Over the years (usually between jobs) I’ve done a number of private landscape designs and installation projects. I’ve included three examples that I’ve done. They include plantscaping and hardscaping projects. I designed and installed all of these projects with some help from the house residents and friends.
Examples:
Kabodian House
The Kabodians are family friends and I’ve done significant work around their house. The backyard was done in the summer of 2005. The family had just done a major addition to the back of the house and needed landscaping designed and installed in time for their daughter’s high school graduation later that spring. The landscape plan that I created included short retaining walls and a large amount of plants to make the landscape look more grown in (deck installed by homeowners separately). The front landscape job was completed in the spring and summer of 2009. Since adding on the front porch as part of the addition, and subsequently adding new stairs in the Spring of 2009, the family had wanted a new walk to the stairs. As part of this plan I removed the original concrete walk that ran along the side of the house and toward the new stairs and I installed a new brick walk by hand. Following this, we installed new landscaping in the front and along the side of the house.
Dunn House
This is the front of my parent’s house. After seeing the paved walk I installed at the Kabodians’ house, my mother decided she wanted one as well. While doing this, we removed the old Yew shrubs along the front of the house and removed the concrete walk. Following this, I installed a paver walk and installed new landscaping including ornamental grasses, Red Twig Dogwoods, Mountain Laurel, and a White Flowering Lavender shrub. The following spring, my parents installed the Japanese Maple, the slate pavers, numerous bulbs and Hostas, and a wooden bench my father constructed, which were all part of my original design.
Sandoval House
Caleb Sandoval was the best man in my wedding. His 1950′s era house had a gently sloping front yard until it dipped steeply to sidewalk grade. Caleb had wanted to solve this problem for years. This past spring, the sewer main leaving his house collapsed and his yard was severely torn up during replacement. He used this opportunity to solve his grading issue. I helped him install a retaining wall between his driveway and front walk, with a maximum height of just over 2 feet. We plan to install a second wall starting at the walk and heading the other direction around the corner of his property this following spring which will have a maximum height of just under 4 feet.
Kenneth R. C. Dunn 