Luxury Condos, Day Two: COMPLETION

Fresh green sod and a protective carpet of mulch complete this corner of the Ambassador's landscape. Condo owners here will soon see colorful, edible sunflowers and blueberries among the plants outside their windows.

   

Designing around natural water flow is one of the most effective -- and attractive -- secrets of sustainable landscaping. Here's how we created a dry stream for the rain garden that seems to meander from a nearby forest:

Step 1: Riverstones wait on pallets
     while a shallow, sinuous trench is dug.

Step 2: The stone-lined trench and its berm are key to capturing the acre of runoff that this sloping site funnels into the front yard.





Step 3: The rain garden creates a border that's both beautiful and useful. It will
catch and hold a sudden summer downpour, and give the plants time to absorb the water
-- like soaking in a steady, days-long rain.
Step 4: The dry stream collects a pool that
the ground absorbs in hours (long before mosquitoes could develop). An overflow channel prevents excess water from carving a gully, and meets a regulation that overflow end up in a storm drain (not a neighbor's yard!).

Step 5: The end result -- sustainable beauty that
adds value to each condo unit.





















In just two days, Ambrose Landscapes turned a barren, ugly yard into a high-value, low-maintenance
landscape that will grow more beautiful with every season -- and catch the eye of potential condo buyers.