Last post date is Feb. 23rd.  Wow that’s a long time.  It doesn’t say much for my 2015 new years resolution to be a better blogger, but I’ll try to catch up.  Between finishing up another school year, taking care of the baby, and building my landscape design clientele, I’ve been MIA on allmyfriendsareflowers.com.  Just to prove I have been a little busy, here’s one of the projects I’ve been working on this spring.

When I first met with the client she expressed her desire to have a French country landscape design to match the style of her newly constructed home. My mind flew to summer 2012 where I spent a month wandering through Europe with my husband.  I felt like it couldn’t be three years since the trip because the formal garden of Versailles came so vividly to mind.  With inspiration from the most renowned  formal French garden in the world I began creating this design.  This home is in the foothills at the mouth of a beautiful, but very windy canyon.  The varied slopes and grade changes were a challenge that was made a little easier by their builder constructing some retaining walls around the home.

Steep grades and natural stone boulders aren’t considered classically French, so formality was emphasized through dwarf boxwood hedges both in the front and backyard.  Emerald arborvitae around the perimeter works to unify the design with an evergreen hedge and doubles as a wind block.  Perennials in shades of purple, white, and yellow planted in between the boxwood hedges bring color and movement.