New walk is a step up

Getting to the house is easy now-no climbing gear required.

Here's the problem: Your front door looks out on a nice side street where you'd like guests to park. But between the street and the door lies a rather steep slope. Now, you could build a walk directly down the slope to the street, but the unbroken series of steps might make folks feel as if they're climbing the Washington Monument. Or you could run the walk to the driveway on the side of the house and have everyone enter from the drive. Or maybe, just maybe, there's another, better solution.

Homeowners John and Gerry York of Washington, D.C., knew there had to be. Jim Sines of Garden Gate Landscaping in Silver Spring, Maryland, took one look at the situation and agreed. He designed an attractive and functional flagstone walk that helps visitors get to the door without losing their breath.

Happy Landings

Here's how it works. As guests arrive on the street, they disembark on a nice wide curbside landing. They take four steps up and arrive at a second landing. Four more steps bring them to a third landing, at which point the walk turns right. A stroll of about 20 feet takes them to the final set of four steps. Turning left, they ascend those, turn right again, and amble about another 20 feet to the front door.

The beauty of the setup is this: Even though the zigzag walk is probably twice as long as one that would zoom straight down the slope, you never climb more than four steps at any one time, so the ascent is always comfortable. Adding turns to the walk carries you through the garden and takes your mind off the fact that you're going uphill. And because the walk is a generous 5 feet wide, two people can stroll side by side.

No Raking, No Mowing

When the Yorks first contacted Jim, they were also unhappy with the plantings on the slope-a hodgepodge of perennials, roses, and scruffy-looking liriope. Jim removed it all and planted easy-to-maintain boxwoods and spreading English yews up by the house. Then he added shade-loving Japanese pachysandra on the slope, after first amending the soil with lots of organic matter. The pachysandra filled in beautifully. Unlike grass, it never needs mowing; it doesn't require raking in the fall either. Small leaves falling from the trees simply filter through it and make their way to the ground. A leaf blower quickly removes larger leaves that gather on top.

As this example proves, good design can turn a minus into a plus. What once seemed insurmountable is now a walk in the park. STEVE BENDER

OTHER GROUND COVERS

Japanese pachysandra is elegant but hard to grow outside of the Upper and Middle South. Shade-tolerant options for the Lower and Coastal South include Asiatic jasmine, wintercreeper euonymus, common periwinkle, mondo grass, and English ivy. In the Tropical South, try mondo grass, Asiatic jasmine, wedelia, or artillery plant.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Nov 2003
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