Sunday, May 27, 2007

Big plans

I took the plunge! Shelley Meadows from Meadows Farms came out a few weeks ago and together we worked up a plan that I'm very excited about. A stone path will lead from the driveway to the gate, with the narrow existing bed along the house raised up with a nine-inch stone wall. The gate will be replaced with a new one four feet wide and a half-moon cut the right way (or, if that doesn't work, a lower height than the fence so visitors will get an intriguing glimpse of the joys to come).

The concrete pad will be mostly taken out, and a stone terrace put in its place. The solution to screening out the neighbors is especially pleasing: a trellis eight feet long and eight feet high coming out from the low wall, with a foot or so of planting space on each side for hostas, ferns, bulbs, etc. Shelley suggested a climbing hydrangea (shade), which I had thought of, too, but Mom says they're awfully slow to grow. At any rate, the trellis will provide privacy and also enclose the terrace, so that it becomes a garden room, with the open corner looking out to the oak tree garden.

Signed the contract on Friday and installation should start in just a few weeks. And it only took 18 years to make it happen...

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