A beautiful home with a somewhat boring entrance. The homeowners wanted an entry with more color and maturity. As the lady of the house said, "I want something that is fun and different. I want more than a lot of boring green shrubs. I want a lot of color that will attract birds and butterflies; something we can enjoy while sitting on the front porch."

BEFORE: Big house, no flowers

AFTER: NOW there is some visual interest!

After several meetings, a plan was agreed upon. She wanted a more traditional Southern garden, he wanted an Italian look. The final plan would be (for lack of a better name) a Hybrid Southern/Mediterranean Garden. Plant selection: four 100 gallon Crape Myrtles(brought in on an 18 wheeler truck), several smaller crape myrtles, over two dozen Knockout roses, verbenas, a trailer load of dwarf compacta hollies, four Italian cypress trees, almost 200 Stella de Oro lilies, a Japanese Maple, camellias, several varieties of hydrangeas, flag plants, and more. Mulch and drip irrigation were also installed.

The original completion time for this project was about two weeks. We may think we are in control; but, no one can control Mother Nature. Little did we know we would have pouring down rain every day for over a week, then every other day for a couple of weeks. Add additional days to allow for the soil to dry enough to work...almost 6 weeks to complete.

The homeowners were very pleased with the final look. Several people would stop by daily to check the progress. Several comments were made throughout the project. My favorite, "Well, you have raised the bar on landscaping in this neighborhood."