Landscape architect Sunny Jung Scully of Lewis Scully Gionet, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia, designed the three-acre property. The landscaping was installed, over a period of one and a half years, by Chapel Valley Landscape Company.
The spacious garden is in the back of the house. It includes a swimming pool and hot tub, a pool terrace and pergola, a small basketball court, a cottage for the children and a huge lawn for entertaining. According to Chapel Valley project manager Chris Vedrani, the view from the terrace at the back of house is unique, particularly because of the steep drop to the street below. "It looks like you’re in the country," he said, "but in the backdrop you can see you’re really in the city."
The six-foot-high English boxwoods on the property—probably 500 or so in all—are "the oldest or second oldest English boxwood collection on the East coast," said Vedrani. Paths meander through the property, with the boxwoods on either side.
Because of the close proximity of neighbors, back yard plantings were designed to create privacy, along with color throughout the year—a hedge of southern magnolias, crape myrtles, ornamental grasses, azaleas, Japanese maples, hydrangeas, and lots of summer blooming perennials.