Before and After: A Drainage Solution

In this before and after the client had two issues. The first was that she wanted here backyard bursting with blooms. She is a plant lover and wanted us to create beds for a real "hort-head" collection garden. 

The second issue, even though this bare grassy hillside looks innocent enough, every time it rained, water was pouring into the basement and compromising the foundation.

Creative garden design can fix both!

First we came in with an excavator and moved some of the dirt off the hillside. We wanted to create a path for water drainage AWAY from the house.

As we excavated, we happily unearthed some spectacular rock outcroppings and married them with a dry riverbed for drainage when it rained.

We transformed this boring and problematic hillside into an outdoor space that was full of character...and we hadn't even brought in plants yet!

TWO YEARS LATER

Two years later, all the small perennials have filled out and the garden is a raucous explosion of blooms. This is honey bee heaven and you can hear the delightful buzz of healthy pollinators and watch the many Monarch butterflies flitting around in this beautiful garden.

That's one of the many butterflies flitting from bloom to bloom.

The exposed rock outcropping is now colonized with several varieties of sedum, adding yet another layer of color and texture to this once boring hillside!

Your own dramatic before and after:

At Victoria Gardens, every dramatic before and after begins with an hour long on-site consultation by Victoria. This visit allows the designer to see the space you envision becoming your garden and allows you an opportunity to express your desires and ideas and ask any questions you may have.

Design consultations are $150 and can be scheduled by calling the shop at (845) 658-9007.

Dramatic Before and After: Poolside in Olivebridge

And just think, this was the “before”:

Finished Pool Project in Olivebridge, NY

The finished project was an exciting collaboration between Walter Cudnohufsky Associates (landscape architect) and Victoria Gardens (garden design).

The front yard was an example of reclaiming space by eliminating part of the driveway. Where there was once asphalt, the front walk now leads visitors through a peaceful grove-like garden to the front porch and welcoming entrance.

Before

After

For the multiple levels of gardens, low maintenance, drought-tolerant plants were chosen to create a tapestry of textures and colors to reflect a more modern feel and enhance the stone walls and paths.

Before

After

We can help you with your landscape project… big or small.

Victoria Gardens in Rosendale, NY has been designing and installing gardens in Ulster County for 30 years. We’d love to help you shape the backyard of your dreams.

Call to schedule a design consultation today: (845) 658-9007

Also, we weed!

Beat the heat and have the Victoria Gardens’ crew weed your garden!

When we finish a landscape and garden renovation project like the collaboration above, we will often set up a maintenance–once a month, twice a month–in order to keep the gardens looking picture perfect.

All you have to do is enjoy the view (and the pool!)

Call to schedule your mid-summer weeding session:
(845) 658-9007

Landscaping Before and After Photos in Olivebridge, NY

After almost 30 years garden design, landscaping installation and maintenance in Ulster, Dutchess and Sullivan counties, Victoria Gardens has made clients happy by thinking out of the box.

And sometimes out of the driveway!

This before and after is the perfect example of a driveway that was inhibiting how the clients were enjoying their outside space.

The gravel driveway came all the way up to the back door. This separated the house from a set of outdoor stairs, which led to the pool.

You had to traverse across sharp gravel, weave in and around parked cars, and run into the FedEx guy in your bare feet and bathing suit every time you wanted to take a dip in the pool!

Not even consciously thinking about it, that becomes a passive barrier blocking the client from spending optimal time enjoying their pool.

But what’s a person to do? Isn’t the driveway literally set in stone?

No!

You are not limited by existing walkways, garden beds, or even driveways. Victoria and her crew have dramatically transformed outside spaces to the surprise and delight of clients.

We brought in the backhoe and tore up the driveway.

We brought in stone dust and flat stone for the new patio.

The patio was designed to blend in with the natural rock outcroppings in the hillside next to it. Victoria picked out ferns and sedums to be planted in and around the rock outcroppings to feel natural at the edge of the wooded area near by.

And we brought in square stone for the retaining wall and stairs that would define the new reclaimed yard from the now (much!) smaller driveway.

We moved the fence back to around the pool area. Then we brought in new soil to make garden beds and level out where we had dug out the old driveway – adding to the size and openness of the backyard.

We planted grass seed.

And waited for the grass to grow!

Now our clients walk out their back door into the privacy of their new backyard, across the new relaxing patio, past their newly planted garden beds, and head to the pool.

The new garden beds were planted with a variety of deer resistant perennials, ferns, grasses, and ground covers.

Victoria Gardens helped our clients reclaim hundreds of square feet on their property for their privacy and enjoyment.

But what about the poor cars?

Don’t worry, there is still enough driveway to park 3 or 4 cars if necessary. And now there is a real entrance! As you climb a few stone steps, you are led on a whimsical curving path of stepping stones to the front porch. Leave the outside world behind as you step into a backyard that feels like a sanctuary in the country, instead of a parking lot.

Any project by Victoria Gardens begins with an hour long consultation with Victoria. The purpose of a consultation is to allow the designer to see your property and gives you the opportunity to ask any questions and to express your vision, wishes, and requirements for the project.

• Design Consultations
• Garden Installation
• Garden Maintenance
• Weeding & Mulching
• Spring & Fall Clean Ups
• Deer Spray

Call (845) 658-9007 to make an appointment or visit our Nursery and Garden Center on the corner of Rt. 213 and Cottekill Road, between Rosendale and High Falls.

At Victoria Gardens you will find a selection of trees, shrubs and perennials that are chosen specifically for our area and for our customers most frequently voiced problems: deer, dry soil, wet spots, and shady areas.

Our knowledgeable staff will help you find the perfect combinations, so you only have to plant once!

• Trees
• Shrubs
• Perennials
• Annuals
• House Plants
• Seeds
• Soils & Mulches
• Tools

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.