Landscaping…The Big Picture

The “L” Shaped House is being built by JLM Design Build. There is another side to the JLM empire called JLM Landscape. The landscape side of the JLM already built the beautiful paver patio outside the basement walkout and is about to complete the finish grading of the site and install the driveway. We engaged them to produce a “master plan” for the landscaping before we started the finish grading and hard surface work. Matt Wolfe produced the plan shown in drawing below after carefully considering both our desires and what is possible on the site. Matt previously produced the plan that resulted in the 28 new trees planted in the back yard and…of course…this new plan represents a logical follow-up to those efforts.

This Master Plan is purposely broken into a driveway plan and four landscape Phases (timing TBD).

• The Driveway:  The driveway, cement apron, and sidewalks are straightforward and shown on the plan below. We will have a 4’ apron in front of the garage doors and an asphalt driveway to the street.
• Phase 1:  The first phase of the landscape plan will include include all of the elements highlighted in red on the sketch below. The goal of phase 1 is to have a complete front and back yard as we move in.
• Phases 2, 3, & 4:  Each of the next phases add additional elements to the the overall landscaping at the “L” Shaped House. Phases 2, & 3 will bring the 20’ buffer zone at the street and the rain garden; providing the run-off protection that is a part of the overall plan. Phase 4 will be an effort to reclaim the buffer between our new home and the neighbors from the dreaded Buckthorn monster that lives there now.

The sketch below shows the plan with the plantings colored in. It shows off a few of our overall goals for the landscaping plan very nicely.

• We would like to “invite” the forest into our back yard by creating a space by the patio where a ruffled grouse might feel at home.
• While we plan to have a small traditional grass lawn (highlighted in bright green)…most of the lawn areas will be covered in “low-mow” turf.
• We would like to establish a buffer zone at the street to prevent run-off as well as providing a place to plant some natural grass varieties I find particularly appealing.
• Finally we would like to have a “rain garden” at the street to catch run-off from the driveway and provide an interesting home for our address boulder.