#3 Contemporary Pool Landscaping & Front Entrance | Darien, CT

This beautiful Darien, Connecticut home was in desperate need of a more colorful landscape and had enormous potential to become an ecologically productive habitat. The existing features were strong — a beautiful modern pool and a backyard meadow, yet the pool lacked cohesive landscaping and the meadow struggled with minimal biodiversity from mismanagement. The front entrance was dark and lacking color. Green Jay Landscape Design was hired to produce a Landscape Design Master Plan, install and construct the design, and renovate the meadow. Read more about the project and see additional photos on our previous blog — Modern Meets Natural: Contemporary Landscape Design.

This is part of our countdown series of the Best Landscape Design & Build Projects of 2021. Catch up on the other projects in the round up:

#4 Terra ced, Erosion Proof Woodland Landscape | Lake Peekskill, NY

#5 New American Parterre Garden | South Salem, NY

#6 Edible Front Yard Permaculture Garden | Darien, CT

#7 Bright & Easy Low-Maintenance Landscape | Hartsdale, NY

Landscape Design Master Plan for this estate in Darien, CT.

Sustainable Front Entrance Landscape Renovation

New front entry emphasized texture contrast, pollinator-attraction, and ease of maintenance.

We also needed the new foundation plantings to compliment the existing green roof planting.

This central garden bed was existing, but originally contained river birches. We transplanted them to open up the viewpoints to the house and used the bed to plant more colorful perennials and ornamental grasses.

Light and airy perennial bed with gravel pathway through it.

Boulders add structure, especially in winter.

Asclepias seed pods are attractive in their own right!

Clean lines and contemporary textures or this modern new front entrance.

Custom Natural Stone Masonry

Gravel walkway with cor-ten steel edging is clean and modern.

Natural stone staircase with creeping ground cover for a naturalistic landscape.

Side yard landscaping featuring new stone staircase.

Natural stone staircase connects front entrance pathways to rear yard.

Contemporary Pool Landscaping

Goals for the poolscape included making it a summer showstopper with colorful perennials, textured grasses, and long-blooming hydrangea. Once again, the new pool landscape needed to be cohesive with the existing green roof. Ornamental grasses are one of our favorite ways to landscape a pool because they look fabulous for months on end, provide unmatched texture and movement, and benefit birds and pollinators. The result is contemporary pool landscaping that compliments the modern architecture of the home and looks good all summer long.

Contemporary, clean lines for this new pool landscaping.

We continued using the same ornamental grasses as in the front yard for a cohesive landscape theme.

New landscape beds frame the pool and entertaining area.

Natural stone contrasts with ornamental grasses and evergreen screening trees.

Organic Meadow Renovation

The backyard meadow was existing, but had been mowed at the wrong time and therefore many species were inhibited from going to seed and reproducing. GJL disturbed and reseeded the meadow to add more biodiversity, color and multi-season interest. Read more about the organic meadow renovation on our previous blog: Native Wildflower Meadow Maintenance.