The Sustainable Landscape-Permeable Pavers, Rain Garden
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A view of the Finished landscape approximately 1 year after completion. -
A Before picture of the front yard before start of construction. -
A Before picture taken from the driveway across the front landscape towards the street. There will be a very dramatic difference with this vantage point when the project is completed. -
A Before picture from the front right corner of the property. The homes in the neighborhood were built from approximately 1927 - 1932. A beautiful, old neighborhood. -
The front Allan Block curved steps, pillars, and retaining walls under construction. -
A view of the pillars and retaining wall as it disappears into the grade. By adding the retaining walls we were able to safely give the homeowner an additional 4' of space that was very hard to utilize and maintain before construction. -
Starting to install the front walkway which has approximately 15in of 6A free draiing limestone underneath (way overkill for this application), but we felt this was necessary because we had removed the original slope and drainage from the front yard for the rain gardens. -
The homeowners and neighborhood were starting to envision where the grade was going to be for the garden. -
The larger rain garden during the weekend storm that delivered nearly 6in or rain in 2 1/2 days. We visited the jobsite several times during the worst downpours and the rain gardens would fill up for an hour and then the water would just magically disappear. The stormwater management system was working flawlessly, just as it had been designed to do. Whew! -
Preparing the front city sidewalk for porous concrete. There is 6in of 6A free draining limestone underneath the sidewalk. -
A view of the permeable paver ramp and pillars. -
A view of the front walkway leading from the curved staircase. -
A view of the smaller of the two rain gardens. -
A view of the curved front entry steps. -
A view of the front, right side of the property. -
A view down the porous concrete city sidewalk. -
A view of the larger of the two rain gardens. -
A view of the Belgard Subterra permeable paver walkway ramp.
Felice's Four Seasons considers this project one of the most interesting and unique residential environmental projects of its kind in the mid-Michigan area. To the best of our knowledge, this project is the first residential sustainability project in the mid-Michigan area that helps protect our water resources. The homeowners are committed to helping the environment. They chose to undertake this project as a way to demonstrate and teach the mid-Michigan area, as well as the world how we can have a beautiful hardscape and softscape, but greatly reduce our impact on the environment. All of these Low-Impact Design (LID) elements work together as storm water management tools. The project features magnificent Allan Block retaining walls and decorative pillars encompassing the entire front yard and a set of beautiful, custom, curved steps at the city sidewalk. The downspouts on the front of the home were designed to drain into two gorgeous rain gardens filled with perennials and ornamental grasses. Belgard 'Subterra' permeable paver landings and walkways create the beautiful random cobblestone surfaces that lead you between awe-inspiring pillars through the front garden down a ramp to the permeable paver driveway. The front concrete city sidewalk was removed and replaced with permeable concrete. This project broke ground on the morning of August 15, 2008 and completed Saturday, October 4, 2008. "Felice's Four Seasons...Leeding the way in Sustainable Landscape Design and Installation!"
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