A Perennial Lover's Garden

In 1983, my husband and I moved into a fairy-tale house, a copy of a French manoir, built in 1924. The existing landscape was a typically formal, sheared, foundation planting accompanied by masses of groundcover. The house satisfied all of our needs but my soul cried out for gardens (top photo).

One bed in the back was the logical starting place; it had no plants in it. Only when I started digging out the white pebbles did I comprehend what a massive job I had under-taken. The pebbles filled the bed to a depth of a six inches and underneath was heavy black plastic. I started digging that spring and, a few months later, was able to replace them with several cubic yards of leaf humus. Then, of course, the real fun and challenge began: to create an unending succession of bloom in a tiny space. Even though I have moved on to many other areas of the property, I keep coming back to redesign this one which has been the most difficult because of its shifting patterns of light and differing moisture conditions.

As any gardener knows, one bed is not enough so I began pulling ivy, vinca and bishop's weed in other beds to give myself additional space for perennials and flowering shrubs. Of the original plantings, only the hawthorns, magnolias, peonies and old-fashioned double orange daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva) remain. All other shrubs were too large without continuous pruning and there were no other flowers.

In November 1996, a snowstorm which deposited four feet of heavy snow on Cleveland brought down two of the three hawthorns. Although I hated to lose these large, old trees, I treated this disaster as a golden opportunity to plant a Japanese Snowbell (Styrax japonicus) and a tatarian maple (Acer tataricum) which has bright red samaras.

By 1989, I had designed beds for morning sun, afternoon sun and most variations in between. I was ready for full sun which was to be found only in the front which faces south. Except for some deciduous and evergreen azaleas plus a large Euonymus fortunei 'Greenlane', most of the original plantings were discarded because they would be out of scale if not pruned continuously. They were replaced with rambling roses and clematis on trellises, dwarf conifers, dwarf spireas, Flowering Almond (Prunus glandulosa 'Rosea' ), a wonderful rugosa rose named 'Moje Hammerberg', some hydrangeas and two Butterfly Bushes (Buddleia davidii 'African Queen'). Two existing crabapples and a red maple add additional color and structure to the design.

Front Garden Renovation

Then began the bulk of the front yard renovation (center and bottom photos). The original bed across the front of the house was extended on both ends at perpendicular angles, parallel to the driveway and that of the neighbor, down to the front, public sidewalk. Neither property has a sidewalk from the street to the front door. The slope of the area nearest the walk provided an opportunity for a quasi rock garden. The soil is loam, not sand and grit, but it does have decent drainage. Sandstone pieces act as steps, hold the soil and provide planting areas. In 1999, I finally replaced the rotting timbers with a sandstone wall and gained several linear feet of gravelly, sandy soil in which I can plant those perennials which would rot without perfect drainage.

This design was a challenge: create a country style, mixed border that would complement the house and also be acceptable to my neighbors. The design is riotous within a formal framework, integrating form, color and sequence of bloom with texture and color of foliage. These beds contain a wide variety of trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, ornamental grasses, annuals and bulbs. The annuals fill bare spaces left after swaths of spring blooming bulbs are finished. Some of the annuals and perennials are allowed to self seed to enhance the natural look. The conifers, evergreen hollies and crabapples lend interest during the winter as do several of the perennials such as Iris sibirica, Allium tuberosum, Sedum, ornamental grasses, Caryopteris and Buddleia, which are not cut back until early spring.

Bees and butterflies abound in this garden as do the visitors. To assist the visitors and my own memory, every plant is labeled. There are at least 300 species of plants in the gardens.

Although the design for the gardens is on paper, it is constantly changing in order to accommodate the need to find space for newly discovered treasures and to trial new plants before installing them in clients gardens. Many of the perennials and vines in the garden have been purchased all over the country and in Europe while on professional garden tours and some of them have been purchased from nurseries which specialize in the rare and unusual.

This garden has every variation of light and the plants which are suited to that situation. Scattered throughout are garden accents such as birdhouses, plaques and decorative containers. Drip irrigation (black leaky hose) has been installed, snaking through the beds to minimize evaporation and runoff. Most of it is hidden by a soil-replenishing top dressing of leaf humus or hardwood bark mulch which is laid in alternate years. Leaves and nature's other debris are never raked out of the beds unless they mat down the plant material but are allowed to decompose in the beds and thus enrich them.

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