Local landscaper wins design award

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Barry Block Landscape Design and Contracting in East Moriches recently won a Gold award for the landscape design for this Amagansett home.

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East Moriches-based Barry Block Landscape Design and Contracting recently received the “2008/2009 Gold Environmental Enhancement” award from the Long Island Nursery and Landscape Association.

Mr. Block’s company was selected as the “Gold” award winner for work in landscaping design in the “Single Family Residence Less than 1/2 Acre” category. The garden that earned him the award is located south of the highway in Amagansett.

The award was handed out at the Long Island Nursery and Landscape Association’s annual presentation ceremonies at the Bellport Country Club in January. The organization, located in Farmingdale, is a local chapter of the New York State Nursery and Landscape Association.

Mr. Block said that he was thrilled to have received the recognition from the association but was also pleased to have been a part of the project from the very beginning, allowing for the kind of involvement that offers unique opportunities for landscape designers.

“Having the rare opportunity to be pulled into the project early on helped make a real impact for our clients and their new landscape,” he said. “Working with the clients, the builder and their budgets early on, before modifications become too expensive to reverse, helped to create the groundwork for this project.”

According to background provided by Mr. Block, the newly constructed post-modern home in Amagansett was built as a weekend house on an existing residential lot. His firm was brought in to create a landscape package to match the architectural style—exterior and interior—of the residence.

The owners had expressed a desire to screen out unwanted views from all four sides of the property, create an outside room that would reflect back into the living spaces within the home and provide year-round interest, with the main focus on summer seasonal color. Additional requests were made for ornamental grasses, hydrangeas and boxwoods, as well as an English garden theme, according to Mr. Block.

One of the biggest challenges for the landscape design team was to make the half-acre property feel open and sprawling while maintaining a simple and elegant landscape. Mr. Block said that a dominant plant palette of lavender, pink, blue and white was used to soften the home’s exterior and tie in all fixed features on the site, which include a driveway, pool house and retaining walls.

The inside view from the dining and living room onto the patio, pool and yard became the primary focal point of the landscape design for the classic Hamptons-style residence. The outdoor area is visible from the interior through a wall of windows in the form of four pairs of large French doors.

According to Mr. Block, the existing plant material installed by the builder around the foundation was salvaged, as were English boxwoods which were already on site. Additionally, 80 newly-planted arborvitae were transplanted throughout the property and used as a screen around the perimeter. Evergreens were also used to the same effect in the rear yard, as well as privet to screen the house from the road in the front.

Thermal bluestone pavers were set in linear grid style to create a sense of entry for the front walk, which also created a more expansive-feeling lawn, according to Mr. Block. Three dogwood trees were planted triangularly to anchor the front yard and a long-blooming kousa dogwood tree draws the eye as a principal focal point. Additionally, the front hedge was given a curvilinear form to soften the front entrance and allow for extra parking spaces along the street.

Mr. Block reported that a decorative white wooden fence, flanked with perennials and flowering shrubs, was used to screen and soften the view from the rear yard. Also, a crape myrtle tree was planted for seasonal color, to act as a focal point and to bring the screening above eye level. The tree also acts to screen the roof line of a neighboring house.

Climbing clematis vines, low perennial plantings and ornamental grasses surround the pool house in the back of the property. In keeping with the theme of the front lawn, thermal bluestone pavers were also set in the backyard expanse leading to the pool area.

Boxwoods in a spherical sculpture form were used to anchor the base of the rear porch columns and an alley of hydrangea— hardy, late summer-blooming tardiva standards and large-flowered annabelles—was planted on the south side of the property under neighboring shady white pine trees.

In all, Mr. Block’s business was recognized by the Long Island Nursery and Landscape Association for excellence and quality in landscape design and construction.