Guests can gather around the fireplace on the large flagstone terrace.
After installing a brick archway and stone waterfall for a repeat client, Live Green Landscapes was asked to add a series of outdoor “rooms” to the Reisterstown, Maryland, property. Collaborating with landscape designer Scott Brinitzer, Live Green’s Aaron Raines and Jesse Chenitz wove new and existing elements together to create a lush, classic landscape that unites the house and gardens and provides the family with areas to gather, dine and play. “We ended up with six different garden experiences that all seem to coexist naturally,” Brinitzer says.
An outdoor kitchen and seating area provide a spot for dining al fresco. A few steps below, a large flagstone terrace and adjacent dark-stained pergola are perfect for entertaining and relaxing under the trees.
Sculpted evergreen shrubs and hawthorns complement the Colonial-style home’s formal lines and brick façade. The existing archway—a replica of one found at Mount Vernon—is anchored to the landscape by a matching wall. A gravel path leads to a formal cutting garden filled with perennials and roses.
Walls crafted from Western Maryland stone keep the elements separate; just beyond the cutting garden, a waterfall by the new stone terrace burbles. Newly planted holly, viburnum, redbud, and hydrangea add pops of color and year-round food for the birds.
AWARD: Distinction, Total Residential Contracting. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: SCOTT BRINITZER, Scott Brinitzer Design Associates, Arlington, Virginia. LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR: AARON RAINES and JESSIE CHENITZ, Live Green Landscaping Associates, LLC, Owings Mill, Maryland.
Writer Karen Watkins is based in Bethesda, Maryland.
For a list of all LCA 2014 residential awards click here.