Quaint cottage garden in historical Springfield
Our clients have a beautiful historic home in Springfield that recently underwent a dramatic (but completely necessary) plumbing overhaul that decimated their yard. We were tasked with creating a knew landscape from the ashes of the old that matched the character and whimsy of this 100 year old home.
The original landscape was coincidentally designed and installed by a friend of ours who recently retired from the industry. Having this connection allowed us to design a space that closely matched the character of the home’s original space. The Springfield historic neighborhood is full of massive trees and mature landscapes that create highly variable light conditions. This allowed us to create a highly texture lush design full of beautiful specimens that reflected that classic style of our client’s home. We chose smaller scaled, dwarf varieties compared to the original landscape we were replacing which allowed us to capture space for a more diverse plant pallet.
The low light conditions of this landscape creates a slower growing landscape with less weeds and pruning. We put a thick layer of mini pine nuggets down to help control weeds and we were able to dial in their existing irrigation system (including the addition of tree bubblers on the larger specimens) to help our clients properly establish this new landscape. We also scheduled several initial maintenance visits to help keep an eye on things as they establish.
We were able to work with the wonderful Jax Woodcrafters to completely refurbish (paint and fix) their existing trellises and replant them with native crossvine for a clean modern update. Our design created private spaces while still showcasing the beautiful landscape to the surrounding neighborhood. We utilized cepholotaxus fastigiata as a low hedge between the neighboring yard for a modern, less intimidating screen. We also extended a line of lady palms midway through the yard to create a private “secret” garden beyond the line of sight from the public sidewalk outside of the fence line. This design successfully balanced the needs of a modern family in a historical neighborhood.
