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Shoplick landscape architecture
MAPLE AVENUE
Sudbury, MA
After completing the restoration and expansion of her house, the homeowner turned her attention to the landscape. She asked for a driveway that would accommodate four cars, a way to level the front yard's slope and hide the footings supporting the porch's gazebo, permanent porch steps to replace the contractor's temporary wood steps, a small private patio in the front right corner of the home, and a vegetable garden.
Shoplick Landscape Architecture proposed widening the existing driveway beyond the single bay garage and replacing the gravel with a dark bluish-gray concrete paver. An arched arbor anchors the new outside edge of the new driveway and marks the entrance to a new bluestone walkway and steps leading to the backyard.
The lower half of the porch's lattice panels were sawn away, and a New England fieldstone wall was built below the lattice base, hiding the porch's concrete footings. Shoplick proposed extending the retaining wall alongside of the driveway and backfilling in order to level the slope in front of the octagonal gazebo. "Annabelle" Hydrangeas provide the backdrop for the circular plant bed around the gazebo while blue hollies flank new granite slab entry steps and cheekwalls. Additional plants in the front beds include Cotoneaster, Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce, and Deutzia.
An cozy bluestone patio was laid in the front corner of the house, just large enough to house a table and four chairs. The patio's random rectangular bluestone pavement incorporates a large existing flat stone found in the area. To maintain privacy and screen any cars traveling along the road, Shoplick proposed a simple narrow border of Yews fronted by Variegated Solomon's Seal.
From the patio, a cobble-lined stonedust path leads into a new vegetable garden on the south side of the house. Originally a patch of lawn, Shoplick specified that the top 18" of existing fill be removed and replaced with composted loam to nourish the homeowner's vegetables. Lattice panels mounted on the house's façade give vegetable and flower vines a support on which to scramble. The garden was enclosed with a short white picket fence and gate to keep it safe from wandering animals.