When two retired teachers built their dream home, their property was basically two acres of mown grass. The couple loved the pastoral Maine landscape, and they were not interested in mowing two acres every week. So they called in landscape architect Matthew Cunningham to cut down the maintenance required and help their home fit in better with the rural landscape.

For inspiration, Cunningham looked to the surroundings and to good old-fashioned land management techniques. Important aspects of the design included restoring the large meadow to a naturally wild aesthetic, embellishing the panoramic views, ringing the house with more formal plantings and creating a playful arrival sequence from the road up to the house. Plantings were designed with color and seasonal interest in mind, and newly carved paths allow the clients and their lab, Kuli, to travel by foot to see their nearby children and grandchildren.

Landscape at a Glance
Who lives here: A retired couple; extended family within walking distance
Location: Penobscot, Maine
Size: 2 acres
That's interesting: The clients were their landscape architect's algebra teachers in high school.
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC An ornamental orchard of crab apples has been planted in front of the original barn, and a perennial edge in the foreground includes catmint and spirea. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC "We allowed former lawn areas to regenerate into manicured meadows," explains Cunningham. The area shown is now a hayfield that is mown and mulched once a year. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC Spectacular native plant communities soon returned to the meadow: rushes, clover, grasses, daisies, Queen Anne's lace, thistle, goldenrod, rue, vetch, lupine, buttercups and more. Wildlife immediately followed. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC While the house is new, its style gives a nod to the area's farmhouses. The look works well with the regenerated hayfield. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC "You can see the entire region from the house," says Cunningham. "To the left you see Acadia National Park; to the right, Blue Hill Mountain. The hayfield adds a beautiful foreground to the expansive view. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC More meticulously planned perennial gardens and shrub borders were placed closer to the house. While the gardens are designed, the mix of textures, color and species gives them a soft, informal look.

Cunningham has been gardening in Maine since he was nine years old, so choosing plants for this project came naturally. The plant color palette is predominantly purple, green, silver and pink during spring and summer, and transforms into yellows, oranges, rust and cranberry red in the fall. "The garden still looks great when the first frost hits," he says. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC "The shrub and perennial borders around the house draw the eye in," Cunningham says. They create soft edges and thresholds between the domestic part of the yard and the meadow.

These borders mix perennials with deciduous shrubs, and they create a ringed perimeter around the house. Again, Cunningham was careful to choose species that have strong multiseasonal characteristics. Plants include forsythia, red twig dogwood, iris, hydrangeas, lilacs, rugosa roses, coneflowers, spirea and daylilies. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC If you look closely in the background, you can see bright sunflower blooms popping through the fog. They are part of the clients' vegetable garden. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC Here is a good look at the rugosa roses in the shrub borders. "Rugosas are spectacular in the fall," says Cunningham. "The foliage is a lemon-butter yellow, and the rose hips turn a beautiful cranberry color." Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC Cunningham was hired after the driveway had already been installed. "Because the driveway was basically a straight line from the road to the house, I added a grove of sugar maples to create a playful arrival sequence," he says. "It's also very common to see beautiful double allées of sugar maples lining driveways in the area, so this is a reinterpretation of that historical local element."

"This region is blanketed in fog about a third of the time, so I also chose the maple trees because of their interesting silhouettes," says Cunningham. In addition, sugar maple leaves turn fiery red in the fall. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC Other parts of the property include very lightly managed woodlands. This means these woods were cleaned up and their edges are maintained via the annual hayfield mowing. The clients allow natural succession to continue within the woodlands. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC Paths carved through the meadow were an important part of the master plan, as the couple's children and grandchildren live nearby. "Their children live down a country lane; while there is not much traffic on those roads, people tend to drive too quickly on them," says Cunningham. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC Kuli the dog joins the daily walks. Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC Cunningham photographs his projects during different weather conditions and seasons. This image gives you a glimpse of the clients as well as a look at the oak, maple and ash trees in fall. The master plan shows how the mown lawn, perennial gardens and shrub borders casually demarcate the domestic portion of the yard. You also can see the importance placed on the paths and trees. Now that the installation and cleanup phases are complete, the owners can enjoy a beautiful functional landscape that embodies the qualities they love about Downeast Maine.

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