Gardens just beginning to taking shape

I was out performing a check up on one of my clients properties yesterday and noticed the buds swelling significantly on a Syringa vulgaris (Common Lilac). I have two of these lilacs in positions in their garden off the staircase and close to the kitchen windows where the sweet fragrance from the flowers will permeate the whole room. These plants are extremely hardy and require tip pruning after bloom and also thinning of old wood every several years to promote vibrant growth. The Common Lilac came over from Europe to a gardener by the name of John Bartram and now has naturalized so much that it has become the state flower of New Hampshire. It desires a colder winter in order for it to be at its peak during bloom and just to really thrive. You can find this plant almost in every one of our mom's back yards now here in the Northeast, but still a favorite for me as a designer for at least one in the garden.

I just installed a new boulder walkway for this customer as well to their back outdoor kitchen and the sod has done well over the winter and will begin to blend in nicely later on this season. This natural walkway is a great transition from upper patio to the lower patio, and a easy maintenance free walk where the customer is able to mow right over. They had some concerns with a septic leach field in their back yard and this gave us an opportunity to not dig too deep besides lay the stone base and the boulder itself. It also gave us the chance to give the boulder walk a natural curve around the field.

Here is the front walkway, in which we covered his concrete pad out the front door and brought in a more formal look for the front. We used a natural multi-color flagstone with a paver to tie in the backyard patio paver's.