Year: 2023

Location: Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn

Scope: Design, project management, masonry, planting

A complete hardscape transformation paved(!) the way for a lush planting of evergreens, shrubs, and perennials in the back garden of a detached brick house.

An expansive bluestone patio, a wraparound brick and bluestone stoop that doubles as tiered seating, a unique planting bed with a curved brick edge, and a big cutout planting bed at the end of the driveway work together to redefine the space, creating multiple usable areas connected and framed by gardens.

In the large cutout at the end of the driveway, just visible from the street, a row of substantial prunus laurocerasus 'schipkaensis' (skip laurel), underplanted with a mix of buxus, vitex agnus castus (chaste tree), iris, hemerocallis (lily), heuchera, geranium, and liriope signals that there is something special yet to come, and welcomes visitors past the house. 

An elegant, multi-stem lagerstroemia ‘Natchez’ (white-flowering crape myrtle) anchors the curved bed in the center of the space, gently separating the driveway from the bluestone patio with an underplanting of buxus, iris, hemerocallis, geranium, and liriope. Along the stoop railing, a small planting of buxus, nepeta (catmint), iris, and lonicera (honeysuckle) adds life and climbing color. 

Framing the back edge of the patio, another row of prunus laurocerasus 'Schipkaensis', underplanted with heuchera, hemerocallis and nepeta, screens the neighbor’s yard and balances the space.