Hardscapes Solutions: Seamless design

LOCATION: Sheboygan, Wis.
COMPANY: Landmark Landscapes

The clients approached Landmark Landscapes after seeing the company’s projects in their neighborhood. Goals included mitigating erosion problems on the property, which overlooks Lake Michigan’s bluffs, and creating a seamless feel from the inside of the home to the outside.

Joe Majerus, president of Landmark Landscapes, says the clients put off the project for years because they could not source the same type of limestone as the exterior of the home. Landmark Landscapes sourced material from a quarry and a farm. Landmark also sourced the limestone for the built-in bar on-site.

“In the middle of the gardens, we unearthed this bar top that was some landscape element from the 1950s,” he says. “We laid the two pieces out and I was like, ‘This would be the perfect shape, size and scale for a bar top on the back patio.’”

While it took time to build a relationship with the client, it also created an opportunity to collaborate on features such as the hanging chandelier.

“It was really through the collaborative efforts of our staff and the clients that we came up with a lot of the really awesome features in the landscape itself,” he says.

Landmark Landscapes won a Gold Award in the 2020 National Association of Landscape Professionals’ Awards of Excellence program.

(Photo courtesy of Kimber Johnson)

The garden showcases the client’s terra-cotta art. Other features include eroded limestone boulders sourced from a farmer’s fence row and plantings reflective of the Japanese garden influence.

 (Photo courtesy of Kimber Johnson)

While the terrace garden serves as a space for entertaining, the real function of the patio is to capture and manage stormwater to prevent the erosion of the bluff that the property overlooks.

(Photo courtesy of Kimber Johnson)

Crews excavated the basin of the pond by hand and hauled materials in and out with a wheelbarrow. 

(Photo courtesy of Kimber Johnson)

Access to the property was a challenge for crews. To move stone, crews rolled boulders “Egyptian-style.” A Toro Dingo also helped move gravel and stone. Crews also reclaimed much of the stone for the 1,400-square-foot patio from the existing patio.  

(Photo courtesy of Kimber Johnson)

The clients wanted to view the garden from inside the home and appear to flow from the inside out.

(Photo courtesy of Kimber Johnson)

To create the effect of a floating chandelier, crews fastened the lighting fixture to a 35-foot stainless steel cable anchored to a tree and the home. Crews also installed 46 light fixtures to accent the outdoor space.

(Photo courtesy of Kimber Johnson)

A before photo of the meditation garden area. Before the renovation, the space was overgrown. The original goal was to cull back overgrown cedars and evergreens and connect the space to the rest of the property.