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A Swale Of a Tale (The David and Renee Wilson Garden)

  • David and Renee Wilson wanted a garden and a pool but the township had a right-of-way for electrical service and the subdivision had a necessary swale in the middle of their back yard. David Wilson recalls that, "without a creative approach to redirecting the swale, we would not have been able to have any pool let alone the romantic garden that recalled my youth in England."

    Joanne Kostecky, APLD, accepted the challenge to take a typical rectangle of suburban lawn and create an outdoor living environment. "Every subdivision swale is an eyesore until creatively addressed! For the Wilsons' project, I curved it around the new location for the pool and made it the feature of the garden by filling it with river stone, boulders and a foot bridge." The installation crew took great care to insure that the water still flowed from the property line on the upper side of the lot to the one on the lower.

    Once completed, the garden became a magnet for beneficial birds and insects-as well as a growing number of friends and family. "The dry stream bed gave the garden its structure while the planting gave our outdoor environment its excitement and attraction," David believes. "Although the children have always gravitated toward the pool, the adults have been more at home on the dining patio next to the dry stream." The problem swale became the backyard's biggest visual asset.



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