Off Ridgeway Road near University of Richmond

When I started walking this garden space with this terrific client I saw how fabulous the terrace and porch areas looked. They had done a beautiful job on their own!

What was needed though, was a big clean up and free pruning of a runaway garden, the planting of simple deer proof perennials, and some way of relating their garden features to each other.

The client had a fabulous blue stone terrace and porch edged in brick (much like the dog yard above). When we saw it there was overgrown vinca grown cover and uneven ground between the house patio and terrace.

We cleared the ground cover, moved some perennials and leveled the area. We built an easy quick small boulder retaining wall to hold the new pathway and landing secure. We moved a little stone bench up from the lower yard, which was lost in overgrown shrubs. We bought 2 by 2 foot bluestone pieces and laid them in a deliberately ununiformed way to join together the patios. WE carried this theme through to the other side of her terrace by making a pathway to her hose bib. Dwarf mundo grass was the unifying ground cover.

I was pretty smug when I showed up the next day an was told that her husband had coffee on the little bench and said , “Why didn’t we do this before?” Ha! How about that!

Another feature was the swing area. Large laurels planted for screening behind this charming swing were dead. Nothing would flourish in the dark space yet privacy from the neighbors driveway called out for some screening.

We created a trellis to form a garden wall. The swing looks like it is off the porch but it is not. The three walls of the trellis instead of one made give it a 3 dimensional nook.

We will try an akebia vine on the trellis and hydrangeas at the base but if they start to decline we can move them and it will still look fantastic after we paint the trellis in a few months.

Christie lives in Manakin Sabot , Virginia where she manages a 3 acre garden. Her blogs are written from her 35 years as a personal and professional gardener.