This couple approached us to help design a new landscape and hardscape plan for their entire property after recently moving to South Florida from New York during the COVID exodus. One of their primary objectives was to make their backyard more useful for their two young children, as it was flooding from the rear tidal pond during high tides and storms. This flooding left half of the yard unusable for days, wet, soggy, and covered in debris. They also requested a redesign of the entire landscape to complement the classic plantation architecture of their home, with a well-organized and classic design style for both the landscape and the driveway and pool deck.

As you approach the home, the first thing you see as you move down the curvilinear driveway is the massive Banyan tree. We leveraged the scale of this tree to anchor this side of the property, providing a shade-cutting garden and garden walk around the tree. For the landscape, we removed two large magnolia trees that had been encroaching on the house for decades, opening up the front of the house and creating a more open and welcoming feel to the front door. The clean, simple, and colorful planting design for the front of the home enhances its classic plantation style.

Moving around the sides of the house, we replaced their decayed arbors, gates, and fencing to provide a fresh look, planting new confederate jasmine over the arbors. In the rear landscape, we introduced colorful annual flowers adjacent to the walkway, pool deck, and high-circulation areas. To address the flooding issue, we elevated the backyard with a small retaining wall, ensuring the rear yard remained dry for the children to play. This created a large natural lawn area, perfect for kids’ activities, and we hung a disc swing from the large sea grape tree adjacent to the pool deck.

We provided dense tropical buffers on both sides and the rear of the property, embracing the two large mature plumeria trees with complementary flowering shrubs and groundcovers to accent the pool deck. The classic pool deck design features an artificial turf strip border around the classic-shaped pool, adding a touch of elegance. As a final custom touch, we designed a custom Ipe outdoor shower adjacent to the pool.

At the end of this design and construction management project, we not only improved the functionality of the property but also provided a fresh tropical design that complements the classic plantation-style home. This unique and one-of-a-kind design skillfully blends contrasting elements and classic style, creating a beautiful and functional outdoor space for the family to enjoy.