The renovation of this front yard landscape presented a challenge with much of it dedicated to a circular driveway. After attempting to design around it, the assumption for its need was challenged and replaced with a semi-formal garden for the senses. Included are fragrant plantings, crushed gravel underfoot, and the sound of water falling into a reflecting pool. A portion of the drive was creatively left as a walkway to the home’s entrance. Realizing the strong roof line detracted from this new space, a pergola structure was built along the garage and entrance. Newly planted old-growth wisteria wrap around large reclaimed barn-wood beams used as posts,

Antique stone pavers reclaimed from development projects in China cap the knee walls and act as floating steps. The aged patina on these stones is impossible to reproduce as it comes from hundreds of years of use and adds a historical permanence. to this garden. The courtyard includes benches of the same type of antique stone as the coping.  Another detail in the stone work is the semi radius of hand stacked stone that picks up on an architectural element found in another part of the home’s garden.

Water is heard as it gently pours from a hand chiseled stone rill into an elongated pool. Filled with koi and water lilies in bloom, the water reflects the sky above, surrounding trees and plants. For a water feature with live fish, equally important as the aesthetic design, is a properly designed and implemented filtration system. Although the visual water depth is only about two feet, an additional two feet of depth along the entire length of the pool is taken up by a reverse biological filter that keeps the water exceptionally clear. This allows for perfect viewing of the koi (each of them named by our client after various employees of our firm).