Designing and building a new garden from scratch is a bit of a daunting process. I have done it before at the last house we owned in the UK before coming to the US. However the scale there was much smaller than AndAllen and I was familiar with the environment, growing conditions and contractor situation. Also I was 20 years younger! In that garden I did the design and subcontracted out the hardscaping and turf installation. Most of the planting was done by myself over a 3 month period – something that was very manageable.
AndAllen is a different challenge and very quickly I realised I needed professional support both for the masterplan and the installation. By the very nature of the project much of the detailed design decisions would be taken on the ground during implementation. We had the skeleton of what we wanted to achieve – crevice garden, herbaceous perennials, woodland walk etc but were uncertain of the flow. After a review of the landscape design service offerings in this area we engaged with Michael Gregory.
This decision immediately yielded many positive benefits.Michael immediately pointed out (in hindsight) the obvious – we were trying to incorporate too many themes.This would have resulted in a ”bitty” garden that probably would have been less than satisfying. Additionally, Michael convinced us of the importance of the grass lawn in pulling the garden together and its design should not be a subsidiary activity. After an iterative process, we settled on a high level design that we were happy with and took to the HOA for approval. In parallel,Michael arranged for the preparation for the crevice garden – a really smooth and professional execution.
So here we are – the end of 2021. The major activity starts in January 2022 so there is much anticipation!
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