When Ken and Vicki Koresch finished decorating the inside of their circa 1912 bungalow in Downers Grove, they decided that a change of scenery from their living room windows was in order.
A scraggly lawn, a narrow sidewalk, a diseased crab apple tree, a struggling red maple and a steep slope along the parkway called for a front-yard fix.
The front entry was another problem. “There was a big safety issue with the steps,” Vicki Koresch says. “There was a small step at the top — no landing where guests could stand safely.” And the exposed 2-foot-high concrete foundation was unattractive.
The couple hired landscape architect Ron Nowicki and his wife, garden designer Vicki Nowicki of The Land Office in Downers Grove, a firm that specializes in naturalistic, Earth-friendly landscape designs, to make the front yard more inviting and fit the style of the house.
“Seeing it from the street,” Ron says, “it was unappealing and nondescript. There was no thought to function, no walkway from the driveway to the front door, but it had great potential.”
THE SOLUTION
The welcome mat is out in front now
Somewhat new to gardening, Ken and Vicki Koresch knew what they didn’t want: grass. “They wanted a landscape to go with the house and that meant Craftsman-style — soft, curvilinear and natural,” landscape architect Ron Nowicki says. He excavated the soil for a wide, curving brick-edged concrete walk that leads to the driveway. “It makes sense when guests park in the driveway to go to the front door that way instead of walking across lawn.”
The excavated soil was used to build up the planting beds. Three tons of granite boulders were grouped throughout the beds. A few placed into the edge of the concrete path.
Nowicki also designed a Craftsman-inspired cedar light tower that functions as a trellis and a focal point. A grouping of the ornamental grass, Miscanthus sinensis `Gracillimus,’ is planted at the base.
Additional cedar trellises were placed next to the house as a screen along the driveway border. After placing insulation along the foundation, soil was mounded up to the house and planted with perennials. This was done for aesthetic purposes and for energy conservation. “Fifteen percent of a home’s heat loss takes place in the first 2 feet of the foundation,” Nowicki says.
While the landscaping was under way, the Koresches hired a local woodworker to build a bungalow-style front porch with a roomy landing. Once the entry and hardscape — walkways, boulders and trellises — were installed, trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials were planted.
“We’re the only house on the block without grass,” Vicki Koresch says.
“I wanted it to look stylized and planned, not just like a meadow,” Vicki Nowicki said of the design. She created wide bands of perennials in a palette primarily of white, deep pink, magenta, blue and purple for the garden, which faces east and gets a mix of sun and shade. The color combinations enhance the building’s pale blue exterior and white trim, and the front door, which is a deep burgundy.
Several `Carefree Beauty’ roses provide clusters of semidouble, fragrant pink flowers that bloom from spring to autumn. The mildew-resistant phlox `Laura’ also offers long-lasting fragrant blooms of lavender-purple and white. Nowicki paired the phlox with blackberry lily and `Cherry Cheeks’ daylily.
On the parkway beds, the late summer-blooming `Rosy Glow’ sedum was used as a ground cover. “It tends to fall over so it flows naturally on the slope,” Nowicki says. She chose plants with multiseason interest including coral bells, `Blue Wonder’ catmint, phlox `David,’ achillea `Oertel’s Rose,’ salvia and geranium `Biokovo.’ Ferns, hostas and bleeding heart grow in the shade near the red maple. Feather reed grass, Black-eyed Susans and `Autumn Joy’ sedum are combined in a sunny corner where they attract butterflies.
Apple serviceberries, Cornelian cherry dogwood (Cornus mas `Golden Glory’), viburnums, `Gro-low’ sumacs and `Miss Kim’ lilacs were selected for color and fragrance. Birds are attracted to the serviceberry’s fruit in late summer.
Although more than 250 plants are in the front garden and along the driveway, the couple now should spend less time on maintenance than they would mowing, watering and applying chemicals to a lawn, Nowicki says. Weeding, mulching and occasionally removing spent flowers will keep the garden looking good.
“We love the curb appeal,” Vicki Koresch says. “We like things that are very different, and it’s unusual and distinctive.”
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What it cost
Costs:
Design: $1,300
Concrete and brick walk: $2,900
Light tower: $660.
Plants, boulders, trellises, mulch and labor: $16,800
Homeowner add-ons:
New front porch and steps: $8,000
Project total: $29,660
