We helped one family living inside the Beltline turn less-than-ideal features into a picture-perfect landscape. The homeowners were frustrated by a lack of privacy from street activity on their corner lot and an unsightly utility pole bordering their front yard. A creative landscape and hardscape team of professionals from Home & Garden Landscapes addressed these issues in a clever way that met the family’s needs.
When a project takes many months to complete, such as this one, it’s important to remain consistent when choosing plant material so the result appears unified. By choosing the same tree and shrub specimens throughout the project, we addressed the family’s concerns in a cohesive way and ensured the landscape looks like it has matured-in-place over time. By planting only fully grown trees and shrubs, the homeowners understand how the finished project will look.
By addin
g more than fifty large Southern Magnolias, Needle Palms, Weeping Alaskan Cedars, and colorful Camellia Sasanquas, we unified the front yard, backyard, and side yard into a naturally pleasing landscape. We tucked many of the mature trees behind a retaining wall streetside. Needle Palms provide privacy at eye level, while tall Weeping Alaskan Cedars surround the unsightly utility pole and all its protruding wires, drawing the eye upward and mitigating its undesired effect on the landscape. By adding twenty-two-foot mature Magnolias to the front yard, we successfully blocked harsh car headlights shining into the house as vehicles turn onto a side street. Stone steps and walkways installed from the street to the house soften the transition to the entranceway and provide an interactive, clear path to the house’s front door.
With the homeowners’ request to provide privacy and hide utilitarian structures completed, we turned our attention once again to consistency of design by repeating plants in an interesting way. Needle Palms planted at the backyard’s entrance echo the front yard and hint at the pool and surrounding palms around the corner. A new group of dwarf Hinoki Cypress installed as foundational plantings repeat what was installed in the first two phases of the project. By alternating arrangements of these four specimens of trees and shrubs, we adhered to our design theme while enlivening it with different patterns.
In answering the call for privacy through landscape design, we gave the homeowners a takeaway bonus: an instantly mature landscape they can begin enjoying immediately.
DAVID PAYNE is the owner of HOME & GARDEN LANDSCAPES and can be reached at 919-801-0211 or HOMEANDGARDENLANDSCAPES.COM.