Gordon Hayward of Hayward Gardens sketches out a few landscaping ideas for Stonehurst, Vermont's newest fine furniture and art gallery. Our pal Annette Roydon has volunteered to be our on-site advisor.Well, now that the exterior painting of Stonehurst (Vermont's newest fine furniture and art gallery) is almost done (pictures to follow later this week), it's time to look into landscaping. We were fortunate to be able to persuade Brattleboro's best painters (Moe Momaney and crew) to help us out and they in turn recommended the area's most admired landscaper. That would be Gordon Hayward of Hayward Gardens.
Annette, Douglas and I met with Gordon the other day and roughed out a few preliminary sketches. Boy are they different from our previous plans! Gordon got here just in the nick of time.
At the moment, designing the ADA accessible walkway into the front of Stonehurst is the main dilemma we're facing. We all envision a lovely, traditional Vermont stone pathway, constructed by a skilled stone mason using Goshen stone. Jeremy Coleman, the Stonehurst architect has already laid the pathway foundation with the proper gentle slope to make wheelchair access easy. The problem is that in the winter, it's hard to snow-blow a stone-inlaid path and Ken's afraid that over time the walkway will become bumpy and difficult for wheelchair access.
Before talking to Gordon we had decided to pave the walkway and stamp it so it looks like Goshen stone. Well, both Jeremy and Gordon feel like all the work we've done in making sure Stonehurst is authentic will be compromised by paving the entrance. They are certain that Goshen stone can be properly laid such that it will stay level and intact for smooth wheelchair access.
What do you think? Gordon is coming over tomorrow to continue our landscaping project. You can put your 2 cents in on our Fine Furniture Facebook page. And I'll keep you updated here on the blog.
And here's a couple interesting links for you:
- Gordon's award-winning landscaping books including: Your House, Your Garden
- Landscaping photos at Malliouhana in Anguilla, which Annette designed a few years back
