When I first visited the site in the winter of 2010, I was immediately drawn to the location and the possibilities began to unfold in my mind. My client was building a beautiful, modern home on a vacant lot with expansive views of the surrounding forest. The home was surrounded by a productive blueberry farm, pastures for livestock, and outbuildings to support the farm.
Big properties require big ideas and they often require big budgets to execute a big idea. Over the next few years, we were able to facilitate this magical transformation without the need for complex and expensive site changes. We did this by letting plants take center stage.
From that first visit, the lines of the house made a great impression on me. From the upper deck, I felt like I was sitting at the bow of a ship rushing at full speed into the wild natural space.
The center of the garden, what I call the contemporary meadow, is located behind and below the house. From above, it becomes the guiding concept for the entire garden. Our plan called for a naturalistic garden that would blend with the open space while also fitting the modern lines of the house. By reflecting these lines onto the garden, they become a grounding influence and a central theme that brings a sense of order and cohesion to the overall garden.
Know your lines
The “living lines” created by the arrangement of plants not only connect the house to the landscape but also add a unique flair to the garden’s natural surroundings. Using large numbers of the same or similar plants also helps keep maintenance to a minimum.
From the start, I knew that my clients loved the look and feel of grass. This was a great find, as it was perfectly suited to the job at hand. We set out to create a simple hardscape garden, using gravel paths and steel edging to define the garden’s contours. In addition to being budget-friendly, gravel made sense because of its organic, earthy feel.
The strong lines of the central path are echoed by a group of plants that we use to create dynamic lines. For example, a hedge of dogwood ‘Midwinter Fire’ (Bloody Horn ‘Midwinter Fire’, Zones 5-8) borders a long driveway. Though perhaps best loved for its fiery stems in winter, ‘Midwinter Fire’ creates a solid backdrop to reinforce the linear theme. In another area, a border of blue fescue (Glauca Festival and cvs., Zones 4-8) make a footer for a rich mix of perennials supported by the miscanthus ‘Morning Light’ (Miscanthus sinensis* ‘Morning Light’, Zones 5-9), and at the very back, a dense hedge of our native California lilac (Ceanothus spp. and cvs., Zones 4-10) signal the edge of our cultivated garden.
Creating a garden of this size requires a thorough screening process. We emphasize achieving that magical and often elusive balance between high-impact, low-maintenance, and multi-season beauty: the holy grail of gardening. Plants need to pass the inspection process themselves before becoming candidates for the overall color scheme. More important than offering the latest and greatest is choosing plants that can perform well. As a result, the garden has some quite popular plants.
There are good reasons to be willing to include common plants in your plans. They’re reliable, predictable, and practical—that’s why they’re popular. Plus, when you use a large number of one type of plant, there will always be some that don’t work, leaving gaps that detract from the overall look. Common plants are widely grown, so they’re readily available, allowing you to install any necessary replacements quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Sometimes that means they’re not as obvious—but when paired with the right partner, they can shine.
Following this perspective, we have come up with a finite and carefully selected palette of plants to plant in three main parts of the garden: the entry garden, the woodland garden and the modern meadow. When passing through the garden, certain plants are repeated from one section to the next, a signal for the series’ continuity.
Plants are chosen because their foliage or long season of interest provides a framework for flowering perennials. In the woodland part of the garden, strips of ‘Duke Gardens’ plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Duke Gardens’, Zones 6-9) provides a sturdy frame for its brilliant purple candle astilbe blooms (Astilbe chinensis ‘Purpurkerze’, Zones 4-8) and ‘Hadspen Blood’ astrantia nodes (Astrantia major ‘Hadspen Blood’, Zones 4-9).
We kept the overall color palette of the tree as small as possible while still achieving the desired effect. How the garden is maintained is a top consideration, so I chose fewer plants so the client can learn and understand. While low maintenance was a priority, we approached the design with eyes wide open, knowing full well that no garden is ‘maintenance free’.
Because of the proximity to natural areas, we avoided plants with known bad habits, and any plants that had the potential to become invasive were not considered. There would be no day-to-day maintenance, so we did not include any plants that needed deadheading, staking, or any other care. We applied the concept of aging in place to the grasses and perennials in our palette, selecting plants for the balance they exhibited during their aging. Perennials, such as coneflowers and sedums, and large grass beds were allowed to age naturally—the seed heads were left in place. The bonus is that some of the garden’s most memorable moments occur in late fall when low, fading light illuminates the grasses from behind.
We decided that seasonal maintenance was acceptable. For example, some tasks, like heavy lawn mowing, are major chores. But when viewed through the lens of these being done once a year and the kind of projects you can get help with, they become acceptable.
To maintain balance among veteran players, some need to be kept in check, others need to be encouraged. For example, the species Persicaria ‘Firetail’ grows quickly and tends to weed out the more serious members of the palette, so it is regularly divided to allow enough space for the others to grow.
Imposing this discipline doesn’t mean closing off your options. For example, although we used a few different types of grass, once you get used to caring for one type of grass, you’ll know how to care for the others. We used large stretches of Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macraZones 5-9), but we chose two varieties: the upright species and the ‘Aureola’ variety (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, Zones 5-9) for different effects. Using yellow ‘Aureola’ in a large lawn would be too much: too flashy, too yellow. But the upright species perfectly conveyed what we were going for—a peaceful, flowing sea of green moving with the breeze. In another area, yellow blocks brighten the forest floor. Two grasses, same care regimen—this allowed us to achieve similar but not identical effects.
The garden has become a source of joy for my clients and all who visit. The walk is an immersive experience, allowing one to enjoy the plants up close and interact with the many species of bees, butterflies and birds that regularly visit. Seen from above, the basic pattern connects the house, garden and natural context allowing them to coexist in a beautiful and cohesive way. This clearly defined border, these repeated plantings and a consistent color story create a continuous theme. The lines of the garden lead, and our hearts follow.
Common tree, rare beauty
In the lower garden, a simple but effective carpet of four flowering perennials continues the color story that began with the woodland perennials in shades of pink, purple (pale and saturated) and blue. In general, they represent a pleasant diversity of flower shapes: cone-shaped chrysanthemums bloom profusely; simple five-petal flower mass from geranium; crimson flower tips of persicaria; and dense clusters of round evergreens.
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autumn sedumName: hylotelephium ‘Autumn Joy’ Area: 3-9 Size: 18 to 24 inches tall and wide Condition: Full sun to part shade; average to dry, well-drained soil |
Purple Coneflower ‘Merlot’Name: Purple chrysanthemum ‘Merlot’ Area: 3-9 Size: 2 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet wide Condition: Full sun to part shade; medium to dry well-drained soil |
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‘Firetail’ cabbageName: Persicaria omxicaulis ‘Fire Tail’ Area: 4-8 Size: 3 to 4 feet tall and wide Condition: Full sun to part shade; average to moist soil |
Geranium RozanneName: Geranium ‘Gerwat’ Area: 5-8 Size: 1 to 2 feet tall and wide Condition: Full sun to partial shade; well-drained soil |
*Invasive Alert: Miscanthus (Miscanthus sinensis)
This plant is considered invasive in CT, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, SC, TN, VA and WI.
Please visit invasiveplantatlas.org for more information..
Darcy Daniels is a garden designer in Portland, Oregon.
Photo, unless noted: Darcy Daniels
