Landscaping Before and After Photos in Accord, NY

This cheerful home is set on top of a gentle slope overlooking a picturesque meadow. When you approach the house, you drive up the hill, through the sunny meadow and pull around the back of the house to a shady courtyard.

To make the transition from “driveway” to courtyard and welcoming entrance, Victoria Gardens added a gently trickling water feature. The sound has a soothing effect. It allows the residents and guests alike, to leave the stresses of the outside world parked right next to where they left their cars.

In a corner with the client’s house on one side and a retaining wall on the other, creating a natural looking water feature was essential to a sense of “belonging” in the setting. Victoria’s crew brought in and arranged large stones, burying them in the ground to create a landscape within the landscape.

Inspired by Buddist traditions and aesthetics, Donna artfully builds the Asian-influenced water feature. River stones edge the water feature and the pea gravel walkway. Bright green perennial sedum and deep purple, flowering Ajuga were planted in-between the rocks, and water plants function both as ornamental features and as natural filters.

“Flowing water’s soothing sounds have long been associated with meditation, a well-known relaxation method. Michael Wenger, dean of Buddhist studies at the San Francisco Zen Center, tells us that, “Moving water is ‘white noise,’ in which you can hear many things. Each individual may hear a different song in the water. Just listening to the sound–not tying it to anything, just letting sound wash over you–is a way of letting go of your ideas and directly experiencing things as they are.” This notion is exemplified in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, one of the most important works of 20th-century Buddhist fiction. In it, the title character, while meditating upon the sound of a river and its “many-voiced song,” has a life-changing experience, whereupon he ceases to fight against his destiny and thus achieves enlightenment.” – Water’s Wonders by Hollis Kline and Laura Schiff (Psychology Today)

Victoria Coyne and her crew at Victoria Gardens have been designing, installing and maintaining gardens in Ulster, Dutchess and Sullivan counties for almost 30 years.

Click here for details about arranging a design consultation or call 845-658-9007.

Or visit our landscaping portfolio to see more of Victoria Gardens’ projects.