When a pair of soon-to-be retiring clients approached us about renovating the front, side, and back yards of the home to which they had just downsized, their first request was to eliminate the lawns. The resulting cottage garden fit right into their very gardenesque block in a quaint Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood, and is replete with fruit trees, a sunny front yard raised vegetable bed disguised by a gentle berm of ornamental plantings, and a casual flagstone terrace out back for outdoor dining.