Lakewood Residence Wins NALP Award of Excellence

The homeowner wants their garden to highlight the existing oak trees while creating a full landscape with height, texture, and shades of green interrupted with pockets of color.

The structure of the garden beds along the property walls, keeps the garden orderly to complement the plant’s natural growth habits and homeowner preferences.

To keep the turf looking great during the growing season, we follow an annual turf program that includes aeration and topdressing with soil high in organic matter, regular fertilizations and soak and cycle of the irrigation system to reduce runoff on the sloped portions of the garden.

The grasses in the front beds are cut back yearly to help maintain the size so the purple oxalis can be seen in between the bright green grasses.

The front porch looks out over the front garden and to the street. The shrubs are maintained below the porch level and the maple affords some privacy to the homeowners without fully obstructing the view.

Different varieties of hydrangeas are used throughout the garden for their flowers, height and different textures. We fertilize the shrubs during the growing season and cutback as needed when dormant.

Evergreen shrubs line the foundation of the home. Since the house gets both sun and shade throughout the day, we maintain the water schedule, so they get adequate irrigation and are not over or under saturated.

The drought tolerant plants surrounding the pool are watered minimally since the drainage in the raised beds is insufficient.

The oleander is damaged by freezing temperatures in the winter and receive a spring cutback to promote new growth and maintain their size. To prevent the groundcover from shading out and more blooms of the shrub, we pick prune and deadhead the spent flowers.

We maintain the synthetic turf by power-brooming, turf washes to eliminate odors and irrigation to keep it cool. The bocce ball court is raked weekly to keep it ready for a game anytime.

The trees that line the beds along the back wall are maintained away from the power lines and pruned back from the play area. Hand pruning the trees helps keep filtered light going through to the understory plants.

The large shrubs are checked weekly to remove any seed pods due to their toxicity to humans and animals.

The trees along this fence line are pruned regularly to prevent disease, pests and over crowding due to their proximity.