APLD Members ~ Member of the Month
view the featured member archives
Jane Berger, APLD
Washington D.C.
Featured Member, APLD Website, February 2008
and
Anne Irving APLD
Alexandria, Virginia
Featured Member, APLD Website, February 2008
What is it that’s so attractive about landscape design? Whether it’s the plants you covet, the pleasure of an outdoor space that extends your indoor living area, or the simple desire to putter outside with herbs, perennials, annual and more, all the elements come together best with a design that’s well thought through before you even touch a spade. Good design will enhance your life in ways that you’ve never imagined, and that’s what I always try to achieve for my clients.
A Small Suburban Retreat
One of our favorite projects is one of our first: the transformation of a small suburban garden in Virginia from one of the ugliest sites we'd ever seen into a colorful, plant-filled paradise that screened out the looming townhouses and apartment buildings in back and provided plenty of space for entertaining.
A new addition that expanded the old Sears bungalow created an enormous blank wall that was transformed by a raised planting bed and a trellis with climbing vines.
The existing deck on the side of the house was extended to meet the new patio in the back yard and a six-foot fence was erected to create a separate “cocktail” area and separate the space from the neighbor’s adjacent driveway.
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A New Garden for a Historic House
No two projects are anything alike, but there are always some similarities. These clients purchased a historic home on a large property that was in the midst of development. The house ended up on an island surrounded by townhouses, so they desperately needed screening from neighbors, and they, too, wanted a spacious area for entertaining.
A huge patio with a limestone inset and circular water feature was installed just off the back of the house. An arc-shaped pergola with evergreens in back of it will eventually screen out many of the nearby townhouses, and a seat wall built inside the pergola provides extra seating for large parties.
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The garden included a spacious lawn where children could run and play games. A formal boxwood garden was enhanced with knockout roses and summer-flowering perennials. Crape myrtles, hydrangeas, spirea, azaleas, lilacs, abelia, dogwoods and magnolias extend blooms from early spring into the fall.
An English Garden in America
Perhaps a designer’s most important challenge is to meet the needs and desires of the client, which include price, specifications on plants and materials, and a vision of how the garden will be used. This client wanted an “English-style” garden to go along with large, formal stone residence in a woodland setting. There were some design restrictions set by the client: no hostas, no conifers, no variegated plants, no grasses, no removal of existing trees, and a color palette mainly green and white (with a few exceptions).
In the front yard, there was about 30 feet of level ground between the front steps and the edge of a steep escarpment filled with native trees and ivy. A seat wall was constructed along the edge of the escarpment to prevent visitors from falling off the edge and to provide a generous patio and seating area that could be used for entertaining. Two English chimney pots collected by the clients were turned into a water feature on one side of the front walk and a pedestal for an armillary sphere surrounded by roses on the other.
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A woodland walk was added along one side of the property and in the rear of the house, a fence surrounds a vegetable and cutting garden.
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Re-Doing the Existing Garden
In the Washington D.C. area, designers are frequently called upon to “update” existing gardens. This project had an existing pool and brick walkways, but it was definitely due for some refinements. All the client asked for was “something that looks pretty.”
An old walkway was ripped up, replaced with a new one, along with new plantings that included knockout roses, crape myrtles, catmint, golden creeping jenny and boxwood.
At the side of the house, a new patio was added for overflow entertaining space and the possible re-location of the grill.
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Finally, the old entrance to the pool was updated with a new iron gate, new plantings and an extension of the existing brick wall.
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| View from pool to house below: |
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About the Designers
Lifetime gardening enthusiasts, Jane Berger and Anne Irving have been professionally involved in the landscape industry since 1993. Following graduation from the George Washington University School of Landscape Design, they established The Garden Design Group, LLC in 1997 and were partners until 2005 when each established her own firm. All of the designs produced by the firm were the product of a shared design process.
Landscape design is a second career for Jane Berger, who for many years was a radio news correspondent for the Voice of America, on assignments that included London, the White House, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court and many other locations. After leaving the Foreign Service, Jane graduated from George Washington University’s landscape design program and now owns her own firm, The Garden Design Group DC. She is editor and publisher of Garden Design Online, a blog about landscape design and horticulture, and she has written for the American Gardener, Home and Design magazine, American Style magazine, and the Associated Press.
Contact information: www.gardendesignonline.com / 202-723-3605
The arts have long been a part of Anne Irving's life. A former fashion retailer, she worked as a docent at The
National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, leading garden tours at Dumbarton Oaks and played with The Alexandria Symphony while raising two sons. After graduating from the George Washington University's Landscape Design program, Anne helped establish The Garden Design Group, LLC where she was one of two principles for over seven years. During that time, she served as president of the Landscape Designers Group, Inc. for three years and is now the sole owner of The Garden Design Group, LLC located in Alexandria, Virginia.
Certified Members seeking to be profiled should send before and after photos with SHORT design intent statement to:
Bethany Dennis
APLD Communications Manager
Email: communications@apld.org
Phone: 717-238-9780
* PHOTOS SHOULD BE CLEAR COLOR PRINTS OR JPEG COMPRESSED FILES