I have never done one lick of design work for this client-she and her husband do their own. They design, they plant, they mow and maintain-on their own. They shop my store, and I may advise about this object or that pot, but they have a point of view, and they act on that. Parts of their gardens are designed for the pure unadulterated pleasure of their three childen. They cleared this shady area behind the house, and set to making that spot condusive to play. The blue rectangle in the above picture-an in-ground trampoline- what a blast.
They like rustic and whimsical objects in their garden-this spot is no exception. The Adirondacks style bench with integral planter gives them a place to sit and watch the kids. The ground is thickly mulched with pine needles. This makes for soft landings.
This playhouse began as an actual stump, to which a second floor was added. What small child would not be delighted to have this as a clubhouse in the woods? I could not help but laugh when I first laid eyes on this. Though the architecture was aimed at their children, it is incredibly beautifully built. The child-size doors keeps adults out. My favorite part? That brand spanking new roof, sagging dramatically.
The staircase with its woven rope railings looks like a gangplank-I can imagine lots of childplay set on this stage. Nestled in close to an existing tree, and furnished with its own birdhouse and barrel of flowers, its a home away from home.
A stump sculpture depicts a bear, slumped over a tree stump, asleep. The wood is starting to acquire some moss with age. This kind of exposure to a woodland playground has to be good-don’t you think? This is as friendly, unassuming and undemanding an exposure to nature and natural forms aimed at kids as I have ever seen.
My clients situated their seating area close enough to the woodland to keep an eye on the kids, but this space was designed for grown ups. Oversized furniture and pillows upholstered in bright colored fabrics looks sumptuous and inviting. The pergola overhead makes outdoor entertaining in the rain a distinct possibility. There are gorgeous views to gardens on three sides.
The pool deck is loaded with big handmade Italian terra cotta pots, stuffed to overflowing with annual flowers in mixed colors. The old farm pump spilling into a vintage wood farm bucket is not only whimsical, but fun. My clients tell me their kids love splling the bucket on each other’s heads. This does sound like great fun.
The front yard is home to a wood house built from pallets, originally part of a Halloween haunted house vignette. In the summer, the house gets dressed up like a garden shed, complete with a tin rooster on the roof.�
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It is obvious that beyond the time and daily effort they spend making their gardens beautiful, this is a very happy place for a family. This garden is jam-packed with joy.
I do have clients who are hands on; Dr. Luria is one of those. I designed his landscape, and gardens, and I have planted a few of the bigger evergreens for him-but by and large, he has done this work himself. I can relate to that gardener that really does like the dirt. The perennial garden sits on top of a low elliptical wall, which strongly borders the space while the garden is dormant. 
lI tried very hard to dissuade him from having a perennial garden in his front yard, but working against me was how the house sits on the property. This neighborhood has large common areas that all the homeowners share. Thus most of his property, and almost all of his sun is in the front yard. I need not have worried. This garden is better than well looked after. It is the jewel of the neighborhood.
In the back yard, The woodland common property is faced down with a mix of shade perennials. This greatly helps to expand the visual space of the rear yard. I suspect he takes care of the woodlot as well. A round terrace/deck is notable for its beautiful iron railings. What I dislike about decks the most is what I see underneath them; I rarely see a surface treatment I find attractive. The undersides of decks also tend to accumulate tools, hoses, toys and the like. This deck has the illusion of being solid to the ground; the vertical wood planks add so much color and texture to this small garden. The stairs hug the deck radius, and spill out onto a second terrace, finished simply in gravel contained by black aluminum edger strip. The blue furniture looks great.
I so enjoy the gardens my clients make for themselves. Never would it occur to me to plant a cactus garden in an iron birdbath. Does this not look swell? I like everything about this small spot in his garden-the color, the textures-and most of all, the presence and personality of the head gardener.
Dr. Luria has been making things grow his whole life, and it shows. The plants are robustly happy and lush; how they look says everything about how much time he spends here. Though I am sure there are days he wonders what he took on here, the state of the garden gives no hint of that. Well grown plants are so much a part of what makes a garden beautiful.
He also does a beautiful job of adding annuals to his perennial mix. Any day you go by, something interesting is going on. In any given year, the annuals he fancies can change the complexion of the entire garden. It looks new and fresh every year. He may consult with me about this or that, but he makes the decisions.
For the better part of six years I did nothing to this yard except bark the existing perennial beds, and mow the grass. It took all my energy to handle my work-or so it seemed. I am embarrassed to say that somewhere along the line I got an anonymous postcard in the mail: “It is hard to believe that a person whose career is landscape would have weeds six feet tall in her front yard”. No matter the delivery, the person had a point.
But perhaps even more importantly, I was ignoring the fact that whatever I did at home would need time to come of age-and that perhaps I would want to still be around to see that. Planning my own landscape was agonizingly slow. I had no problem designing for others; I was a wreck designing for myself. Slow turned out to be fine; who can do everything at once anyway? Getting started-that was the key.
The one hundred Hicks yews across the west and down the north side came first. Given the slope of my property from the south to the north, time would prove to be an essential element. The hedge is 4 feet tall on the south side, and nine feet tall on the north side-but every one of them is level with the horizon. This hedge took eight years to grow in.
The boxwood was even slower growing; the 18″-24″ plants I put in the ground were already seven years old when I planted them. The shaggy densiformis yews are the newest evergreen addition; they have only been in four years. I like all this evergreen; I can successfully maintain it. I knew I could never devote the time needed to a big perennial garden-why come home and be frustrated about what isn’t done? Two giant blocks of Limelight hydrangeas, and 6 pots of flowers give me perennial garden pleasure, in a manageable form.
I planted this city-mini allee of Yellow Butterflies magnolias for Buck-he loves yellow. The boxwood is a big evergreen groundcover. The petals falling on this boxwood is one of my garden’s best spring moments. The mini-boxwood strips in the foreground-this year’s landscape project. The slope of the ground here made it difficult to mow the grass. The magnolias have grown considerably, and the shade they cast was not optimal for lawn. Wall stone behind them retains the soil, and in a few years, will be invisible.
The magnolias were planted to frame the view to the side yard. It is hard arrange a long view on a city lot, making visual use of the neighbor’s mature elm adds much to the illusion of distance.
The big Yew hedge divides my public landscape, from the house landscape. The big pots are centered in front of big panels of windows; I have good views from inside. The ground is carpeted with herniaria glabra-rupturewort. This plant grows like thyme, but is much more water tolerant.
