My Boxwood Room Update!
Those of you, who’ve been reading my blog for the past three years, may recall one of my early postings about installing a boxwood room on the backside of the summer house. I’m happy to report that the wall of boxwood is growing beautifully. For various reasons, that project was put on hold and I’m so excited that finally, ground breaking is imminent. My plans for this area include stone paths and a pavilion, so of course, I called my trusted stonemason, Carmine Luppino, of Luppino Landscaping & Masonry. Over the years, Carmine and his terrific crew have done so much work at the farm and he always seems to know just what I want. Before reviewing plans for the boxwood room, I wanted to go over some other issues that will require Carmine’s attention. If you’d like to see a video about Carmine and where he gets a lot of his stone, click here and then go to More Video Clips from This show and scroll down and click on Stone Resources video clip.
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- Here I am with Carmine Luppino pointing out a stone step I would like him to replace, as I think its shape on one edge is rather dangerous and I wouldn’t want anyone to hurt themselves.
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- The step in question is the upper one. It has jog on the right edge where you could catch your foot and fall.
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- I would also like these stones on this path to be moved closer together, which will make walking easier.
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- The stones along the edge of this patio need to be raised as they have settled over the years.
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- We are discussing a new stone path leading down to the carriage road. The grass is always getting trampled here.
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- The stones on this path by the tenant house also need to be moved closer together.
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- You can see that they are rather far apart, making for an awkward stride.
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- Again, stones have settled and need to be lifted.
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- Carmine sees more settling, which explains why puddles always form here.
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- Walking towards the summer house to review the ‘real’ project
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- Passing the gravenstein apple espalier, I instruct Mike to install a granite post on either end for support wires.
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- I also pointed out to Carmine that more stones on the main patio will need some raising.
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- Here I’m telling Carmine how we lost several linden trees in last summer’s twister.
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- Those lindens were actually a mistake and I think I’ll replant the area with boxwood, instead.
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- I have no complaints about this side patio.
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- The front of the winter house looks so bare now that all the tropical plants have been moved for winter storage.
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- I told Carmine that having stone bases beneath the wooden columns was a very good idea, keeping the wood free from rot. I wish we had done that for all posts and columns on the farm.
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- At the summer house, I point out some more settling issues.
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- These large stone steps will need some attention.
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- To reach the back of the house, we walk along this beautifully built stone wall.
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- Here we are inside the boxwood room reviewing the garden design.
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- The Luppino logo
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- I need to enlist Carmine’s help in building the pavilion in front of the large ginkgo biloba tree.
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- I really want to transform this space into a very special hideaway.
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- Striding towards the ginkgo
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- Here we are discussing what sort of stone path will lead from the summer house patio to the pavilion. Carmine and I agreed to mimic the path which leads to the front of the house.
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- That path is made up of large rectangular stones and is beautiful in its simplicity.
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- Carmine told me that he has one more millstone, like this one outside my winter house. He would like to incorporate it in the new boxwood room design. How exciting!
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