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Waterfront landscapes often serve as an extension of a home and outdoor living space where family and friends can swim, dine, and relax. For the landscape architect that challenge is to create entertainment and recreational spaces, with lovely gardens, while preserving views of the waterfront.
What is now the Roche family compound began when architect Scarlett Breeding was asked to remodel a typical rancher and turn the waterfront side of the property into a weekend oasis. The river-side garden pavilion was meant to entertain extended families and consists of a pool with two saunas, an arbor, outdoor kitchen, dining veranda, an outdoor shower, and a boathouse. For the surrounding gardens, Breeding enlisted landscape architect Kevin Campion of Annapolis-based Campion Hruby Landscape Architects, who designed the landscape for the glass house next door, owned by the Roche’s son Matt Voorhees.
The river-side gardens, says Campion, serve as a “counterpoint” to the straight lines of architectural structures. Campion selected native plants, such as hibiscus and panicum, because they are “of the Chesapeake,” require less maintenance, and are “ecologically smart to use.” Not all plants, even natives, thrive in extreme heat, cold, wind, and rain. Proper grading and sturdy, hardy, plantings are necessary to combat high winds, parched soils, and storms blowing in off the bay. Walnut Hill Landscape did the plant installations as well as the masonry.
Campion designed the front of the house as a woodland sculpture garden with a viburnum hedge, entryway stone pillars similar to those of the glass house next door, and a paver driveway with storm water retention beneath. Large existing trees were preserved in the creation of the entry garden.
The result is an ever-changing scene, where spring plantings and perennials give way to summer and fall flowers and trees for winter interest. Should one tire of the Magothy River’s sweeping views, there is always something else to look at and enjoy.
Resources:
Landscape Architect: Kevin Campion, Meredith Beach, Campion Hruby Landscape Architects, campionhruby.com.
Installation and Masonry: Walnut Hill Landscape Company,
walnuthilllandscape.com.
From Vol. 7, No. 2 2016
Annapolis Home Magazine