One pleasure of being a landscape designer for over 20 years is the chance to “move on up” to larger projects as your clients upscale their homes. With a move from a duplex to a large home on an inhospitable steep slope, these clients were overwhelmed with the thought of taming their new surroundings.

Their first priority was a rear patio with room for entertaining and a sitting area to enjoy the warmth of the sun. The front of the house had a veneer of the local dark Brandywine granite, but much to the homeowner’s dismay, the remainder of the house was gray stucco. By using stone on all four sides of the home we were able to impart some of that ‘old world’ permanence to the home site. After installing over 70 tons of Brandywine granite walls and boulders and over 2000 square feet of Pennsylvania bluestone and Avondale flagstone, the whole house seems to grow from a foundation of native stone.

Second on the client’s priority list was a safe access to the front door for guests. The builder had left the front yard graded so steeply that you feared for your life as you traversed the existing slope. While the client knew he needed to invest in a retaining wall for this area when I said it needed to be 180’ long and 5-6’ tall, he was a bit shocked. At this length, the wall also provided space to expand the driveway turnaround area.

Although the front of the house was visible as you started up the steep driveway, at the top of the driveway as you approached the house there were no clues to identify the location of the front entry. Another dilemma was that the husband wanted a paver driveway while the practical mother wanted asphalt for their children’s skating and chalking hopscotch area. A swirl of Belgian blocks existed near the side entry door. The solution appeared as another expanded swirl area to announce the beginning of the front walkway while also expanding the turnaround parking area. Belgian blocks were also integrated in the front flagstone walkway for cohesiveness. Large lamp posts matching the millwork and fixtures used elsewhere on the house lead the way in daytime or darkness and provide an additional way to highlight the entrance area.

Since the front of the house faces north, a small sitting area in the front courtyard offers a shady respite and a gorgeous view down the granite curbstone steps to the thickly wooded slope below.

The far side of the house was also steeply sloped and featured a basement entrance door. On the client’s wish list was a large, in-ground plastered soaking pool. By terracing this side slope into four different levels we were able to fit a 10’x15’ pool into the space. Because of the pool’s small size, internal benches, and incorporation of an automatic pool cover, we were able to classify it as a ‘hot tub’ instead of a swimming pool, eliminating the fencing requirement. On cold wintry days and nights this feature has hosted many a party as it is popular with both kids and adults with the nearby basement playroom and retreat.

Since this area was in full view of the neighbor’s driveway, we enclosed the pool equipment in a diminutive stone house and invested in a thickly planted screen of evergreens and deciduous trees and shrubs. With its rounded door this shed, as well as the playhouse, added to the top of the slope in the rear yard add another sense of timelessness to this landscape. With more Brandywine boulder walls below the large masonry walls, around the shed, and as steppingstones for access to the playhouse, the allusion of ‘bedrock’ is all around.

Plantings featured in this landscape are native and casual in nature playing off the nearby deciduous woodlands. Grassy textures of Imperata ‘Red Baron’, Helitotrichon, dwarf mondo grass, Deschampsia and Pennisetum orientale contrast with Spirea ‘Magic Carpet’, sedums, nandina, hydrangeas, coreopsis and salvias. Deer are a problem in the winter months so most evergreens are deer resistant (e.g., Mahonia bealei, Ilex merserve sp. and Thuja x ‘Green Giant’). Narcissus and masses of the smaller bulbs welcome Spring.

This project won the Delaware Landscape and Nursery Association’s Award in 2002.

Deanna Pillarelli, APLD, has been practicing Landscape Design in Delaware for 20 years. She holds a BS in Horticulture from the University of Arizona and Certificates I & II of Ornamental Plants from Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. She is a past president of APLD and served on the Board of Directors for seven years.