A stone wall conceals the driveway from the pool area.
When Michael Prokopchak of Walnut Hill Landscape Company took on this project in Edgewater, Maryland, he was given a firm five-month deadline. The owners, whose children had grown up in the home, needed their landscape transformed in time for their adult son’s surprise party.
The task was a daunting one that began with opening up the kitchen to views of the neighboring Rhode River. What was once a limited view of the yard is now a broad vista that encompasses a new pool with a dramatic vanishing edge. Prokopchak and his team had to remove several large trees to reveal the view, but were able to leave an existing locust tree that now seems to magically rise from the water below.
The clients also wanted outdoor spaces in which to entertain. Prokopchak found a secluded space for a large flagstone patio, cleverly concealing the nearby driveway with a four-foot stone wall. The family uses the patio year-round thanks to a large stone fireplace that also disguises the pool equipment. A row of Leyland cypress provides privacy. Banks of Shasta daisies soften the stone in the warmer months. Sweeping drifts of Oriental fountain grass, black-eyed Susans and crape myrtles envelop the hardscape.
Karen Watkins is a freelance writer based in Bethesda, Maryland.
AWARD: GRAND AWARD, Outdoor Living Area (Design/Build). LANDSCAPE DESIGN: MICHAEL PROKOPCHAK, Walnut Hill Landscape Company, Annapolis, Maryland. PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL PROKOPCHAK.