A Townhouse Touch Up in Spring City, Pa.
almost PERFECT Landscaping
APLNJ - landscape design and build in bergen county
Welcome to Spring City Pennsylvania the home of farms and town houses. Most townhouses are left with very little space to do anything with. Then, to top that off; these residences are all landscaped (according to builder association codes) with an unappealing four (4) shrub planting, toss in a tad of mulch and “see ya”. When I first saw this place I thought of the Pete Seeger song “little boxes” which went something like this:
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes
Little boxes
Little boxes all the same
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
Not in this case. Let’s get rid of this boring four shrub planting and add some color all year, some texture, let’s and make it pleasant to look at and inviting at the same time. After that our first task was to install a small retaining wall to hold the bed in place; and then add some much needed top soil full of organic matter.
Next, came the plant material, which included a center piece rose, a lattice trumpet vine, two repurposed transplanted Ilex, two Emerald Green Arborvitae that framed the two ends specifically one to grow up and cover the unsightly utilities. For season long color we went with celosia with its plumed spikes of reds, yellows and oranges adding splashes of color throughout the bed and geraniums providing dashes of pinks and whites.
The final stage included Mickey and Minnie Mouse holding lanterns. Who says lighting has to be difficult? Not us! One trip to Lowes and it was all done. Solar! It couldn’t get much better than that.
Stay tuned for our next exciting project, hopefully not at the other end of the country.
Oh I forgot to tell you;
with regards to the design of this bed’s focal points, APLNJ brought in a well versed and rather young landscape consultant and designer, PJ himself. He proved very valuable in orchestrating not only the choice of landscape statuary (Mickey and Minnie) but provided excellent input into the placement thereof within the design.
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