My Sanctuary Garden - The Beginning

We moved into our house in August of 2007, and by last summer I was ready to do something in our backyard. I've designed many gardens, and I knew exactly what I wanted for this property.

First, though, I needed a little help from my favorite contractor. There were 3 huge old poplar trees that leaned over our neighbor's garage, so we had them cut down. The back hoe came in to take out the enormous stumps.

The work begins.

Roots everywhere. Ugly sheds.

I outlined the patio and garden edges with orange spray paint. Landscape cloth went down on the 16' diameter patio area, and garden mix soil was spread in the doughnut around the patio.
THEN it started to rain. And rain, and rain. Nothing but clay and mud.

The guys put the 5 'Autumn Brilliance' Serviceberry trees in for me (the root balls weighed about 600 lbs each), and dumped a load of gravel on the patio area. They placed the largest granite rocks around part of the patio perimeter, and my 3 focal point rocks. And then they had to leave. The rain continued. I tore ligaments in my ankle stumbling over the clay. Things didn't look good.

Sid and I began to lay out landscape cloth in the pathway areas and fill in with gravel. Well, mostly Sid did the work and I limped around pointing my finger.

A mess - the pathway to the patio.

Beginning to look less awful. We've delineated the pathway to the patio. I installed black edging and Sid is continuing to fill in the gravel.

I'm using spikes to hold the edging straight while I fill in soil on one side and gravel on the other. The work began in mid-June, and it's July by now.

My focal point rocks. I'm trimming the excess landscape cloth while I level the gravel. I'm actually quite good at creating level surfaces with a shovel and rake. This is extremely unfortunate, since it would be way easier to let someone else do it!

The next post will show the planted garden. There is still work to do, but we're getting there!

Anatomy of a New Garden

I made a new garden at the corner of our street and driveway this past weekend. We had a landscape construction crew in for over a week that (among other things) created a stone retaining wall using huge granite blast rock boulders.

They found an interesting rock that they thought I might like to use at the entrance to our driveway. It turned out to be a perfect "Heaven" rock when installed vertically. I was able to find corresponding "Earth" and "Man" rocks as well, and our back hoe operator Elliott slung them into place. The Heaven, Earth and Man rocks illustrate the principle of the three forces, oshakei, which is a classical aesthetic tool in Japanese garden design.

The rocks were dug in approximately 1/3 of their height. This is a view of the back side of the rocks. I began with a stake in the centre, and dug a 5' radius to make a perfect circle. The Heaven rock was installed in the very centre. The Earth and Man rocks were installed to complete the triad. I removed the sod and added garden soil.

I'm beginning to install the black plastic edging. I've dug a vertical line with a spade. I use a small stone to brace the beginning of the roll, and place the edging so the top rolled edge is level with the top of the soil (not the top of the grass).

You can see the level of the edging.

I've completed the edging and added many wheelbarrow loads of garden soil!

Holes are dug for the plants, and bonemeal scratched into the bottom of the holes.

This ornamental grass is a transplant, so I plop the plant into the hole, add a bit of soil, then fill the hole with water. I wait until the water drains away, then I fill in the rest of the soil.

The garden is planted. I've used: 1 x Miscanthus 'Malepartus', 1 x Blue Rug Juniper, 1 x Filipendula rubra, 3 x 'Frosty Beauty' Daylily and 3 x Heuchera 'Lime Rickey'

Landscape cloth installed around the juniper at the front of the garden. I used the cloth here because the juniper is permanent, and I won't need to dig in this area.

Newspapers! This is my old Master Gardener's trick. I use 5-7 sheets thick around perennials, where I will have to plant bulbs and eventually split the plants. The newspaper is a wonderful weed suppressor, takes about 3 years to break down, and keeps the underlying soil moist.

I am beginning to pile shredded natural colour cedar mulch over the landscape cloth and newspaper. I never never never use coloured mulch. It looks awful. And don't even get me going about white or pink quartz as a mulch, unless you want your garden to scream "tacky". That's my garden designer rant for the day.

The garden is mulched about 3" thick, including over the side of the plastic edging. Now you can't see the plastic, and I've graded the edge of the garden so the lawn mower wheels can run on the mulch and cut the grass without a trimmer being required.

The front of the garden. The "Man" rock is on the left, "Heaven" is in the centre, and "Earth" is on the right.

I'm working on the front of the house now. In between rain storms, which never seem to end.

A Feng Shui Garden Design 3

This is the last post in a series of 3.

The property had a small triangle in the back, bordered by an unruly honeysuckle hedge, a neighbor's fence, and the garage. It occurred to me that there was enough room to install a "Secret Garden", where the clients could sit in a garden space to enjoy our beautiful summers. I strongly believe that we feel better when we are surrounded by plants, and always include a space for this purpose when I design landscapes. Sitting on a deck doesn't qualify, as it only makes us spectators of nature, not participants.

The "before" photos show the ball-shaped yew and the old spruce tree, both of which were removed. We were able to salvage the perennials and use them in the side garden.

Circular paved stone patio with raised wall. The wall was built at sitting height. The gazebo keeps out insects and provides an intimate sitting area.

The garden is a mass of easy-care Daylilies, with a ring of Amur Maple trees which will fill in and create a leafy canopy over the patio area.

The fountain is the focal point of the Secret Garden, providing the sound of trickling water to mask traffic noises.

This project was successful for the following reasons:

• Dream clients with clear design parameters and open minds (the Secret Garden installation was an additional cost)
  
• A competent contractor (Steve Elliott of Acer Land Developments in Sudbury) willing to work with Feng Shui principles
  

Many people only know landscape design through television programmes. Either the projects are hugely expensive, or the installations are a "surprise" for the unsuspecting home owner. I can't imagine coming home to a surprise garden installed in my property when I had no input. Good landscape design is a reflection of the owner's lives, the architecture of the home and the character of the neighborhood.

I'm looking forward to working on my new property. I have my own Secret Garden planned!