Paul's Landscape Projects Notebook (2008-present)

Fall 2011 Notes: This was a hard summer and I did not get to tend to the yard as much as I would have liked. I did mulch, but have several yards of mulch left still sitting in a pile in my driveway that I will need to move before winter. Winter came too soon! We had a New England snowstorm, dubbed the Halloween Storm, this year. Because the leaves were still on the trees, the weight of the snow, caused a lot of tree damage. We had two large shade oaks snap in half. And one of my Eastern Redbuds also was destroyed. The week before the storm, I was able to aerate the lawn. This is a lesson: The landscape really needs to be protected from the harsh weather. I have had a lot of damage over the past year, and so I will be tying up and staking some of the smaller trees and wrapping some shrubs in burlap.

Spring 2011 Notes: Just maintenance this year. This was a tough winter on shrubs and I had a lot of pruning to do. I only added Magic Carpet Spirea as a border next to the Rhamnus shrub (pictured in 8 below, E). Keeping beds weed free, mulch, regular lawn maintenance.

Spring 2010 Notes: I am currently tackling the area shown in Images 21 and 22 (from 2008). Before pictures are also shown in Images 31 and 32 from May 2010. This roughly 2000sf+ area is now planted with Spirea, Russian Cyprus, Cotoneaster, various Hosta, Wintercreeper Euonymus, Winterberry (Red Sprite and Jim Dandy), Andromeda (Mountain Fire and Japanese), and Leucothoe. See Image 34 for what it looks like as of June 2010. I've also added four "Everbloom" Hydrangea around the Kousa Dogwood area (see 033), bringing the total to 8 Hydrangea in that area as a mass planting. I've planted the Leucothoe along the rock wall hoping that they will eventually droop over the wall and provide a soft look. I mulched the berm (see Image 34) and will soon mulch the rest of the area. Additionally, I've made an area for the return of Canna to my gardens in Stow. I used these every year in my last house (see my Canna Page) and looking forward to having these great plants again.

Spring 2009 Notes: Truth be told, I took a break this year. I only did some very small landscape projects. I landscaped around the Kousa Dogwood area (see Images 33, 27, and 24). That area includes planting a Whitespire Birch tree, and adding Anabelle Hydrangea, variegated Red Twig Dogwood, and Viburnum. Then I did some maintanance in all the new beds. It was a "slow" year for me.

Spring 2008 Notes: After several years of living here in Stow, I finally decided to tackle a whole property landscaping remodel. This project has proved to be much larger and harder than I ever anticipated. The gallery and notes will be added to as I do the work. Phase I was supposed to be just the front and was planned out to take just a couple weeks! But this quickly spread to the side of the driveway where we had many trees that had to be removed to make way for new plantings. Then it spread to the property border near the street where the electric company hacked off half the trees, so those had to be removed. What I thought were a few simple spring projects became very many longer-term projects. So, the front has a bunch of new shrub beds, totally new lawn, and several new trees to replace the ones I took down. Phase II will be the back, and now I'm not sure when I will get to that because of the time it's taken for the front. The back is at least as big a project as the front. I need to build a low retaining wall, pour footings for a shed, cut some trees, and build some shrub beds/gardens with stonedust paths and benches in the woods. I also have to redo under my back deck (concrete patio). The whole idea of all of this is to create natural landscapes similar to those we enjoy at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA and Acton Arboretum in Acton, MA.

We have done this mostly with our own hands, but did rely on a few professional folks and businesses to get the job done. I think I listed everyone below, but if you go to the bottom of the page you will see a complete list of my recommended businesses that I am using for this remodel, along with contact information and some comments on each.

If you click on an image below, it will open a higher resolution image.

All images are in reverse chronological order.

38: Halloween Storm Damage (October 2011). Two prized oaks snapped in half with the storm and are going to be removed. In their honor, I am going to replant with a Autumn Blaze Maple.
37: River Birch Nearly Bit the Dust (October 2011). We planted this tree nearly 2.5 years ago when it was at a mere 10 feet tall and the bark had not developed any interest. Now it has nicely filled in the bed, and is now about 20 feet tall and has scaly bark. As you can see, the snow brought the tree down, but with birch stalks being flexible, it did not break and only required careful removal of the snow and it was back upright in a few minutes. This winter, I am going to stake and tie the tree.
36: Canna Bed (June 2010). Behind the front berm along the driveway, where my compost pile once stood, I've added a 12 foot oval bed of Canna bordered by Begonia. I had these flowers every year in our last house. My Dad has been cultivating them for decades. I am glad they are back in our landscape.
35: Small Wall Border (June 2010). This is our front corner with a new small stone wall built to connect the front (which was barren before) with the wall on the side street. The wall is in front of the scene in Image 34. In Images 21 and 22, you can see the wall on the side. I've now extended that to wrap around the corner and into the front up to the driveway. It provides a natural border and frames the whole landscape project nicely.
34: Front Corner Big Picture (June 2010). This is our front corner after we did all the plantings and mulched. See: "22: Taylor Road Street-side View (Fall 2008)" and "32: Front Berm Before Shrub Installation (May 2010)" for references.
33: Kousa and Annabelle (June 2010). This is our Kousa Dogwood flowering in the background with one of our Annabelle Hydrangea (to bloom next month) in the foreground. See: "24: Kousa Dogwood (Fall 2008)" for reference.
32: Front Berm Before Shrub Installation (May 2010). This is the front corner of our property showing the River Birch planted in Fall 2008. Again, it's weedy and not well manicured. The berm is mostly sand, so for all the new plantings we need to ammend with a good deal of compost. This is a "before" image. See: "22: Taylor Road Street-side View (Spring 2008)" or "21: Big Picture View (Spring 2008)" below for references.
31: Side Driveway Before Shrub Installation (May 2010). This is along the side of the driveway where we have planted two Eastern Redbuds. The weeds were coming and this area is now all planted with andromeda (mountain fire towards the middle and japanese, because they are lower, towards the driveway). Leucothoe have also been planted along the wall. This is a "before" image. See: "22: Taylor Road Street-side View (Spring 2008)" below for a reference.
30: Hosta "Breeding Ground" (May 2010). This is along the side of the driveway where Maureen keeps, grows, and divides her hosta collection.
29: Front House through Garden (Fall 2008). This is the view from in the original perennial garden with the trio of oaks. Notice how amazing the lawn now looks!!!
28: Sitting Area Along Driveway (Fall 2008). This is the view from the side street, where you can see the rock wall. There was a ton of growth (saplings and vines) on the wall that I had to carefully remove. The big tree on the right is a pine. The little tree inside is a Redbud. Where those chairs are, will soon be replaced (this fall hopefully) with a small pebble stone patio edged in cobblestone. I had originally wanted to plant this entire area off the driveway, but had the brainstorm of a sitting area that merges right into the front walkway. This is one advantage of not rushing to do everything at once. As this area was cleared of overgrown trees, and as time went on, I began to see potential for the space that I had not seen before. Eventually I have plans for lighting all this new landscape. Note: As of May 2010, we have ammended our plans and are not having a formal patio area. Instead, we are installing an iron bench.
27: Front Right Property (Fall 2008). This is a before picture of the front right of our property. This is where we had many trees that were half demolished from the electric company because they were hanging on the lines. The result of half demolishing these trees left them ugly. So I took them all down. This shows the empty space. I've since carved out beds. I planted blackhaw viburnum in the woods on the far right along with a triple whitespire birch tree, and annabelle hydrangea and redtwig dogwood roughly where that compost pile is. That's my neighbor's house in that picture on right; and you can see Maureen's perennial garden and the Kousa Dogwood tree on the far left of the frame. It really looks barren in this picture, but it looks quite nice now that I'm done.
26: Side Wood Edge (Fall 2008). The shrubs planted here have more than doubled in size. I like how this softens the border to the woods. This was exactly the look I was going for and will get better as time goes on.
25: Maureen's Perennial Berm (Fall 2008). This is where 40 yards of compost now resides. Maureen put some perennials in here to start, but of course a perennial garden will take some time to mature. I still have to edge where it meets the new lawn.
24: Kousa Dogwood (Fall 2008). This is to the right of Maureen's berm. It's a softener. Behind it near the street was the 8 yards of compost which got spread around the large pine in front (and planted with groundcover) and a roughly 1000sf area (or more) was just newly seeded.
23: Right Woods Border (Spring 2008). I sod cut this whole area out. It slopes downward into the woods and made it difficult to mow. I didn't want all lawn on my property, but rather wanted to accent the woods with some larger shrubs and get rid of the slope for mowing. What I did accomplishes that. This is the view from my bedroom window. The oak leaf hydrangea are in the back, red twig dogwoods in the middle, and summer hill viburnum in front. It doesn't look like much now, but it will take a little time for these guys to grow and I have yet to mulch the area. I had a 15 yard delivery of aged Hemlock mulch.
22: Taylor Road Street-side View (Spring 2008). Again this is after Luis and Jon did their tree work with Taylor Rd on the left. Now there's kind of a blank slate here to work with. Before there were two oaks that were causing the blue spruce in the corner berm to grow badly. Once those were removed, it kind of opened things up for that corner. The other oaks that were removed were just tall stalks with only some top growth. October 2008 Note: The blue spruce has been removed and replaced with a Heritage River Birch tree. The area has all been cleaned up and tilled.
21: Big Picture View (Spring 2008). This is kind of a big picture view to give an idea of how things look from the street. It's very wide angle. I think I want to rebuild the stone wall around the corner of the lot on the left. This is an "after" image with the trees removed by Luis and Jon.
20: Berm in Progress (Spring 2008). This is where the 40yds of compost was. Now there is less than 40, but still a sizable amount. This will be spread to make Maureen's berm. She has it all planned out. I don't really know what will be in here and I don't know the names of the perennials she plans. This is kind of her deal. Immediately off to the right of the frame is the telephone pole. All that area was brush and small trees not too long ago.
19: Front Right Along Farmer's Porch (Spring 2008). The front ride side of the farmer's porch I particularly like. In between the shrubs, Maureen planted some sedum (between Rhamnus and PJM), impatiens (in front of Rhamnus, replaced by Magic Carpet Spirea in 2011), and daisies (between Rhamnus and Japanese Holly). I don't have a picture of the side of the house where the air conditioner is, but I have eight 1.5x2' bluestone slabs under the spigot to keep that area clean.
18: Front of House (Spring 2008). I know it looks like a lot hasn't been done, but that's just not true! Honestly! The compost has been spread all over the new area to be reseeded. It was graded and tilled in with the existing loam. The front beds were cut out with some nice curves. The flagstone was placed back temporarily until we get the stamped concrete walk installed. The shrubs were planted. A stone border near the farmer's porch was installed with an edging to keep dirt and mulch from splashing against the wood during rain. The lawn was hydroseeded by Steve Weir. I planned on just regular seeding, but I thought the hydroseed would give it a better start since there is a slope. Unfortunately, we were delayed a few weeks by bad weather (heat) and the fact that Steve batches his small jobs together. So the weeds had a chance to come up. We were just a little late. It's okay, though, we are keeping up with the watering and the weeds will be removed before long.
17: Luis the Tree Man (Spring 2008). The final takedown of the last oak. It was amazing to watch how Luis fearlessly climbs up those trees and jumps from stalk to stalk like a monkey!
16: Chipper (Spring 2008). This 120hp chipper eats practically everything! 120hp is roughly equivalent to a small car's engine. I just checked Ford's website and the Edge is 132hp. Here Jon is keeping an eye out for Luis who is stuck up in a tree.
15: Clean Out (Spring 2008). Luis from Jon and helped me finish what my dad and I started. We had removed several small trees a month or more ago. And my wife has cleared out all the overgrown brush many years before that. But I really needed the help to get down the bigger trees. This was not a job for me. Here they are pulling the top of an oak while Luis cuts.
14: Tractor (Spring 2008). Here I am at the helm of our rented tractor. I rented all my equipment either from Sudbury Taylor Rental or Acton Ace Hardware. I used the tractor to spread the compost on the new lawn and dig holes for our shrubs. Our ground is so rocky and sandy that it would have taken forever to dig holes by hand. The backhoe did it in seconds. Plus it was fun.
13: Foliage (Spring 2008). My wife and I share a love of Hosta. There are so many varieties and we are trying to collect many of them for display in our gardens.
12: Blue Jay Visit (Spring 2008). While working on my landscape, I always keep my cameras at the ready. After we removed the old sod, we had a little visit from Mr. Blue Jay who landed on the end of my wheelbarrow looking for grubs. I have been told that you need to treat for grubs when you have more than 6 in a 1 foot square area. I had <1 in that area. I will still treat about now (end June) with Lesco's Merit .2%. Early August I will use Lesco's Crosscheck .69% for surface insect control and fertilizing. Lesco products can be bought at John Deere Landscapes in Marlborough.
11: Front of Property (Spring 2008). This is the front of our property on Adams Drive. You can see all the tree branches cut. Where the telephone pole is, it was all covered with trees and growth. As I said, the electric company basically cut everything so that half of the trees were there and half not. It was a total hack job and looked awful, so I took most everything out. October 2008 Update: The brush is now all completely removed and the area has been planted and seeded.
10: Maureen's Berm (Spring 2008). Maureen has outgrown her small perennial garden, so she's asked for this area for a more sunny garden. We have two anchors in the back: dwarf willow. The rest of the berm will consist of perennials, annuals, and some small shrubs. This will be all on Maureen. Towards the right of the frame you can see where we removed the sapling trees and weeded things out. I don't exactly know what I plan to plant to fill in where the trees have been taken down.
9: Shrubs (Spring 2008). This is a view of one of our deliveries of shrub plantings. Most we got at Russell's Nursery in Wayland. Because I don't have a truck, I wanted to go to a place relatively local so I wouldn't have to make a million trips, plus some of the bigger stuff (not shown) was delivered by a Stow native who works there by the name of John. but there are other places I plan to look There are also bags of river stone on the right to add to the stone lining the wood at the bottom of the farmer's porch to keep the mulch from getting on the wood. I originally bought 12 bags (I ended up needing about 12 more). My Dad will be giving me some edging to keep the areas separate. October 2008 Update: I hate the black plastic edging my dad gave me. I will eventually replace that with cobblestone.
8: Front of House (Spring 2008). This is the front of the house with the sod removed. If you click on the image it will show a larger image with indications of where plantings will be. From left to right, actually A and E are reversed in the picture by error, we have A: an anchor of a Rhamnus, a woody plant with fern like foliage. A: Enkianthus (a showy white flowering shrub). B: Nikko. This white flowering shrub has a relatively compact and mounded habit and looks spectacular. C: On either side of the steps I have Mountain Fire Andromeda which, as you may know, has white flowers and red fire leaves. D: PJM Rhododendron. I absolutely love this shrub and I hope it does well here. This one has purple flowers and the PJM means it has small leaves. E: an anchor of a Rhamnus, an upright narrow woody plant with fern like foliage. In 2011, I added Magic Carpet Spirea as a softener underneath this plant.
7: Old Lawn Removal (Spring 2008). As you can see, we used a sod cutter and removed the worst of the lawn. The area has a few small trees and shade gardens. Compost will be added to this soil and it will be tilled and rolled before the hydroseed is done. Note I've kept the flagstone pathway for now, though I eventually had to remove them and the grass completely to do the installation correctly. My plan is to eventually remove the flagstones and replace with a tinted and stamped concrete walkway with recessed outdoor lighting to guide visitors.
6: House Right (Spring 2008). Another trouble spot is the right side of the house where the air conditioner is. If you click on the image it will show a larger version with the plantings listed and in place. This is incorrect in the image, the corner plant is Rhamnus. On the immediate side of the porch will be a Japanese Holly (upright pyrimidal). There will be some bluestone slabs that will keep the spigot area clear of mulch and messiness. Next to that will be a boxwood (Holly is listed in the image, that's since been changed). Euonamous will go around the AC along with daylillies. And some Iris from my father will fill in the rest. Going down a grade on the right is the Burning Bush my father and I planted a few years ago. It has about doubled in size and could use a nice trim.
5: Right Woods Border (Spring 2008). This is to the right of the house where the land meets the woods. It has always been a problem spot because the property was graded so that it slopes down into the woods. I decided to cut out a curved bed about 20 feet deep and 40 feet wide. Kind of like a W pattern. If you click on the image it will show you a higher resolution image with details on plantings. Basically I went for three tiers. The anchors will be Oak leaf Hydrangea (Alice) that grow about 12 feet wide and tall. The second tier will be Variegated Redtwig Dogwood. The third tier will be Summer Hill Viburnum. I have texture going with the different foliage and also color with blossoms. This is "MY" showplace.
4: Is This Lawn? (Spring 2008). This shows a representative picture of our "lawn". It's all eroded and compacted. On the left of the image you can see the ferns and hostas mentioned in the following entry. This will all be sod cut, ammended, tilled, and hydroseeded.
3: Farmer's Porch Left (Spring 2008). This is the left side of our farmer's porch. The azaleas were half dead. The Rhododendron didn't fit. It was the only thing I salvaged. I moved it into the woods alongside the driveway near the street's stone wall. To the left of the porch are some ferns, tiger lillies and hostas. There was some grass in there, but I am cutting that out and putting in some ground cover for low maintenance.
2: Maureen's Berm Area Before (Spring 2008). This was what things looked like before. Note the lawn is in terrible condition. It's been neglected and is loaded with weeds. It's a dust pit. Most will have the weeds removed by herbicide, aeration has occurred and I will go back and dethatch and slice seed the rest in the fall. I've added Scott's TurfBuilder, but because of my Dad's recommendation I am now going to a Lesco distributor in nearby Marlborough. Notice the foliage in the upper right. A lot of that has been removed since the electric company basically lopped off one side of all the trees and the trees that were remaining were mostly overgrown saplings. This is now quite open, but I will eventually be adding some plantings there. The berm area is for Maureen and will be roughly 30 feet wide and 10 feet deep and 2+ feet high.
1: Property from Street before Work (Spring 2008). This is the view from the mailbox at the street. On the left is the winding driveway. We are on a corner lot, so to the left of the driveway (you cannot see it) is wooded and has some shrubs and shade plants. It's not overgrown. We cleared out a lot of that area a few years ago and I'm taking down some more trees currently. Most of what we are about to do you won't obviously see that well from the street just because we have a lot of lawn. Except the shrubs around the house will tighten up the look. I think you will be able to see my big beds to the right of the house with the wooded backdrop, at least when they mature. And since we cleared out a lot of trees to the right of the big pine (see picture right) you can see into Maureen's berm area that we are putting in. It's really hard to capture everything in one picture. But this gives you a good sense of overall scale. There's a lot that didn't fit the frame.