Lakeside Garden Renewal - Seasonal Woodland Retreat

After completing renovations on their lakeside home, our customer invited Garden Design Maine to help bring the surrounding landscape up to the same standard of beauty and care as the newly refreshed house. The site, nestled among mature trees and dappled in partial shade, offered a classic Maine woodland setting — tranquil, but also in need of thoughtful structure and color.

Our design plan focused on three distinct garden areas, each with its own purpose and character:

1. Roadside Privacy Garden

Between the quiet road and the home’s semi-circular driveway, we created a layered composition of shade-loving shrubs and small trees designed to provide both seasonal interest and a sense of enclosure.
The planting includes mountain laurels, dogwoods, azaleas, rhododendrons, bottlebrush buckeye, clethra, and white birch, arranged in gentle layers to blend seamlessly into the natural woodland backdrop. Over time, these will mature to heights of 5–12 feet, creating a soft screen of foliage and flowers that offers privacy without feeling closed in.

2. Entry Gardens – Flanking the Front Deck

At the front of the home, we designed two companion beds that frame the deck stairs leading to the main entry. These gardens feature a curated mix of colorful, long-blooming, and easy-care perennials — including heuchera, hakone grass, foxglove, anemone, aralia, hosta, echinacea, astilbe, ferns, Solomon’s seal, and daylilies.

Together, they provide continuous color and texture from spring through fall, enhancing the home’s welcoming approach with layered foliage and graceful movement.

3. Lakeside Terrace Gardens

In early spring 2025, the project expanded to include the back terrace overlooking the lake. The homeowners had recently built a beautiful tiered patio with raised planting beds and wanted to fill them with a vibrant mix of flowering perennials and part-sun shrubs — including a collection of high- and low-bush blueberries for both beauty and harvest.

Our design for the lakeside area combines structure, texture, and seasonal color, with plantings such as:
fall-blooming anemone, heuchera, geranium, echinacea, catmint, hybrid lavender, hakone grass, itea, dwarf weigela, Japanese painted ferns, foxgloves, reblooming daylilies, mini hostas, creeping phlox, and multiple blueberry varieties.

The result is a series of lush, cohesive gardens that tie the renovated home gracefully to its woodland and lakeside surroundings. By combining layered shrubs, resilient perennials, and thoughtful design transitions, we created outdoor spaces that are colorful, naturalistic, and low-maintenance — perfectly suited to a seasonal Maine retreat.

The homeowners were thrilled with the outcome, and we’re proud to have helped transform their property into a welcoming, nature-embraced sanctuary.