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Landscape Design

From Patchwork to Seamless

A Centerville landscape gains much-needed flow with a thoughtful redesign.

Landscape design by Joyce Landscaping
Text by Lynn Van Dine
Color photography by George Peet

When this Centerville homeowner bought her ranch two years ago, she knew its half-acre property needed work. But it also had quite a few gems in the underbrush.

Although the previous owners had spent years working on the property, it was segmented for different plantings and uses, making it appear disjointed. To make matters worse, the yards and gardens had fallen into disrepair, leaving the lawns, trees and plantings untended for a few years.

“It’s a shame, really,” the current homeowner said. “You can see they put a lot of work into it. But it didn’t come out. You can see there was a vegetable patch over in one place, and they tried to make like a terrace in the back. But it didn’t work together.”
The front yard boasted a healthy lawn and a sizable bed of daylilies in a variety of colors. But hydrangeas, irises and daylilies had surrounded a weeping cherry tree and taken over most of the yard. Pieces of a worn split-rail fence dragged the ground. The front of the unkempt side yard was scorched by the unrelenting sun and, in a back corner abutting a moist spot, was a crowded stand of several types of trees. In the back, the deck was unusable. Tangles of ornamental grasses and overgrown bushes, packed into landscape islands on a sea of aged wood chips, shortened the depth of the yard and made it impassable.

Despite its overrun, patchwork appearance, Christopher Joyce, president of Joyce Landscaping of Marstons Mills, saw the property’s diamonds in the rough. “If you look around, you can see there are some tremendous plantings here,” he said before starting the project. “The former owners put in some great perennials and bushes. And back in that corner are some great ornamental trees. There’s some great plant stock to work with. You’ve got about $35,000 worth right there to work with.”

The problem, as he saw it, was the previous landscape was planted “with no rhyme or reason. There’s no flow to it. It doesn’t make sense.” He envisioned landscaping that would naturally and gracefully flow around the house, from an inviting front yard with a curved, brick walk and luxurious lawn, around the grassy side yard, which would be edged with bushes and flowers framing a natural stone retaining wall. The backyard would have a finished deck and an inviting terrace surrounded by lawn and edged with trees, bushes and flowers. The entire property would be illuminated with discreet lighting, and an irrigation system would be installed. “We want to create a look so the house lends itself to the yard, and the yard enhances the look of the house,” said Joyce. But getting there wasn’t going to be easy.

“We’re going to have to tear down the deck and scrape the rest down to dirt,” said Joyce. “We’ll want to take out all the plants and trees we can preserve, ball them up and wrap them in burlap. And then we can get started.”

The project, begun in mid-July, would take about 10 weeks. The plan was to incorporate the plants already available into the overall vision for the landscape. To do that, Joyce instructed his crew to dig out every tree, bush and plant and move them to a low spot at the back of the property, where the team created an improvised giant greenhouse with netting tarpaulins. There, the plantings would be sheltered from the sun and kept in the cooler damp environment through the heat of the summer, Joyce explained. After four weeks of work, the “greenhouse” was filled with hydrangeas, stewartia, weeping cherry, holly bushes, dogwoods, birches and Rose of Sharon.

Then, out came the Bobcat tractors, and the entire lot was scraped and graded. Joyce and his foreman, Peter Stevens, plotted out the grading to eliminate some existing drainage problems and to create an undulating sweep that would naturally lead to curved retaining walls of natural stone. In the back, the deck was torn down, and grading eliminated the existing odd rises and concave edges while lengthening the yard back to its boundary, which had been obscured by undergrowth.

“Back here, we’re going to put a new deck and a bluestone patio with raised beds on either side,” said Joyce. “We want it to look like a Cape Cod landscape with a lot of native plantings.” By creating a curved sweep to the back and cutting back the tangle at the woods’ edge, more natural light was allowed to come into the yard.
Loam and compost were layered on the ground’s surface and a 16-zone irrigation system installed. Then, in came 10,000 square feet of sod from Rhode Island. “We had to wait until September to lay in the sod because it was the hottest summer here in years,” said Joyce. “If we’d put it in earlier, it would have stressed and burned up.”

In front, the split-rail fence was replaced with a more classic white post-and-rail fence made of vinyl. “I didn’t want it at first,” confided the homeowner. “I thought people would be able to tell it was vinyl. But now that it’s in, I think it looks very real, very natural.” The fence will also last longer – with less maintenance, Joyce said.
Joyce and Stephens laid out a herringbone pattern in the new granite-and-brick step to the house and the curved brick path leading to it from the driveway. “Before, it was just a straight path. Now it has a lot more character, more interest,” said Joyce. Near the drive by the walk is a new lamppost topped with a sizable coach-style lantern, adding some much-needed light. Cobblestone pavers edge the pea-stone driveway.

All the way around the house, plantings have been arranged according to scale and to season, so that different phases of color occur throughout the year. Border mums bob beneath hydrangea bushes and lilacs. Azaleas and lilacs are interspersed with willows, red-twig dogwoods and rhododendrons from the temporary “greenhouse.” Hostas, transplanted daylilies and fairy roses soften the curved retaining walls and the low-cut granite steps leading to the backyard. Off to the side is what Joyce calls “the happiest birch on Cape Cod. It had a five-foot root ball and was so cramped where it was. Now it gets the best light and great drainage.”

In the back, just off the new deck, a circular bluestone patio is arranged with a charming outside dining set, where the homeowner can sit and watch her grandchildren play. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she said. “It’s wonderful everywhere you look. It makes the house seem so much nicer – and bigger, because now I can use the outside.”
“I don’t think people appreciate what value plants and landscaping can add to a home,” said Joyce. The hardest part of the job, he noted, was all the transplanting of existing plants. “But it was worth it. They’re mature and healthy and look like they’ve been there forever.”

Overall, the job has a value of $150,000, including the existing plant material, he said. “That’s not bad when you consider a lot of people come here to retire and put in up to $500,000 in landscaping, to get it just the way they want,” said Joyce. “I am confident that the outdoor living space we have created offers the homeowner an environment that provides beauty and functionality – and certainly increases the value of her property.”

“They did a great job,” the homeowner said. “Just look at it. It’s beautiful.”

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