I broke my number one rule in landscaping Stewart Way: always know what the finished product will be before sticking a shovel in the ground. I had my reasons, I never would have planned a project at our home that would take hundreds of hours of my own time to complete. Originally the plan was simply to clad the garage with stone and build retaining walls and a patio at the walkout basement. That seemed ambitious enough at the time. After a few years and the addition of several minor landscape improvements, I had the urge and the additional accumulated materials to build a second garage for my equipment, this time with stone and brick. Once that project was completed, it only made sense to connect the structures with walls to complete the enclosure of the back yard.
Stewart Way has been my laboratory. This is where the plants and materials go that are leftover or rejected from other projects. Stones that are too orange, too big, too rough, have drill holes, broken corners, etc., found a home here. This is where I have been able to carry out ideas that don’t quite fit anywhere else or that clients don’t want to take a risk on. Some ideas have worked out better than others. In hindsight there are many things I would have done differently, but I have no regrets because I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process.
