Suburban landscapes can be bleak. I sometimes think they are more about what has been replaced on impulse, or places that are just left blank when something dies, than a design. This landscape was suffering considerably from what I call “berm, bark and boulder” blight. Mini- mountains of soil are studded with rocks, and a collection of plants are installed. If there was a big design idea here, I cannot spot it. After planting, the entire area is covered in bark, usually deep bark. But what baffled me the most here was how every plant was pruned into ball shapes, without regard for their species, habit or culture. My client spent a lot of years raising her kids, and then more years redoing the interior of her house-which by the way is beautiful. When she got to the outside, she called me. Looking at a landscape on a cold March day can be sobering. There are no leaves, flowers or sunshine dressing up problems so they aren’t so obvious. The first order of business was to engage a new maintenance company that knew how to prune properly.
The house sits on a piece of property that is very high and steeply sloped. The berms only exacerbated this precarious look; the second order of business was to grade. We dug up as much plant material as we could, and heeled it in. We cut the berms down, and filled in the slope to soften it. We added many more yards of soil. The existing plants we were able to save we grouped together, so every plant had like company, and replanted in another area of the yard.
The bermed soil right up to the drive edge meant dirt and debris on the drive, non-stop. Any design needs a component that addresses ease of maintenance. I am happy to attend to the maintenance of my pots every day. Needing to sweep debris off a drive every day is annoying. This kind of thing can make people dislike gardening for no good reason.
Once the grade issues were addressed in a way that worked, we laid out the design. My client likes white, simple and dramatic. She wanted to drive up to that, love it, and then go to her back yard garden to spend time. This first element of drama came from the grading.
The irregularly sloping and steep ground was graded to slope gently on a consistent angle to the street. Particular care was taken to insure that the view from the house to the street would feature ground with sculptural appeal.
For anyone who likes white, dramatic and simple, Limelight hydrangeas are a logical choice. The dark green yews, and the sleekly trimmed arborvitae make great companions to all the profusion to come.
The walk was redone in chocolate, or lilac bluestone. This is an unusual color, but great looking with the color of the house. The walk is bordered in annuals in the summer, and white tulips in the spring.
This new look helps to focus some attention on the architecture of the house, and features the front porch. We enlarged the front porch, and repainted all the trim and wood on the house. Sometimes a landscape project can spill over into another area of design. In this case, a new landscape helped generate changes to the house, lighting, and porch.
A pair of large contemporary French faux bois pots flank the front door; what a handsome view this is now. Very friendly formal, I call this. She calls it a blast.
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It was Henry Mitchell who wrote that defiance is what makes gardeners; I believe him. Everyone who works for me gardens. It is interesting to see what they make, and how they use their voice. This loft right downtown in Pontiac is home to Lauren Hanson; she works in the store. It is one of many buildings in the area in various states of disrepair and dereliction. But it is obvious she has an idea about how to live and garden. Defiantly.
She is young, and has adventuresome ideas. She tells me she likes living in this loft, that it has so much more presence and attitude than a suite of rooms in an apartment building. This urban location doesn’t dismay her in the least; she is energized by it. A friend built her a windowbox for the floor of her mini-deck, and she planted flowers in very lively colors. The mossed baskets in the windows take some of the edge off the bars on the windows.
When Lauren has a design idea, she figures out how to get there with materials she spots at house sales and thrift shops. The planted galvanized florist’s buckets hanging from the railing look sassy, and sensational. They are a great shape, and the silver sheen repeats the color and shine of blue sky reflecting off the windows glass. She tells me she will live here until she finds a house she can buy. In the meantime, she has made this loft a home , with a very good looking garden. All the plants are well grown, and kept up. She is of independent mind, and she has a great spirit; this is unusual people her age. She has her own ideas about what’s good, and what’s important. Even more impressive, she’s self effacing to a fault; my customers really like her. She has made it her business to learn about plants, and their care, so she can help people. She’s made an effort to become knowledgable about what we have-this you cannot hire.
Number 43 is not only occupied, but it is occupied by an urban pioneer who gardens. She has big ideas, and good things ahead of her. This very petite blond woman hauls around forty pound bags of soil like its nothing. She looks after our plants and pots. She photographs everything we have, and maintains our website. She does the work of the posting for me. Like I said, she has a fire burning all of her own making; it will be interesting to see where she takes that.
Though I posted a few weeks ago that the loss of Rob’s schnauzer Libby was the end of an era, that assessment was more about my grief than the truth. Eras overlap. Though she is gone, I have a group of three who this minute delight me. I have many plants still in my garden that date back to my purchase of my house and property 15 years ago. MCat, Milo and Howard shared the space with the schnauzers-how they loved Libby at the last-and how this irritated her. She kept that irritation up start to finish. These three never gave up, hoping she would fall for them. Is this not a story every life has in some version or another? I have old plants in my garden that were no doubt irritated, buffeted by my ownership. The big idea here-eras overlap. Keep the old friends in your garden as long as you can. Welcome your new friends, and move on. Its a new era.