After visiting a very wild landscape together, the owners of this property asked me to help them create a broad-stroke guideline that would inform their thinking and decisions throughout a long-term engagement with their landscape.
The site is adjacent to a wooded nature preserve – an opportunity to add habitat value in an increasingly development-pressured suburban area.
The site was reconceived as a gradation from public to private and from suburban to wild, rather than the traditional, centralized lawn-around-house format. Mowed areas will be reduced, and large-scale grass and tree plantings are suggested that will increase habitat for animals and birds, as well as add much more seasonal interest for the owners.
They are now beginning to implement the plan.