Oh gosh. What a nightmare that must have been. However, the new landscaping is lovely, too. So, the new patio is below the house -in the foreground of the before picture? Just out of curiosity, did Mr. Devore create the design from photos of your home or did he visit the site?

Whatever, it does look wonderful and I am glad for you!

Cyn, Thanks. John Devore visited our home four times and took a lot of photos and measurements and talked on the phone. He is coming back in August, too. He is semi retired now and is based in Florida but does on site and virtual design mostly in the eastern part of the country. He often works along with local installers and has worked with Ben Necessary several times.

Yes, the new patio is dug out below the house because I wanted a little more privacy besides the yews and the Asian maple. it was a leap for me to sign on to the front patio at all, but I am fairly sick of my own ideas at this stage of my life so we went for it. So far we have enjoyed it. And surprisingly (since it is a little avant garde for our street) the neighbors seem to like it too.

Here is the plan John drew. He doesn’t use CAD, so one could say it is almost a piece of art.

Hi-

Oh wow, I would have cried too!

But how lovely now! Will you have more flowers as time goes on?

You mention that you will age in place.

Do you have a flat pathway to your patio on which to wheel out a teacart?

(I'm through lugging trays!)

haha, loobab. I wish we had fewer steps to the patio. I was thinking about how I was going to get my Arnold Palmers down there without spilling just this morning and called our iron artisan guy about installing a railing. (I suppose I could hide a ramp somewhere in the bushes. )

I think the plants we have will fill in. I am trying to restrain myself from buying flowers—we’re going with the “less is more” garden theme and try to focus on bird and butterfly friendly trees and shrubs. I do have two large planters from Unique stone coming in in 12 weeks to add some interest to the bluestone walkway and stairs to the front door.

We still have to re-landscape much of the backyard and will go with a wild native plant “yarden“. we have a half acre in the back to redo—the drain installers tore up quite a bit there. And the new back decks are not yet finished. Everything is going at a snail’s pace because of Covid.

It looks great. I hate you had to go thru a disaster to get here.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful property. Lovely patio. Please post pictures as you progress with your backyard plans.

Yes, puta railing on every step. Very key.

It just looks lovely, and if you use lots of perennials that flower, you should be able to attract birds and butterflies.

You could always put up a stake or two with a hummingbird feeder. I do love those little birds!

I echo everyone else in saying please send us lots of photos along the way, and make lots of lemonade from the lemon you got dealt!

Thx, Loobab, The landscape guy planted some big red crocosmias for the hummers. Also have major wheeler red honeysuckles for them. I used to have lots of HB feeders but removed them to go EZ maintenance. I actually have an elaborate song bird feeding station (that I close down in the summer). I am trying to install shrubs and trees that provide food sources through the four seasons. It’s kind of fun to do the research to get the sequence of timing right on this.

I will post more pics when the project gets going again. Tomorrow the contractor is driving to Indiana to get some Trex boards to finish the deck. They could not find them in Ohio. Covid is making things crazy.

Oh, the crocosmia and honeysuckle will be beautiful!

If you like purple, years ago I had buddleia and salvia and the butterflies are crazy for them.

The salvia is ornamental, I didn't use the leaves in cooking, although there is the sage you can cook with. I do love sage ravioli, but I am not that ambitious any more, and the pine nuts tend to go from the package straight into my mouth!

Buddleia smells sort of honey-ish and is lovely to lay right next to, and makes a great cut flower as well.

I think if one is going to have flowers, they might as well be something you can enjoy inside as well!

I love bird baths, but I worry about stagnant water in the summer because of West Nile Virus. The home center stores sell inexpensive little bubblers you can set up in the bird bath so the water is moving, and the water does attract birds and butterflies, yet no mosquitoes because it is moving.

I purchased a little bubbler ages ago when I made a little fountain back when everyone was making one of those because they were supposed to make you feel calm.

Well, they did make me feel calm.

Until I got to a certain age.

And then the sound made me feel like I needed the facilities!

Have you thought about wildflowers you can sow from seed (just sprinkle and water and forget about it and watch them bloom) that will just keep re-seeding themselves in your climate?

https://www.ohiostatebeekeepers.org/ohio-pollinator-oasis-seed-packet/

https://www.opnseed.com/shop/wildflowers-forbs-(seed)-9543

https://www.ufseeds.com/product/ohio-blend-wildflower-seed/WFOH.html

https://www.createdbynature.com/products/ohio-seed-garden

Good ideas,Loobab. I am all about native plants for pollinators. We went off track a bit with the front landscape project because Covid made plants hard to source and we needed to get the project finished. The new shrubs and trees are local native varieties for the most part. We plant lots of seeds and green material from the native plant sources in the side and back yards.. And we are ’certified’ by Nature Conservancy andMonarch Watch. The back yard gardens are very ”native natural” and we have a couple of birdy water feature fountains back there. 😊

Gorgeous!

Oh, I can't wait a few more months until it fills in a bit more and you put up some more photos!

I think your new sunken patio looks like the best place to spend the morning! I imagine it was very difficult to demolish your old garden after spending so much time on it, but it was definitely the wisest, bravest decision and it looks like its paying off!