Now Blooming

September 2005

Landscaping for fall: Even a home can use a facelift

By Brad Baker

For a person, laugh lines and other signs of aging can add character. And while many of us also find great character in older homes, letting nature take its course can detract from its beauty, hiding its assets and highlighting its flaws. Luckily, giving your home - particularly your older home - a facelift can be as simple and painless as changing your makeup to bring out your best features.

Such was the case with the stone and brick home Mary and Stephen Scherf chose when relocating to the area recently. Their Bala Cynwyd property featured a brick entryway and lovely old trellises on the garage and house. However, these decorative details were overshadowed by overgrown shrubbery and a cracked concrete walkway.

The goal in a facelift is to restore the landscape to its natural beauty, using what is pretty, transplanting whatever has sentimental value, and opening up the landscape so the house returns to being a key focal point, rather than seeming overwhelmed.

There are several stages at which people tend to consider such a project. The three most common are: when they're purchasing or have recently purchased a home; when they've decided not to move out of a home, even though the children have grown; and when they've finished interior renovations and are ready to work on the outside.

The Scherfs fit into the first category. Their landscape facelift was a means to realizing their vision for their new home. In addition to beautifying the property, this overhaul would remedy an existing drainage problem which was causing their basement to take in water.

For those who have spent years renovating their homes, the landscape facelift is the final, special touch. For older couples, it provides a solution to difficult maintenance needs and can also increase safety by solving drainage problems which lead to ice build-up, making the home more visible with pruning, or improving lighting.

Whether a home is brand new or 200 years old the key to creating an individualized landscape that will delight the homeowner is making sure it fits his or her lifestyle.

The landscape should be an extension of the home and a place where the homeowners can unwind, whether relaxation for them is reading in a hammock or entertaining.

Mr. Scherf grew up gardening and has raised vegetables his entire life. The Scherfs came here from a more urban environment, in part so they could expand to a larger garden. Thus, creating a place to plant and grow vegetables and flowers was essential. They were also invested in creating an intimate retreat where they could cook and dine outdoors.

Overall, they wanted to re-instill the natural beauty of their home by bringing the shrubs and perennials into better proportion with the house itself.

Identifying the beautiful parts of your existing landscape is the first step in transforming it.

When you have an older home with a mature landscape, you can become immune to such detractors as overgrown foliage. Once you determine what you want to highlight, whether it's a beautiful specimen tree or a lovely stone wall, you have a starting point.

One of the first steps is developing ideas to unify the new design with the existing landscape. This could include hunting down interesting old flagstone to widen a walkway or going to old nurseries to look for mature plants that blend with the existing foliage.

For the Scherfs, marrying the old and new meant highlighting the brick entranceway by removing the broken concrete path and adding a Belgian block edge to the driveway. The white block complements the white palette of the entryway. Baker framed the existing trellises with shrubs and added flowering, climbing vines. He designed a patio from large, irregular flagstone to provide a woodland feeling. Baker also built raised gardens for flowers and vegetables, to provide excellent soil that is protected from potential erosion.
As with many older properties, the shrubs which were saved on the Scherf property needed pruning for their health and aesthetic qualities, such as returning them to proper proportion with the home and overall landscape. Often pruning is necessary for safety concerns, as when foliage blocks vision lines by a doorway or driveway.

For the Scherfs their home facelift corrected a drainage problem while creating a more open and colorful feeling to their landscape that allows their house to really shine.

Once you've invested the thought and preparation into the project and developed a plan, giving your property a facelift can help you find new ways to enjoy your home and transform its outside to meet your changing needs ... without breaking the bank.

LANDSCAPING TIPS

Make sure your landscaper is a Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist. This can assure that he or she has the expertise to know what can be transplanted, to understand your older plants, and to prune properly.
Ask for references to be sure your landscaper has experience with older homes.
Spend some time thinking about which existing plants or parts of the landscape are most meaningful to you.
Take the time to think about what attracts you to other people's gardens, and show your landscaper photos from magazines or Web sites of landscapes you like.
When your facelift includes construction of walkways, patios and driveways, be careful to protect the existing root structure of your older shade trees. You cannot replace that level of shade for years to come, and if you have planned an entire project around the shade of a specific tree, it's important to preserve that plant’s health during construction.

Brad Baker, president of Baker Creative, is a Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist who works frequently on the Main Line and in Eastern Montgomery County. For more information visit www.BakerCreative.com or call 215-884-4978.

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