This walk works

Guide visitors gracefully from the curb to the door.

With most houses, getting people from the street or parking area to the front door seems relatively straightforward. But the home of Bill and Barbara Peel of Chevy Chase, Maryland, presented a special challenge. A portico added to the middle of their L-shaped home means that the front door faces the lot at a 45-- degree angle. Which direction should the walk go?

Garden designer Dan Law of Garden Gate Landscaping in Silver Spring, Maryland, came up with the answer. "Running a walk straight to the door from either the street or the driveway would have looked awkward," says Dan. So he designed a curving walk that provides easy access to both. From the street, you step onto the brick walk and stroll beneath the gnarled limbs of a magnificent, old Yoshino flowering cherry. Azaleas and liriope planted on each side of the walk near the street clearly mark the entrance.

Take three or four steps down the walk, and you come to a landing that connects to the driveway. Azaleas and liriope mark this entry too. The landing is a mirror image of the floor of the portico and directs your eye to the front door. But instead of heading straight to the door, which would have sliced the lawn into two angular and unequal sections, the walk parallels the driveway for a bit, then curves gracefully around to the portico.

The foundation plantings are simple and easy to maintain. "Your goal in planting should always be to enhance the house, not hide it," comments Dan. That's just what he did here. Because the front windows are low, starting at about 15 inches from the ground, Dan was careful to use low-growing liriope beneath them. A sweep of liriope connects the house to the driveway landing. Dogwoods and English yews at the right front corner of the house screen the service area behind them from the street. The only other additions to the landscape are an espaliered euonymus to the right of the portico and a few carefully placed boxwoods.

As this example demonstrates, a straight line may be the shortest way between two points, but it isn't always the best way. This walk proves that, taking a turn for the better.

STEVE BENDER

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Oct 2002
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