Softening the Look at the Big House

The house where I spend most of my gardening days was built about ten years ago, and the garden is now reaching that mature point  we all so eagerly anticipate; it is also the point, however, when it's time to seriously edit and remove some things that are no longer working.

The interior of the house has a feel that reflects the owners, in that it is a large, gracious, warm house.  For lack of a better phrase, it has a "country French" feel,  and the back of the house is very open to the gardens. 

Over the course of time, the plants at the front of the house had really outgrown their usefulness, and had begun to look almost oppressive.  From a practical point, the plants were blocking most of the sunlight from the front rooms.  Last fall we decided to start working at making the front beds more indicative of the home's interior; the intent was to make visitors feel they were approaching an established Southern home, specifically softening the edges.

The overgrown arborvitaes (which were at that point tied to the house to keep them from falling over) came out, as did the sheared holly hedge and the Indian hawthorne (HATE that plant!)  We replaced the cornuta holly hedge along the house with the same hedge ("If it works, why change it?"), but replaced the other hedges with Limelight hydrangea and radican gardenia.  In the process, we allowed the sun to shine on the poor camellia that had been living in complete darkness for ten years!

It's always a stretch to put in dormant plants in fall, trying to envision how it will all flush out in the summer, but I couldn't be happier with how they're progressing.  We accomplished exactly what we set out to do, making the entrance warmer, "fluffier" and softer....and the combation of hydrangeas, crape myrtles and gardenias couldn't get much more Southern. 

I probably should have staged these photos from the same spots, but hopefully you'll get the idea.  Here are three "before" shots..... 
                              

Here are some "after"

Renovations at the Big House

As I've mentioned before, the owners of the "big house garden" are really a pleasure to work for; I'm clear it's their home and garden, but we've developed a good rapport over the past few years, and they are usually receptive to suggestions for improvements to the garden.

Like many properties that were originally landscaped by the builder/architect, there are certain plants that were used to death (can you say "azalea" and "daylily"?), and many that were installed simply because they were available in large quantity at the time. The garden is obviously very beautiful, but there are few named cultivars, and lots of places where I'd like to see plants that are more "special." We are also finding that ten years later, there are certain plants that simply aren't appropriate anymore, such as the overgrown arborvitaes used as foundation plants.

Mr. & Mrs. gave the green light recently to making some needed improvements, and it is proving to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! The overall plan is to soften the house and garden, give it a sense of age, and also make it more reflective of their personalities.

A couple of weeks ago, we had Danny come in and cut down TEN arborvitaes that had been used as foundation plants. I happen to love arborvitae, but sadly they had planted in such a way that they were now dead on one side, tied to the house in a couple of cases, and growing up and over the gutters. I was nervous, since they were such a key part of the landscape design, but when they were removed, it was as if the sun came out from behind a cloud! The top photo shows how large they had gotten....this one arborvitae was covering TWO dining room windows!

In some places, we've been removing plants whose living conditions have changed. Ten years ago there were dozens of shrub roses installed, since the large trees were still fairly small. Over the years, we've reached the point at which the roses are largely shaded, and were blooming poorly, if at all. The middle photo used to be shrub roses; it's now "Setsusekka" Camellias (which will form a hedge to block the neighbor's driveway), fronted by "Pinky Winky" paniculata hydrangeas. They in turn are fronted by Ryan's Pink perennial chrysanthemum, and "By George," a daffodil that blooms in a coral pink and white.

In the bottom shot, we replaced another bank of shrub roses (this time red), with "Tardiva" hydrangea that we'll cut back every spring to control the size. These are underplanted with "Joan Senior" daylily (ivory), pale yellow and white Dutch hyacinth, and crocuses. I can't wait for spring!