A Culpeper landscape design for a country property
When I went out on my own in 2008, I had the good fortune to meet a Culpeper landscape design client who was willing to entertain a lot of ideas that would have scared other folks. Of course, he had a problem that needed solved. When their pool installation was almost complete he decided he wanted waterfalls on the back side. Problem was, the pool builder was busy and said “we installed an extra pump, you figure it out.” After roughing out the mound, here’s how things sat. And sat. And sat.
Not the most appealing backyard, is it? So I started the landscape master plan. I considered where the family and friends would actually spend time by the pool. I incorporated the guesthouse, which sits adjacent to the pool deck, into the plan.
You can see in the drawing that I kept a lot of what was already there. I added a pergola where the clients currently sat on gravel, created some lawn areas, and figured out a planting plan. It was now time for this Culpeper landscape design to take shape.
Any large project can look a little chaotic while it’s in progress. Here you can see that the waterfalls are in, the stone columnned pergola is up (those beams were incredibly heavy!) but there’s still a long way to go. Next we needed to build the patio under the pergola.
The patio for this landscape design project is a simple flagstone patio. It’s set on a stone dust base, which means that there’s no mortar used. We were going for rugged and rustic here, and that was the perfect style of patio for that goal.
This Culpeper landscape design wouldn’t be complete without plantings. Here you see the finished waterfalls spilling into the pool, the freshly planted slope creating the start of a beautiful landscape.
And, here’s the view of the pergola seating area we created at the end of the pool. What was once a hot expanse of gravel is now a comfortable, welcoming lounging area. It’s a great way to get the family together outside!