Joanne Paul Landscape Design

07/30/2021

Want to do a little less weeding and mulching? I recommend ground covers! Nothing here is irrigated, thyme for a sunny spot and Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' and Phlox stolonifera for shade. All three of these had gorgeous blooms in May! I also had fun cutting the thyme for hexagon-shaped stepping stones with my pair of scissors!

07/18/2021

This garden in Melrose is in full shade...it is, however, irrigated. But this is an example of how you can have color with blooms - even in dark spaces. I am so glad we added the yellow Ligularia last year!

01/04/2021

Now IS the time. You have the FULL attention of designers in these colder months. Don't wait until April - by then it is too late for a May installation.

07/04/2020

I had the pleasure of working with a young couple who are enjoying their first home. I developed some bed drawings that they liked. I just installed the landscape renovation the week leading up to the Fourth of July.

The project was much more difficult than I anticipated because of the decades-old construction soil and layer-upon-layer of dyed red mulch. Never had the old mulch been raked off before a new round was applied and it had developed its own root system. And because it was not actual bark mulch, it never decomposed! So I had to dig deep before I found actual soil and I added a lot of compost to the planting holes.

06/13/2020

Many of us have this 24” x ?” strip of dirt/crabgrass between our sidewalk and the street. Why do we try, in New England, to grow grass? It hardly ever works! How about finding a “happy median” with a bunch of lilyturf (liriope spicata ‘Big Blue’)? I planted 75 of these this week at a residential property in Belmont MA. In three years they will all reach out to each other, no mulching necessary. Beautiful purple spikes in late summer, just use a scissors and cut them back in March/April.

03/09/2019

Between now and April 20, 2019 contact me for a discount on landscape design services!

09/19/2017

We just finished a design implementation on September 16, 2017. It involved mostly hardscape, both for aesthetics and water management. The homeowners and I decided to postpone the landscape installation until next Spring, when we can add drip irrigation and there is a fresh inventory at the nursery. We covered the planting beds with a compost/bark mulch mixture, added sod and reconfigured the existing turf irrigation. Now we are ready for May!!!!

Here are some before and after photos

09/06/2017

I just returned from a visit to the ancestral home of my spouse. We strolled past many small residential front gardens, including plants that we have in our hardiness zones.

They are carefully clipped and maintained, and would work well for our small Arlington-Cambridge-Somerville properties.

I am anxious to try them out. Now is the best time to work on a design for a Spring installation!

06/27/2017

We performed a makeover for a wonderful family last week. They purchased a new home with the "builders special" landscape and hardscape and needed a renovation.

02/23/2017

February and March are the perfect months to design for a fall/spring 2018 installation!

When planning a spring landscape or deck project, when should you start the process? If you are thinking this spring you may be very late already!

07/25/2015

We installed this landscape last week and the finished project turned out just had we had dreamed. Love it when that happens! Building in Arlington Heights means walls to create level surfaces. Here are some "befores" and "afters."