Henry's Landscaping

. Bill has been my landscape go to for 13 years. I built my home on an approximately 1 acre forested lot. I wanted to keep as much of the lot virgin forest and landscape the front and sides of the house with largely plants native to the area. Since I planned to feed the deer, I also wanted to use plants not generally bothered by deer. I interviewed 2 large landscaping firms and, on a recommendation from the builder, I called Bill. He, my wife and I just clicked. Bill came up with a design and price after interviewing us for several hours and walking the property together. We came to an agreed upon design, and Bill began. He taped off the majority of the lot not to be landscaped. He asked the builder to till the soil compacted by all the equipment used in the construction and to install 6 inches of top soil. Bill told us that the topsoil the contractor spread was mainly clay. I met with the builder and Bill at the site, Bill showed him that the soil "clumped" as clay does. The builder asked bill where he could find acceptable topsoil and Bill gave him the name of a farm in Lancaster County, approximately 35 miles from my home. Over the next 4 days, the builder removed the initial soil and trucked in wonderfully fertile topsoil. Now Bill was ready to begin. He installed mature plantings, including nine 12 foot high Norway Firs, A ten foot beautiful Alaskan Weeping Cedar, a 15 foot tall Pin Oak surrounded by specimen shrubs and bushes. He then amended the topsoil and installed sod from the front of the house's planting beds to the sidewalk and from the sidewalk to the curb. It now takes me 13 minutes on average to mow the lawn. The left side of the house has flowering shrubs, the right side from the driveway to the lot line has a bank covered by Blue Rug Juniper and the rear has 3 flowering chokecherry trees, a Kousa Dogwood and, from the back patio to the woods he installed vinca. It turned out beautiful. He cleaned the underbrush from the forest and planted over 70 ferns. We just love to sit on our porch and watch the deer, squirrels and rabbits eat shelled corn from the two feeding stations in the woods. At the same time we can see many birds feed from the 4 feeders we installed on sheapard hooks. In addition, Bill built a round circle of flat stones directly in the woods and planted walkable ground cover between the stones, put a birdbath in the center of the circle and installed stepping stones from the circle up the bank and across the bed to the driveway This should tell you why he continues to work for us 13 years later. In addition, we have become fast friends. He is a very qualified master gardner, has a real eye for design and demands perfection from himself and other workers he teams up with.