August Curb

Appeal216 Wedgefield Crossing

When David and I bought our house in Southbridge in April 2013, we knew we were in for a major house and landscape challenge unlike anything we had ever encountered. We fell in love with 216 Wedgefield Crossing from the moment we first saw it. It had “good bones” but clearly needed a lot of TLC and a major makeover to restore it to maximum beauty. The house itself required the first attention, so we maintained the yard during this time, with many conversations about what we wanted to do with the landscape, which was characterized by tired, leggy shrubs, exposed tree roots, sparse grass, cracked driveways (due to tree roots) and no color. We spent many hours cutting vines, trimming low dead branches from trees, and trying to restore a sense of order around the yard. The front yard had a beautiful Japanese red maple by the driveway, and there was a second one on the right side of the property that was almost engulfed by overgrowth. The backyard had a 3-tier non-functional fountain with an ugly thick wall surrounding the bottom obscuring the intricate details of the design. There was an arbor by the lagoon in the backyard with pergolas that were completely engulfed in a tangled mess of vines. These were only three of numerous treasures around the yard waiting to be uncovered and appreciated.We worked with Kent King, owner of King’s Pride Landscaping, to create a 2-phase plan to bring out the magic in our landscape. We conveyed that we were looking for a renaissance of texture, color (which had to include a heavy dose of purple), hardiness, and classic beauty. During the fall of 2013, phase I of the outside work began. Kent and his crew swung into action, taking down 6 tall pines and a huge Bradford pear tree at the front corner by the garage door that was responsible for lifting a huge section of concrete driveway by more than 6 inches due to its root system. It looked like a war zone in our front yard for a few days! Many of the gnarly shrubs were also removed, along with sickly Sego palms at the front entrance. The beds by the front steps were refurbished with a balanced array of fresh boxwoods, lorapetulums, and Icee Blue podocarpus. A privacy hedge of bamboo was planted in the back on one border, along with new podocarpus around the back deck.

After phase 1 was finished, we worked with Robbie Smith at Southern Pavers to select and install pavers around the circular driveway and at the garage door entrance that would blend well with the cream-colored exterior stucco. We also had Robbie’s crew take down the concrete wall surrounding the fountain and replace it with a single layer of pavers to accommodate my plan to transform the fountain structure into a 3-layer flower garden. As they finished, Robbie’s crew had piled up the paver “cuts” to be discarded, and we were inspired to resourcefully arrange them in a mosaic pattern to create a platform at the base of one side of our back deck. We were inspired to do this as the result of several recent trips to Italy, where we saw the ancient roads of the Roman Forum and the streets in Pompeii. We continued the “streets of Rome” theme by using more pavers to create a walkway from the head of our driveway to the backyard area, thus solving a problem we were having with a shady area that stayed constantly stayed muddy. All of a sudden, we had a colorful walkway that tied the front to the back, bordered on one side by the fast-growing bamboo hedge and on the other side by an existing large bed with an assortment of palms and other plants that I brought with us during the move.

Kent returned in the spring to finish phase 2 of the grand plan, replacing the front yard grass with a beautiful fresh blanket of St. Augustine. The beds along the street that had been sitting quietly with a simple cover of pine straw came alive with dramatic splashes of macho ferns. The red maple that had been hidden from view was now standing tall and visible, surrounded by a skirt of Asiatic jasmine and Kimberly Queen ferns. The red maple by the driveway was complimented with a circle of colorful stromanthe and split-leaf philodendrum, outlined with Savannah gray bricks that had been salvaged from the old bed borders along the street.

The front wall of the house was decked out with tall rocket junipers (another reminder of the Italian “look”), purple grasses, more lorapetullum, and knock-out roses. Where the problematic Bradford Pear had previously grown was now home to a large camellia bush. The space vacated by three of the towering pines that had been removed in the fall was now vibrant with a newly-created bed that lined the driveway entrance, showcasing a collection of Formosa azaleas and 3 white crepe myrtles. The backyard was transitioned to a collection of many small happy spots (as I like to call them), including a new raised-bed kitchen garden built with travertine pavers, as well as an adjoining triangular sitting area adorned with Asiatic jasmine and a welcoming bench. The fountain has been filled with a colorful collection of vincas, impatiens, sweet potato vine, dusty miller, and more. The arbor was refurbished with new pergolas, a fresh coat of paint, and the addition of 2 wisterias to complement the existing blanket of Confederate jasmine winding up the support posts. The wisterias will be trained to traverse the top so the purple flower clusters will hang like grapes in the springs to come. We built a small sitting area by the arbor, making use of hexagonal pavers that we found scattered around the beds that evidently were stepping stones in the past. We love to sit out there, accompanied by our dog Maggie, who monitors for turtles coming ashore, and having lunch because it is always nice and breezy next to the water, with a shady canopy at all times…quite a relief in the summer heat!Now all of the renovations are completed, and we are very satisfied with the outcome. David and I enjoy taking care of the weekly yard maintenance. Pass by on Friday afternoons and you will typically see us outside mowing and trimming and edging and pruning. We love our yard. We love our neighborhood. Life is good!