Glen Ellyn Residence
By Tillie Bruss, Landscape Designer

When designing a front foundation planting for a home, my main objective is to highlight the house. My goal is to use the landscape to highlight the architecture of the home, not hide it. With one home in particular, the old landscape actually hid the home, and the new landscape puts the house on a pedestal.

This Glen Ellyn home had a line of Junipers across the front that were so tall and massive, the home was hidden and unable to be seen from the street. With the Junipers removed, we now had a huge elevation change and a blank slate to work with. We decided to terrace the front landscape in order to cut down on the grade change. The customers knew they wanted to use natural stone with a formal look, so we decided to use flagstone for the walls. The front of the house has a nine step staircase which is now flanked by four cut drywall flagstone walls. In order to break up the formality of the walls, so that they would not be too massive, the walls curve and break out into natural outcropping stones to retain the soil.

In addition to the new retaining walls, we needed to address the front walk. The existing walk was laid on a slope and was constructed of red brick that was cracked and uneven. Now we had the dilemma of using a material that would contrast with the new retaining walls and the house, or compliment the new additions. In the end, we decided not to use another brick, but to use a Unilock product, Yorkstone, to give us a monochromatic entry. The Yorkstone gives the look of flagstone, but the regularity of a concrete paver. In addition to the new walk, we constructed a series of steps to take out some of the slope and to help add to the grandeur of this new entrance. Since we used Yorkstone, we were also able to veneer the existing steps and the stoop to give us a cohesive look to this front entrance.

Finally, we needed to add the icing on the cake, which were the plantings. This yard was especially fun to design because it has a lot of dappled shade which enabled me to use a lot of sun and shade plants. My favorite part of the landscape is the row of Double Knockout Roses within the formal flagstone walls. The twelve bright pink Roses certainly make a statement along the white walls. We also used nearly 100 Boxwoods to create hedges along the front walk and lining the upper patio. I also had the opportunity to use a variety of perennials in the informal parts of the landscape, in and around the outcropping stones, to provide year round interest.

This project is a true example of using the landscape to highlight the house. A monochromatic color scheme and evergreen hedges highlight the house on the hill.