Heart-shaped garden in foreground has changed yearly. Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’ at left is now very large-put in to match early squirrels’-ear leaves of surrounding century sugar maples. Small Magnolia ‘Daybreak’ to the right in front of stairs, has now reached into the canopy of the sugar maples and bears head-sized booms with lush fragrance. It was planted as a 8-inch graft, a gift from us, gotten from Broken Arrow and Dick Jaynes.

Bel Espalier LLC: We are a small stonework and landscape company in Litchfield, the county seat of the NorthWest Corner of Connecticut.

Bedrock2: We maintain a 1.5 acre stoneyard of recycled granite, brownstone, limestone/marble and shale for our own use, and sales to other masons, gardeners, architects & builders, and designers. Fieldstone or wallstone inventory also runs around a thousand tons year-round.

“Leon built us the most beautiful, practical stone steps! They look beautiful in between the pine trees he planted in our yard.” — Crissey Hewitt