Year In Review 2023
We are lucky to find clients every year who share our vision and bring ideas of their own to help us build something special. This was a year of historic renovations and gardens built from blank slates. We have some exciting projects still in the works. Here is a roundup of a few of our finished projects this year!
Historic Smokehouse Restoration
Our team rebuilt an early 19th-century smokehouse on a National Register of Historic Places listed home in Appomattox. We promptly used our restoration skills, scouting the property and collecting boulders and stones from the fields and former buildings to repurpose for the new wall.
The team used two Old World stonework techniques to rework this building: feathers and wedges, and chiseling. These centuries-old masonry techniques create a natural look, a perfect match to original stonework.
ICYMI: See our team restore the smokehouse on Instagram.
Front Foundation Garden & Natural Flagstone Paths
Who says native plants must look wild?
Natives work beautifully in all garden styles as seen in this historic manor home.
We replaced overgrown boxwoods and an aging foundation planting with native Oakleaf hydrangeas, sweetbay magnolia, viburnums, witch hazel, buttonbush, sweetspire, rudbeckias, and foamflowers.
The planting is about 50% native, rounded out with new boxwoods, lenten roses, dwarf amsonia, salvias, astillbe, and pennisetum.
We laid natural sawn flagstone over concrete on the front walk, and irregular sawn flagstone on winding, less formal side paths.
Old City Cemetery Repairs
Old City Cemetery is a Lynchburg landmark with a lush arboretum and beautiful public gardens, as well as the resting place for nearly 20,000 city residents since its founding in 1806. This year, we joined the effort to preserve its charm for decades.
Bransford Vawter, often called "Lynchburg's first poet," gained national attention with his poem "I'd Offer Thee This Hand of Mine" in 1834. A local Quill and Scroll Society chapter presented a memorial stone for his grave in the 1930s, but the wall surrounding his memorial had fallen into disrepair in recent years. Our team restored it to look new.
Local lore claims that Bransford wrote his poem about a forbidden love for Flora Ann Norvell, the daughter of a well-to-do family and above-class for Bransford.
Before:
Radcliff Cemetery Restoration Initiative
Speaking of Flora Norvell, she may have been the daughter of Captain William Norvell, who was influential in developing Lynchburg in the early 1800's. William Norvell was the city's first corporation clerk, town council member, and President of the Bank of Virginia. During the Civil War, his daughter Lucy Norvell Otey established the Ladies' Relief Hospital. The hospital she led had the lowest mortality rate among local hospitals and became renowned throughout the South.
The Norvells' country home, "Radcliff," once sat on the grounds of the current Aerofin company. Generations passed, and Lynchburg grew up around it while the cemetery fell into disrepair.
Jane Baber White, historical preservationist and former director of Old City Cemetery, alongside her cousin Kirk Otey, leads the Radcliff Cemetery restoration initiative.
First, Jonathan Sledge cleared the cemetery of invasive vines and trees. Then forensic scientist and Professor Rhett Hermon used penetrating radar to determine the locations and number of people buried in the cemetery.
We joined this project to rebuild the fallen stone walls surrounding the cemetery. Our team has rebuilt two double-faced walls around the burial grounds, dry stacking the stones and carefully replicating the original work.
Before:
Camp Kumbayah Sensory Garden
Camp Kumbayah, Lynchburg's community-focused nature center, was awarded a grant for a sensory garden to provide healing, and recreational and educational opportunities.
The vision was to create a sensory experience where people of all ages could engage with nature. So, we created a garden focusing on sensory stimulation featuring contrasting colors and textures.
The site was compacted clay with heavy deer pressure, so we choose the toughest of tough specimens and planted them in drifts to mimic the wild, varied plantings found in nature, inviting visitors to look, smell, and touch. Wind chimes, a trickling fountain, and soon herbs amplify the garden.
When Executive Director Amy Bonnette suggested using a cedar tree that had fallen nearby, we hauled the logs to mutual friends with a mill, who returned the lumber to us. We then constructed a pergola for a shady place to enjoy the garden.
Before & After
Corbett Caboose on Cabell Street
Unique spaces lead us to fun projects. When the Corbett family found an old caboose for sale online in West Virginia, they had a vision. They transformed the caboose into a one-of-a-kind short-term rental by the James River.
We planted a pollinator garden in bright red and yellow colors to match the train as requested. Yucca, coreopsis, yarrow, rudbeckia, and switchgrass make a colorful welcome for guests.
Our team also built a walkway and a unique upcycled concrete wall. An old concrete pad was broken up into pieces, which our team carefully used to build a retaining wall near the caboose to create a beautiful and functional area for parking.
Thank You!
We appreciate you for supporting us this year. We have exciting plans for 2024! Follow along and stay updated on our blog, Facebook, and Instagram.