Like so many gardens, this large property was mostly threadbare lawn and poorly maintained shrubbery. It offered little in the way of usable space and the owners wanted more. On the positive side, the soil was a wonderful loam, there were some handsome old trees, and tall hedges surrounding the back yard created a very private environment. So in 2001, County Landscape & Design undertook a complete makeover of the back yard.

We created a series of outdoor rooms, adding a large covered ramada that matched the construction of the residence, a smaller fenced area towards the back of the garden, a large pond next to the house, and a recirculating streambed running between the ramada and the house patio. The coping and the stepping stones in the pond were hand-formed by Melanie Yanke of County Landscape & Design. She also designed and built the small rock fountain that is located adjacent to the back patio. The lawn was replaced with a meadow of native sedges and other plants, which requires mowing only once or twice a year and uses half the water and fertilizer required by conventional turf. The owners added their touches too, notably the wonderful suit of armor that they found in a local antique store and which they christened "Sir Rustalot."

Plantings include Pittosporum tenuifolium, pineapple guava, Polygala virgata, Mexican bush sage, Buddleja 'Black Knight', Escallonia 'Frades', Italian buckthorn, evergreen mock orange, Matilija poppy, sky flower, yellow columbine, Salvia confertiflora, Penstemon 'Midnight', Penstemon 'Firebird', 'Provence' lavender, 'Quasti' Spanish lavender, white common yarrow, Artemisia 'Powis Castle', 'Silver Carpet' lamb's ears, Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm', blue mist, yellow fortnight lily, red fountain grass, pink-flowered fairy wand, giant lily turf, big blue lily turf, Anemone 'Honorine Jobert', shinyleaf jasmine, butcher's broom, cape rush, Japanese iris, Serbian bellflower, blue star creeper, baby tears, Carex praegracilis (meadow, Carex tumulicola (meadow), Sesleria autumnalis (meadow), Juncus patens 'Elk Blue' (meadow), Zephyranthes candida (meadow), Leucojum aestivum (meadow), naked ladies, lily-of-the-Nile, Narcissus sp., chocolate cosmos.