119 Concord Place
Syracuse, New York
13210-2649
Phone/Fax: 315-471-5854
info@tlehcs.com

Urban Plaza

Pools & Ponds

Simple Patio

Foundation Renovation

Lakeside Retreat

Urban Thoroughfare

Spring Bulb Delight

Home Sweet Home

Landscape Project Gallery

Lakeside Retreat

One challenge presented by the client was to replace the front lawn with a combination of plant materials that would vary in color and texture throughout the year and the creation of a water feature that could be enjoyed from inside the home.One of the goals for this summer residence included replacing the front lawn with a water “feature” that would relate to the lake on the other side of the home. The photo at right shows the progress made during the first couple of hours of the installation phase of a thirty foot by fifteen foot pond and waterfall feature that resulted from the owner's challenge. It was situated so that they could sit in their great room and either look out over the lake, or toward the pond and waterfall through the large windows.

A terrace created out of a single slab of stone provides a vantage point from which to view the waterfalls and pond below.When outside, the owners can sit on the stone slab terrace above the pond (at the bottom of the photo at right) and look across the pond, through the large great room windows and out to the lake beyond. The sound of the waterfall just below the terrace blocks much of the sound of traffic passing by on Route 89. The pond also features two large stone slabs cantilevered over the water to allow the owners easy access to the water in order to feed their collection of koi.

An entire growing season was required to bring a persistent infestation of crownvetch and bindweed under control before the slope below the residence was planted.Meanwhile, an aggressive, year-long weed management program resulted in the successful control of a variety of invasive weeds (including crownvetch and field bindweed) on the slope facing the lake at the rear of the residence (photo at right).

Hundreds of shrubs, long-blooming perennials and ornamental grasses now cover the slope below the residence.Once the weeds were brought under control, the slope was planted with hundreds of flowering shrubs, ornamental grasses and long-blooming perennials (photo at right). The first blooms of `Arnold’s Promise’ witchhazel will appear in mid-March, while the last blooms of `Low Down’ willowleaf sunflower and other fall-blooming perennials won’t fade until November.

A 12,000 gallon per hour waterfall disappears into a pool of washed river stone at the base of the slope.This slope also features a 12,000 gallon per hour waterfall that “emerges from a spring” beneath the terrace at the top of the slope (photo at right). Note how the waterfall “disappears” into the washed stone at the base of the slope adjacent to the shuffleboard court!