Looks terrific! You have a lovely house and piece of property -- enjoy!

It's just beautiful! I'm embarking on landscaping here also, and I'll use your lovely outcome for inspiration.

Very nice and inviting. Hope you share photos in spring when things are growing and blooming. Love that you used boulders from the property to create a feature you can enjoy -- something nature might have provided in many years to come.

Ditto jill302. We'll be wanting to see it all 'come alive'.

Annie, what a beautiful house. Werent you luckyto find a great landscaper to execute your vision. Your garden will be a treasure all year. I would love to have a waterfeature.

Very nice, Annie!

You really should cross post with landscape design. People there would be very interested.

Wow very inviting and beautiful. What I love is that you will truly use this area. Often I have these dreams of putting something somewhere and it falls flat when I try to get people to enjoy that area. But with a waterfall and meditating area what's not to draw you outside.

It came out great! It's so pretty!

Beautiful! Actually, more beautiful!

Thanks for posting....it really is GORGEOUS! What a lot of work and...it's done! The steps with gardens next to them are awesome...and yes...I agree...a Willow tree next to a pond is sheer beauty! I have a backyard that needs work...and a grassy hill out front I've been planting small pine trees on...to keep people from trying to sled on it in the Winter....ugh.... It's taking ME forever to decide what to do with it all. You have some GREAT ideas in play here.

Beautiful!

Thank you all for your kind words. I'm glad you like it and if it inspires some other design, more's the better. It's been a fun project. I appreciate that it doesn't say "new" or "epcot". One thing that's been important to us is to keep it looking appropriate to the site and appropriate near our 200 yr old barn. As DH kept saying, we're not building Versailles! Formal gardens with parterres and fountains and roman statues would look silly.

I need a word though...the patio is what we call the area near the house...

...but down by the inlet -- I have to stop calling it a ditch! -- that's also technically a patio so it's easy to get confused. I could call one a terrace, though neither are actually terraced, though the garden is ... so maybe this one is a terrace and the one by the pond is a patio? Or do you have any other suggestions?

Maybe the area by the house is the patio and the other is the lookout (pond view)?

While we were working on it, we referred to it as the 'landing pad'!

Wow!! So gorgeous! Y’all did a great job, can’t wait to see the gardens mature.

Nicely done!

The lower patio? The pond patio?

Lovely! I am so impressed by the rock work. I forget in which part of the country you live, Annie. I can see one of the Silverbell trees as your small flowering specimen. There are two or three species of the Genus Halesia that are just delightful and super attractive to bees, butterflies, and hummimgbirds.

Maybe we should just call it the rocks as in hitting the rocks!

It's just beautiful. We also just finished a small yard improvement. Yours is just beautiful and I think I can understand how happy it must make you feel. We have a weeping willow by our barn and I love it.

Annie, everything looks fantastic! Your house and property are so beautiful. Love how natural the stones look.

What a great project, so happy for you!

WOW! Stunning and so peaceful! Enjoy for many years!

Wonderfully done. It looks like it's been like that forever.

Oh so beautiful!!

How about pondio?

Good one olychick!!

It’s lovely, rather Jens Jensen-inspired.

Your house and landscaping look beautiful!

I checked with landscape architect and the tree that's to go down by the "pondio" is a serviceberry amelanchier canadensis.

Gorgeous landscaping. What s beautiful piece of property you have!

Just beautiful. I too love a weeping willow. We had a huge one in my backyard where I grew up. There was a stream running through the property and the weeping willow was perfect (and outside my bedroom window). They're just beautiful.

It's an exercise in working with what nature has provided. Beautifully done!

It looks great Annie. Well-done.

Absolutely, stunning. May I ask how big is your pond and how do you keep it clear. I am in Canada, with a very old but neglected quarry. Full of, invasive goldfish and Algae. Cant seem to get rid of either. lol

@likestonehomes...Turtles help control the goldfish population. We also have wild Blue Heron.

The pond is about 1/2 acre in size. It's about 9' deep in the middle. I think it's a combo of the depth and the fact that it is spring fed which keeps the water temp cooler that helps keep it cleaner. Not sure what role the fish and animals play in keeping it clear. No goldfish, but we do have bass, pickerel, catfish and sunnies. Other ponds in the area are not as deep and they have more duck weed and such growing.

Between you and DH plus the landscape architect, you created a brilliant surrounding to your sensational house. I can't imagine how many times you stepped out of your house to let your eyes rest on your glorious property. Many many smiles, I'm sure.

What a beautiful, natural, useful landscaping project you have accomplished! Every choice you made enhances the natural beauty of your existing site and makes the whole area more useable. It’s just right, and just enough. Just perfect! Congratulations!

I can only echo what everyone else has said. It's perfection! You must be so pleased.

I owe much of the natural look to our landscape architect who is currently involved in a multi-year project with a nature center. He's very interested in natural plants and landscapes so he was perfect for our project.

Thank you for the plant run-down Annie. it really sounds like you nailed it with the varieties of both natives and non. Everything will play well together. It’s a good balance and that’s what I think makes sense.

Your yard is absolutely beautiful. Are you using aerators?

Aerators?

Annie....we have two trout stocked ponds here. Both have aerators to keep the fish alive.

beautiful, back yard looks like a greeting card.

Annie, it's just beautiful!!

Oh, no aerators. It is what it is. The fish seem to do fine...or so the boys who fish here tell us. If we wanted aerators, we'd have to go to the conservation commission, make a case and get a permit.

Natural ponds, without flow can develop algae, which in turn, will or can impact fish as well as being unsightly. Not sure if you swim in yours, if so, you don't want tons of algae. We have been struggling to clear ours, no fun! There are carious water plants that you can add to the pond, which will also help keep it clear