This was a property that didn’t need to be improved, only refined. When we saw the site, we gave ourselves the assignment to enhance its natural beauty, not alter it.

Once the new house in upstate New York was sited and designed, by John Gillis/Architects, we were asked to landscape approximately two acres surrounding the house. We lined the driveway with flowering and orchard trees for the effect of arriving by driving through an orchard. We planted flowering meadows...built a 75 foot long rock wall defining the parking area, to be covered with masses of climbing Hydrangeas…planted a 60 foot long berm with a haze of blue Perovskia. The theme of all the plantings was motion; we used masses of plants to move the eye as one moves around the property. No complex planting patterns. Everything fitting the grand scale of the rises and falls of the land.

And the highest compliment we received came from our client, when she said about one large area, “Oh, did you do that…I thought it was always there.”