Feb / March 2003 - Sue & Jerry Erzen (Galena Territory)

ELEMENTS: Flagstone patios, stone steps, stone retaining walls

The Erzen home sits atop a ridge that overlooks the South Golf Course in the Galena Territory. Over the last few years, the Erzens have transformed the valley view (i.e. back) side of the home from a steep, wild slope to a beautifully landscaped garden with two Anamosa flagstone patios, a fire pit, native stone stair access from both sides and a great planting scheme.

Our job at the Erzen home is to do the grunt work. That is, Sue & Jerry hire us to install stone walls, patios, stone steps and other heavy stuff. They, in turn, concentrate on the actual gardening and planting. As you can see from the below photos, the planting the Erzens have done looks spectacular. Note to potential customers reading this: you should always hire a professional to do your planting, doing it yourself just hurts the economy.

Last year (2002) a garage addition to the Erzen home necessitated an extension of the native stone driveway wall and additional stone work behind the garage to tie all of the landscaping together. As you can see below, we added a small (two person) flagstone sitting area at the top of the stone steps. This small patio is made of the same stone as the lower patio (Anamosa stone). Because of its compact size, high elevation in relation to the rest of the garden and "tucked in" placement, the small patio is a great spot to relax, view the garden and discuss philosophical issues (e.g. is it fair that Vanderbilt University only accepts the best and the brightest?).

In an effort to save a number of existing trees behind the new garage, the Erzens asked us to build a terraced wall system that would leave as many tree roots as possible untouched while still allowing walkway access to the gardens. The below photos show that smaller native stones were used to wind between the trees. The use of smaller stones allows much greater flexibility in design as they can "bend" more quickly to wind between the trees. Of course, the smaller stones are also much lighter than the stones we used in the driveway wall. This is important in this application because most of the stones had to be maneuvered by hand.

We would like to thank the Erzens for letting us show you their landscape.

CLICK ON PICS TO ENLARGE.