Lou and Dell Salza’s front yard in Shaker Heights, Ohio, is living proof that a garden can be both beautiful and ecologically functional. Making the most of a modestly sized front lawn, designers Sabrena Schweyer and Samuel Salzbury of Salzbury Schweyer Landscape Design created a comfortable outdoor living space that tastefully incorporates permaculture principles and environmentally friendly rainwater management systems. Each plant that was chosen for this landscape has a function and a purpose. Perennials, shrubs, and spring-flowering bulbs provide a succession of blooms that attract plenty of pollinators throughout the growing season. There are edible fruits and berries, and many native plants that support and shelter insect larvae, birds, and other wildlife. An herb spiral is situated close to the sidewalk, and neighbors are encouraged to harvest fresh herbs whenever they wish. # garden #gardening
This beautiful and ecologically sensitive landscape, featured in the June 2023 issue
of Fine Gardening Magazine, is the home garden of Lou and Del Salza of Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Making the most of a modestly sized front lawn, the team at Salisbury-Schweir Landscape Designers
created a comfortable outdoor living space that incorporates permaculture principles
and environmentally friendly gardening practices.
The result is a landscape that is inviting for humans and wildlife alike.
Here's Del to tell us what it's like to live with a garden that redefines curb appeal.
My name is Del Salza and I live in Shaker Heights, Ohio. That's where we are right now.
My garden was designed by Sabrina Schweier and Samuel Salisbury and I just couldn't be
more thrilled. They just did such a beautiful job. I feel very grateful that we found them
because there are not a lot of people around who do what they do. We had a little skinny porch here
and it was starting to crumble and so Shaker Heights was telling us that we had to replace
it which we kind of knew anyway. There were also some tree roots getting into the pipes under the
front lawn so the whole thing had to get torn up and I had just been reading about you know how
lawns are not good for the environment and how there's such a desert for all these insects and
creatures and stuff like that so we figured we don't really want a lawn anyway and this is a
perfect time since it's going to be all torn up why don't we do something else. We had just one
specification which was that we needed grass underneath the tree here for the tree swing
because the kids play on that all the time so Sabrina came up with this beautiful design
that I could never imagine in a million years. This whole outdoor area is so much nicer than
what it used to be. People always stop and talk and want to know about it and it just seems to
really get people's attention and all summer it's just a buzz with all kinds of insects and
hummingbirds and birds and little you know critters rabbits except the rabbits ate all my choreopsis
in the back and stuff which I was not happy about but you know but besides that I mean it's just so
much fun to watch them and with the bird baths and stuff they're very funny to watch
and there's just such a beautiful variety of plants here and when one flower goes and another's
just starting to bloom and it's just beautiful. It makes people feel good. I read something
somewhere where whatever you do to the outside of your house is a gift to the street and it
just feels like a wonderful gift and people just seem to love it.
