Before

Before

After

We ripped out the existing buckled cement and replaced it with staggered Pennsylvania Bluestone. Then we installed a custom fence out of white cedar that was milled in Maine. Instead of a lawn, we planted plugs of the ground cover rupturewort (herniaria glabra) that creates a carpet like matting. It's green in the summer, bronze in the winter, can handle heavy traffic, and grows in sun and semi-shade.

The client is very allergic to bees, so we chose non-flowering plants--except for the Nikko Blue Hydrangea, which doesn't attract pollinators. This border is mix of ornamental grasses, bonsai junipers, boxwoods, berberis, and euonymus with a few hostas, spreading junipers, and cypress.

The client purchased this great bench at
Home Infatuation

Rupturewort never needs to be mowed, doesn't like fertilizer, and its root system makes it very efficient on water use. The only problem is weeding between plugs while it grows in, so we recommend mulching between plants until they spread into a mat.