveway. Native cedars were infested with bittersweet, thorns and poison ivy.

Although the backyard was relatively large, the grading and some plantings interfered with its maximum use. One of Pete’s priorities for the landscape project was more dedicated space for family activities, especially Wiffle ball. An enthusiastic gardener, Christine was hoping for several manageable garden beds.

They both agreed the time had come to consider a plan that would complement their remodeling projects, improve the property’s visual appeal and correct some aesthetic and functional problems. They wanted the plan to retain the nostalgic vernacular of the property and neighborhood, help anchor the house, express the personality and needs of their young family, give them more functional space and respect the wetlands’ eco-system. “When we did the second addition, we wanted the real deal,” says Christine.
 
THE PLAN

The Ways chose Greener Image Landscaping in East Falmouth to undertake the project. Owner Emir Smaykiewicz understood that, while the design challenge included significant undoing and correcting, every decision about the landscape would be based on the clients’ interest in retaining the landscape’s natural rhythms. His plan also had to enhance—not interfere—with the young family’s lifestyle.

The project demanded respect for the setting and a design that would be inspired by, but not compete with, the main attraction: the Hen’s Cove neighborhood. Given the property’s close proximity to the water, all changes had to comply with conservation restrictions and be salt, wind and sun tolerant.

The most dramatic redesign was the excavation of the front lawn. Responding to the Ways’ interest in creating a more welcoming appearance, Smaykiewicz and his crew used a combination of landscaping and hardscaping techniques to accomplish these goals. They layered the lawn by elevating the grade and installing a Pennsylvania flat fieldstone wall. They cut the asphalt along the road to straighten the lawn’s edge, defined with Jumbo cobblestones. They installed a pathway of Pennsylvania fieldstone flagging with Caledonia granite steps. The path bisects the wall and establishes a welcoming approach to the house.

The landscape’s basic structure has been improved by the balance and symmetry of the wall, pathway, steps and edging. By establishing straight lines of sight, the landscape has assumed a graceful but articulated appearance.

The nuanced textures of the wall, pathway and steps replace the former “flat” appearance of the front lawn with appealing focal points and visual transitions. The homeowners appreciated Smaykiewicz’s meticulous attention to the selection, matching and coordination of the materials for the wall, pathway and edging materials.
 
PLANTINGS

Because there were so many plants on the property, the task became a rescue-transplant-eliminate operation. “It looked like jungle,” says Smaykiewicz, who worked carefully with the Ways to identify which plantings were overgrown or strangled by invasives, which could be transplanted and which new plantings were needed.

He and his crew removed some overgrown plantings from the front windows but retained the privacy buffer with a mix of new plantings (dwarf rhododendron and sedum) and the beautiful old Nikko blue hydrangeas and snowball viburnum. They already had one Hinoki cypress in the front of the house, and Smaykiewicz added a second one for additional privacy.

He used some of the transplanted rhododendrons and andromeda to create a natural fencing along their property line. In keeping with the Ways’ interest to retain and recycle wherever possible, the Greener Image team rescued, divided and potted perennials from around the property. Smaykiewicz paid particular attention to the special event/family trees that needed to be relocated on the property. Wherever possible, he combined new plantings with transplants (recycled daylilies, roses, sedums and peonies) throughout the property to enhance the landscape’s established appearance. Although the Ways wanted to improve the landscape, Christine admits, “We wanted the landscape to look as if it had been here forever.” Only those plantings that were beyond redemption were eliminated.

DRAINAGE CONCERNS

Smaykiewicz corrected the drainage problem around the house’s foundation by installing a drip line and stones along the foundation for protection and more efficient drainage. Cobblestones were mortared into place to define the garden beds abutting the foundation. A drip-irrigation system was installed in the garden beds around the house to control drainage problems and water on the roses. The lawn is irrigated with a system using a mix of fixed-spray and gear-driven heads.

The Ways bit the bullet and acknowledged that the driveway needed extensive corrective work. Smaykiewicz and his crew reset the center strip, replaced existing cobblestones and edging and installed a new apron at the end of the driveway. Everything was set in cement to ensure longevity and to prevent puddling problems.

The driveway sight line was improved by removing the overgrown rhododendrons, most of which were transplanted to the property’s edges for screening. Smaykiewicz retained five mature boxwoods that articulate the driveway’s edge without crowding the transitional space to the house. He and his crew moved a boulder from the middle of the front yard and placed it in a newly established shade garden next to the driveway. In its new location, the boulder is an interesting focal point, rather than a miscellaneous object. Smaykiewicz established a thematic consistency by strategically placing other boulders throughout the property.
 
SPACE FOR FAMILY FUN

In keeping with the homeowners’ desire for more usable space for family activities, the backyard was regraded and redefined. It is less formal than the front of the house and has assumed a more natural but accessible landscape. The area now has plenty of room for family activities and more space for garden beds. Christine plans to install an herb garden and share her enthusiasm for gardening with the children by establishing a “good size, but manageable, section for organic gardening” for each child.

A raised garden bed with a Pennsylvania flat fieldstone sitting wall reprises the wall in the front of the house and the retaining wall along the driveway. A wall of hand-stacked fieldstone boulders delineates the back area of the yard. The yard is securely enclosed by a white vinyl picket fence, installed above the backyard retaining walls. Perennials have been planted along the fence border.

The backyard is the young family’s playground. More than any other part of the project, it reflects the values that were so important to the project. It is clearly a part of the Ways’ beloved Hen’s Cove neighborhood, but it is also their private, sheltered space.

Greener Image’s design concepts, values and style were consistent with the homeowners’ expectations, their interest in structure rather than formality, their sense of tradition and respect for the environment.

Smaykiewicz understood that Christine, who is an avid gardener familiar with every plant on the property, would have strong opinions about the project. She appreciated that he respected her ideas and listened to her suggestions but always offered his valuable professional judgment and advice. “Emir definitely has his own opinions, and he was pretty much always right, but he never forced his opinions on us,” says Christine.

The Ways appreciated his responsiveness and his employees’ diligence, whom they say “were all pleasant, polite, courteous and hard working.” They especially appreciated how considerate the Greener Image staff was of their small children.

Pete loves the new front wall and the improved space for family activities in the back yard. Christine loves the welcoming appeal of the new path and steps, and the additional space for garden beds. They are delighted that while the project has improved their property, it has retained the been-here-forever look they wanted.
 
 
Project Overview
• Budget: $76,000
• Prune back an overgrown landscape
• Resolve drainage issues
• Retain the landscape’s mature look
• Create a family-friendly yard
• Reuse existing plants when possible

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