BusinessWest, Apr 13, 2009 by Mitchell, Kathleen
Imaging stepping out your back door into a paradise of rushing waterfalls, lush greenery, and winding paths that take you over gurgling streams on stone bridges. Perhaps you’d rather enter an exotic landscape, with a formal Japanese teahouse and oriental trees and plants.
Or, maybe your dream of a personal retreat features formal rose gardens, well-tended beds of flowers, statues with running water, and stone benches to relax on and enjoy the beauty of nature.
“What if your next vacation was in your own backyard?” said Stephen A. Roberts of Stephen A. Roberts Landscape Architecture and Construction.
It’s his belief that everyone deserves their own personal retreat. “We are in such a rush all the time, and should be able to enjoy the spare moments we have when we are at home,” Roberts said. His philosophy is that, with the right design, people can escape to a vacation-style spot of their choosing by simply looking out their kitchen window or walking through their back door.
Roberts, 44, has spent his life enmeshed in nature and has cultivated the ability to take ordinary property and transform it into extraordinary landscapes.
His Springfield-based business makes that possible. “There are a lot of landscapers and a lot of misconceptions about landscape design,” he said. “What makes me stand out is that my company does both design and construction.” His employees include designers, masons, horticulturalists and turf specialists.
Roberts considers himself a steward of the land. He is passionate about creating natural landscapes and says he has a “gift” for being able to step onto a piece of property and envision it transformed into a beautiful oasis.
But taking a vision and bringing to it fruition is a complex process that involves frequent changes, often necessitated by the land itself.
Small projects as well as large ones that involve several acres require attention to herpes dating detail and the knowledge that landscapes are dynamic and undergo natural changes, he said.
“I always think outside the box, whether someone wants a patio or wants to landscape their entire backyard. Even the furniture that people use ties into the landscape.”
Gathering Information
The process of transformation begins when Roberts is called to a home or condominium. He talks with the client about their ideas, then assesses the interior of the home before stepping outside.
Some clients know exactly what they want, while others leave it entirely up to him. In either case, as soon as Roberts sets foot into a yard, that so-called “gift” springs to life. He says he can immediately envision a beautiful landscape that mirrors the homeowner’s personal desires and tastes using natural elements.
Although the entire vision isn’t always possible to create due to budgetary factors, there is a lot to consider before Roberts can even present a plan to his clients.
“I see what I want to do instantly … it is my gift,” he said. “My challenge is to get my thoughts into a plan, communicate it to the homeowner, and come up with a budget, which is always a factor.”
The process takes into consideration natural factors, cultural factors, the client’s taste, and the location. “There are many layers, which include exposure to sun, shade, wind, the soil, the hydrology of the water … I look at the big picture. My goal is to educate people about we do,” he said.
In one instance, a West Springfield client called him and said he wanted to put an addition on his home with a landscape that had a calm and serene feel to it and included a Japanese teahouse and Japanese maple trees. “He told me had a pond in his yard, but it was a puddle,” said Roberts.
He likes to create projects that allow the interior of a home to flow into the outdoors, so he suggested putting an entire wail of windows on the addition. “We worked with the building architect to create the transformation,” he said.
Roberts designed a Japanese tea garden with a koi pond large enough to swim in that had an island in its center. It features cascading waterfalls, a rocky shore and Japanese trees.
Constructing the garden on the existing quarter-acre of land presented many challenges. “The soil was terrible–it was clay and very wet. We had to put in an extensive drainage system,” Roberts said. “The devil is in the details, and you have to continue to change the design on a day-to-day basis.” But because his company does the construction, he is able to “stay with the process and solve the problems.”
Roberts loves incorporating water into his landscapes, however, so the process was satisfying. “I love water gardens. Water is the essence of life, and so many people tell me they want things to look natural. What is more beautiful than a natural stream or a body of water?”
In the West Springfield yard, he built stone steps leading up to the teahouse, several patios, and a natural rock bridge from a huge slab of stone.
Another project in Somers, Conn. presented its own set of obstacles