Woodland Gardens - Destruction

Construction Is Destruction
Construction involves a lot of destruction.   Building a house (particularly on a challenging site) 'destroys' an area about 10 times the size of the house... particularly if there is a basement that has to be dug out.

A lot of space is needed to pile up all the dirt/rock that has to be moved.  You need staging areas for materials and to move heavy machinery.   When it's all done there's a large barren area all around the structure.   This isn't apparent in the suburbs where you plant some grass and do a bit of landscaping, but here in the mountains construction leaves some pretty bad scars.

                                    A 60' long 4' high pile of rock from the basement.

Little by little, the area east of the house has become a fern and hosta garden.  Now there's a winding path where the huge pile of rocks was staged.  The two pics are from the same vantage point, as you can see from the trees in the foreground.

We put a lot of thought into ways to minimize the impact.   For example, we instructed our subs to stage most of the carpentry, siding and roofing in the area destined to be the driveway.  We roped off a group of 5 oaks and hickories, which now 'anchor' the 'north garden'.

I'm happy to report that all of those trees survived and they are thriving.  It has taken several years of digging up rocks and amending the soil, but the hostas in the north garden are flourishing!  As a bonus, the Black Cohosh and Trillium are making a comeback.