Lake-Friendly Landscaping on the Bald Eagle Lake Project

Winter is almost here, (though by the look of it outside you'd think differently!), and that means we've wrapped up another season of using our creativity and skill to beautify your landscapes. Over the next few months, we will be updating the blog like we did throughout the summer with a breakdown of other projects we worked on this year, and in years previous.

To get us started, we'll continue and then conclude our discussion of the Bald Eagle Lake project (for review, see parts one and two), first by showing the progress made on the driveway and rain gardens, and then by giving you a peek at some special aspects of the completed project, like the green roof and rain barrels.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, because this was lake front property it required special considerations regarding excess water runoff, as to avoid polluting the lake. To accommodate these needs, we utilized permeable pavers in the drive- and walkways, which through their porous design allows water to drain through the voids in-between them, instead of flowing over them.

On this project, we used several different types and arrangements of permeable pavers. The driveway and parking pad received pavers that were meticulously arranged in a unique herringbone style, which along with their warm color scheme, worked well with that of the home and surrounding landscape. The side walkway, which serves a more utilitarian purpose, benefitted from concrete turf stone pavers.

After the pavers were in place, pea stone was swept into the cracks; this fills the gaps between the pavers, but still allows for drainage. Another option with turf stone, which was utilized on the boat ramp, was to allow grass to grow up through the openings – this is also a great way to prevent runoff and allow water to be absorbed.

Along with the lake-friendly hardscapes that were used in this project, rain gardens were also employed as another means to collect and disperse excess rainwater without harming the lake. The rain gardens in this project were placed in low-lying areas or were constructed to help direct the flow of water to other areas that were better suited to absorb it. Erosion was controlled by using stones to line the area where water would flow, and the surrounding plantings helped filter and absorb the runoff.

The rain gardens are not only functional features of the yard, but also greatly enhance the beauty of the landscape by incorporating greenery, visual interest, and the homeowners' personal style. We were able to incorporate a variety of their eye-catching sculpture within the rain gardens themselves, which complemented the other artistic elements, scattered throughout the property.

This project, with its need for environmentally friendly solutions to water runoff, provided a challenge for our team that we were excited to take on. Next time, we will present the finished Bald Eagle Lake project, and let you in on a few of its noteworthy features. Stay tuned!