Garden Photo of the Day
READER PHOTOS! Jay's design in North Carolina
comments (19) July 9th, 2012 in blogs
Michelle Gervais, Senior Editor
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Photo: Courtesy of Jay Sifford
As promised late last week, today we're featuring a garden designed by Jay Sifford for a client in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jay says, "I find generally that there is very little relationship between a house and its yard, rather like the house landed on the lot. I looked at this house and saw beautiful blues and grays in the stonework, and lovely rose pinks in the brickwork. That was my starting point. I also wanted to soften the artificial stone walls that were in place when the owners purchased the property. My strategies were to use lots of blue and purple flowers to pull the house into the yard, with some roses and pinks to cause the blues to pop. Since many of my clients are somewhat impatient, I chose fast growing perennials with a long bloom season. In the front garden, the season starts with the 'Firewitch' dianthus and Salvia nemorosa, then progresses to the 'Rozanne' geraniums and Russian sage, followed by the purple coneflowers and the 'Little Lime' hydrangeas. The heucheras, 'Blue Dune' lyme grass and 'Blue Zinger' carex ground the space all season long. The clients are somewhat formal, but the lyme grass intimates being on the water, which they love. Although somewhat aggressive, I love using the lyme grass since nothing beats its color. Strays can always be pulled. The verticality of the lyme grass speaks appropriately to this house, which is rather tall. I also chose oversized, tall Italian terra cotta pots to emphasize the height of the home.
In the back garden I was much freer with color. I chose perennials on the basis of height, color, texture and length of bloom. The wonderful 'Diablo' ninebarks were already in place. I loved the combination of the 'Karl Forester' feather reed grass, purple coneflowers, and Verbena bonariensis in front of them. It's a free-for-all which makes me very happy. I have three criteria by which I judge my work: (1) Is it no longer a yard? Has it become a garden? (2) Do the garden and the home now have an appropriately blended relationship? (3) Does the garden make me happy? This garden scores highly in my mind on all three counts!" Great job, Jay--I find it sophisticatedly understated but floriferous--perfect!
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posted in: North Carolina
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Comments (19)
Sheila_Schultz: I'm not the one with rules, I have no rules, I said that I detest/abhor rules... I live by the dogma that good fences make good neighbors. I also don't admire quantity, I respect quality. But most of all I respect honesty and sinceriety. Those who always make only positive comments are neither honest or sincere. And I hold those who hold themselve out as professionals to a far higher standard, and you don't really wnant to hear what I think of those who attempt to pawn off something that was required a whole crew as somthing they've done and maintained all by themselves.
Posted: 7:08 pm on July 9th
GreenGrowler: I appreciate that you agree with me on this issue. These circumstances occur for the same reason they always have, payola and dishonesty. I know it's not easy in these economic times but perhaps you should consider moving, your area won't change. I tried living in a development once, lasted eleven months, too many silly rules gleefully obeyed by too many infantile sheeple. And by now you must realize that I wouldn't do well with silly rules and I abhor dishonesty, nor do I waste energy arguing trying to change people. Consider your options. Posted: 5:30 pm on July 9th
One would hope this is a horrible lesson learned but often times the terrifying event fades and development resumes as it does. The only way to stop it is to elect intelligent officials AND the public's refusal to buy the homes - both of which are sadly unlikely. Posted: 4:29 pm on July 9th
GreenGrowler: I'm so glad to hear that you and your home are safe. Fire is horrifying and I am constantly concerned here in the Catskills as well as we are now in the midst of a terrible drought. With large expanses of forest and so many careless people fire is always on my mind. I saw the news about the Colorado fires on TV and was horrified to see how in those wide open spaces the homes were built so near each other and right up against conifer forests, entire developments with no surrounding buffer zone whatsoever, just reach out the window and pick a pinecone. I wondered how the town zoning departments permit builders of relatively new developments to cram so many homes into so small a space of heavily forested land without a perimeter buffer. And the homeowners even kept several large conifers right up against their homes. Watching the news of those fires made me forget all the hours I spend keeping a wide clear swarth around my home. Welcome back!
Posted: 3:53 pm on July 9th
Mother Nature did take great care of my garden and pots; after being evacuated for almost one week with no rain, scorching temps, and thick smoke, everything except three hanging baskets survived!
Jay, I went back a few days and viewed your garden as well; you are a hugely talented garden designer - LOVE your style. Posted: 3:48 pm on July 9th
I would also like to speak to the controversy which has developed with regard to this post. My belief is that one can glean insights from viewing all sorts of gardens. I frequently look through garden posts and probably learn more from the ones I don't like as I do from the ones I love. I stop to analyze what I do and don't like from each one. In the end, I'm a stronger designer because of it.
The truth is that not everyone has acres out of which to carve a garden. Excuse the grammar, but most of us "garden where we're at". Perhaps that 100 foot tall oak tree needs to be moved 14" to the right, or the house 2.5 feet to the left, but we deal with the raw elements and hope to bring something beautiful out of it which invokes emotion. Judging by that criteria, this garden posted here today has definitely been a success, as much emotion has been forthcoming! If you've learned something new from this post, such as how the vertical lines of the lyme grass accentuate the size and shape of the house, or you've discovered the versatility of Verbena bonariensis, or you can now visualize a serpentine blue atlas cedar as a sea monster.... well, then it's a good day for you. A day without learning is a wasted day. Posted: 3:17 pm on July 9th
I'm so glad to be back.... I live in Mountain Shadows and the last few weeks with the Waldo Canyon Fire have been horrifying. Thanks to firefighters, our neighborhood was saved but so many homes around us were lost - 346 at last count.
I surely missed everyone! Posted: 2:04 pm on July 9th
It seems to me that you could be a little more constructive in your criticism instead of using hurtful words like "grotesque," "eyesore," etc. I'm happy to have constructive criticism, but the way you wrote your post is just plain mean. Posted: 10:48 am on July 9th
I forgot to say that if that humongous house is on a relatively small lot (which I suspect from how so much is compacted into so little space), and if all the hardscaping was already in place, especially that absolutely grotesque driveway (that in no way is harmonious with the architecture and coloration of that *eyesore* of a house) then Jay really didn't have much to work with so I must say he did a fabulous job with his plantings.
Posted: 8:14 am on July 9th
That's quite a flashy castle... I'd love to be able to see the views through its windows from inside. To me the most important element of landscaping a home is what people see and how the view affects the senses from the inside looking out. If the view from the exterior is more impressive to the senses than is the view from the interior then residential landscaping fails. I don't think that landscaping has much to do with gardening, they are very seperate and different topics, many of the most impressive landscapes on the planet include no gardens... a garden per se is not landscaping because in most all cases the people who the gardens belong to rarely if ever actually see them, they are mostly to impress passers by, and to me that is not landscaping a home as much as it is putting on a public spectacle.
Posted: 7:46 am on July 9th