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Piedmont Meadow

Virginia

Located in the foothills of central Virginia, Piedmont Meadow is a private residential project that restored an abandoned fescue pasture into an ecologically healthy landscape. The homeowner tasked WMWA with developing a plan that minimized the impact of the architecture and landscape design in favor of protecting and enhancing the site’s diverse ecologies. Our team developed a strategy that sited the house and gardens on the natural edge, or ecotone, between the existing forest and meadow habitats, placing the homeowner within a dynamic setting while offering opportunities for wider restoration within the site. The use of native plants and local materials throughout the project serves to connect the design with the characteristics of the endemic landscape. Partnering as the framework of the design are two formal gardens, each with their own unique aesthetic and function. The first, the “cultural” garden, harnesses the beauty and productivity of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and cutting flowers, while the second, the “meadow” garden, blends the traditional formality of a stylized English garden with the use a contemporary palette of native meadow species. The bounties of both gardens are used within the house and throughout the broader landscape, supplying fresh produce, cut flowers, and native plants for ongoing site restoration projects in reclaimed natural areas across the property. Matt Whitaker began this project with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and still serves as the project landscape architect.