West Napa Featured Garden: Landscape Renovation

This West Napa landscape renovation featured garden included several elements, including an unusual stamped concrete walkway, a low voltage lighting system, a redwood fence, and front and rear gardens.                 Landscape renovation includes redwood fence and low voltage lighting

The project began with a request by the homeowner for a walkway down the side of the property, which consisted of two-foot squares separated and surrounded by river rock. We had never built this type of walkway, but after some measuring and designing, we built a beautiful dark gray stamped concrete walkway accented by low voltage lighting. The spaces were filled with local river rock.               Stamped concrete walkway consisted of two-foot squares with river rock

While we were installing this hardscape area on the side of the house, we discussed with the homeowner some of his other landscape needs.

Landscape Renovation Begins

There was a large planter box in the center of the long narrow lawn, and the lawn itself was in poor condition. He asked us to price removing the box and installing a new sod lawn.

Upon further inspection, we discovered that the reason for the dying lawn was an inadequate lawn sprinkler system, which did not cover the lawn completely. So we quoted a new lawn and a new underground irrigation system, which he agreed to proceed with.

He also showed us that the rear fence, which spanned the entire length of the backyard, had several rotten posts, and many of the fence boards were warped and split.

We explained to him that if he ever wanted to replace the fence, it should be done first, since the demolition of the old fence and construction of the new fence would be a messy project. If the new lawn were installed first, it would certainly be damaged during the fence work.

Proper Sequence Matters in a Landscape Renovation

So he agreed that work should proceed in the proper sequence, and we began demolition and removal of the existing fence.

The fence posts were cut off at ground level, since we determined that the new posts would be positioned in different locations, and we therefore avoided having to jackhammer the concrete from the old post holes.

We constructed a six-foot tall redwood fence with three rails in each fence section, square top fence boards, and a 2×6 cap across the top.                        Redwood fence was the first step in this landscape renovation

With the stamped concrete walkway and the redwood fence now complete, this West Napa featured garden was ready for the softscape.

With a sod cutter we removed the old lawn and the planter box, and arranged to have everything, including the old redwood fence, hauled away, giving us plenty of space to work.

Completing the Garden

We now had the opportunity to give the new lawn a modern shape, with angled corners and a slightly smaller design allowing for more planting space around the new perimeter.

We installed 2×4 synthetic lawn edging in the desired shape, and carefully marked the location of the new sprinkler heads, ensuring head-to-head coverage.

The new sprinkler system was installed and the new sod lawn was laid.

Upon completion we planted the garden around the outer edge of the lawn and in front of the fence.

This West Napa featured garden was now complete.