August 22, 2006 in Home

YOUR BEAUTIFUL HOME

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Photos by BRIAN PLONKA photo

Barbara Kusterer stands atop a hand-built bridge over one of many water features around her South Hill home.
(Full-size photo)

Mike and Barbara Kusterer took a different path to low-maintenance gardening. After moving into their large South Hill home nine years ago, the couple made some changes in the landscape.

“There wasn’t any lawn at all,” Barbara Kusterer said. “It was all flowers, shrubs and gravel everywhere.”

Keeping up with everything planted in the yard proved to be too time-consuming. “We were out there half a day every day,” Kusterer said.

With the help of their son, Brad, and his girlfriend, Linnia West, the Kusterers brought back a green space by adding a lawn to the front and back of the house. Then Brad and Linnia cleared an area of tall shrubs and ivy and laid stones to create a patio.

They planted dogwood, ash and oak trees and added a water feature.

Brad built a bridge out of a wood hammock stand and installed it for his parents.

Now, time spent in the garden is relaxing, not work-filled.

“It’s serene and calming out there now,” Kusterer said. “And it’s beautiful, especially in the spring when the tulips and iris and peonies bloom.”

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