One of my specialties is fine gardening for the residential environment.
What is Fine Gardening?
It's the detail work with plants in the landscape that take a garden from a humdrum yard to an enchanting landscape. You may see finely pruned topiaries and espaliers or experience what looks like an untouched perennial bed that has been honed with specific hands-on care.
Anyone who wants to have a changing repertoire of plants, variety, and vitality can bring fine gardening to their home landscape. As a fine gardener, I anticipate what nature will do, making specific plant choices to bring out the best feature and knowing how to work with given conditions, whether moisture, sun, soil, or other factors. Capitalize on my extensive knowledge of native and exotic plants to make selections. I will work with you and your existing plants so they will grow their best. Have a garden that brings you joy each time you spend time in your yard or garden!
Sadly, many homeowners look for a 'set it and forget it' mentality, with basic maintenance and unexciting forms that often defy the plants' natural enchanting habits and features. Others are stuck with plants the builder gave them, often the wrong plant in the wrong place. While owners are unhappy with the poor aesthetics, the plants are resigned to a life of suffering in the wrong cultural spot (light and moisture) or often require ceaseless pruning to curb their natural growth drive since they are the wrong plant for the location.
Bunny Mellon's Walled Garden at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in the summer of 2022.
Gaining Experience at Oak Spring Garden Foundation
I earned a deeper level of fine gardening skills at a preeminent historical horticultural property, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, on 700 acres in Upperville, Va., in 2022. I worked primarily in the historic walled garden and surrounding areas and on the Biocultural Conservation Farm, doing hands-on care and a design project planned to be installed on the property.
The foundation is dedicated to preserving the mission of Bunny Mellon, the former owner and self-trained horticulturalist of the property. To fulfill her motto that 'nothing should be noticed,' teams of people worked to create the lovely, timeless, and beguiling gardens and greenhouse.
Some of the elements I worked on in the walled garden and immediate area included:
The historic Martha Washington Crabapple allee
Stepover Cordons
Espaliers, Hawthorn, Rose, Pear, Quince, wisteria, and other
Crack gardens
Pruning of historic topiary trees, Holly, Hawthorn, and Hardy Orange
Everyday care of the perennials, annual flowers, vegetables, herbs, and shrubs
Excellent plant knowledge makes the difference between your investment surviving or failing. Plants always change, and planning for the desired outcomes with the preferred type of maintenance is critical.
Can you imagine after making a thoughtful couch selection for your living room, having paid for and installed it at just the right spot, it then starting to change? What if you had to consider your couch changing shape and color and possibly crowding out other furnishings? What if it grew so large you couldn’t watch the TV or make it to the refrigerator? What if it needed special vacuuming every week, and if you missed a week during the summer, it would be reduced to a pile of dust? Imagine if it didn’t like the angle you placed it and part of the upholstery burned from the sunlight or puckered and dried out with the winter winds from the front door, allowing insects to infest it? Consider the entire room, with all the chairs, tables, and rugs. They were doing the same things, but differently, constantly. You can imagine potential chaos.
This fun illustration helps a homeowner consider that the many factors in landscape design, like plant choices, are complicated and important. One must consider all of them about each plant and the many ways it will interact with all the other plants on your property. You can begin to see why excellent plant knowledge is vital and worth the investment!
What kind of plant knowledge should you look for?
Ideally, formal training with fieldwork, as I have had through both client work and formal education, is ideal. Working directly with clients and their plants and both outdoor landscape work and academics in the Landscape Gardening program at the Sandhills Community College where I earned my Associate of Science degree, helped me learn about hundreds of plants. The culmination of this specific industry training was an internship focused on fine gardening at a preeminent horticultural nonprofit foundation in VA. Called Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Prior years working at a plant nursery, where I saw them grow and change throughout the year, were invaluable.
Wouldn’t an everyday landscaper know which plants to put on your property? Maybe, maybe not. Many landscapers have excellent knowledge of plants learned often on the job or through formal training. Working directly with plants is one of the best ways to learn the qualities of a given plant. Generally, landscapers are paid to do a specific repetitive job quickly and move on to the next customer.
What are the considerations for a plant to thrive at your home and to be suitable?
The conditions of suitability are many. Plants have likes, needs, and dislikes related to the following:
Light
Water
Soil
Heat
Growth rate and mature size
New cultivars are released every year. The differences between a new cultivar and the parent species can be vast. Knowing which are tried and true and worth the investment makes the difference between success and failure.
These primary considerations will be covered in future blog posts in greater detail.
Special characteristics
These include factors like flowering time, duration, height, susceptibilities, and foliage differences. Attractiveness to pollinators, strength, scent, and growth predictability are only a few things that change from one cultivar to another.
Maintenance required
Fertilization, disease and pest prevention, pruning to ensure flowering, best form, and/or to promote unique training such as espalier are only a few of the factors to consider.
As I helped plant native plants in Pittsboro's Pop-Up Park on Earth Day, I felt so fortunate to live in a community where the municipality is embracing native plants and creating outdoor space to celebrate them.
In recent years, a significant shift has taken place within legislative frameworks that underscores the increasing role of government in environmental stewardship. A prime example of this shift is the recent legislation enacted in North Carolina, particularly the Native Plant Policy law which was adopted in July 2023 by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
This groundbreaking law mandates that any entity receiving grant funds from the department must use native plants, with only a few exceptions. This policy impacts a wide range of sites across the state, including 100 historic sites, 35 state parks, numerous recreational areas, trails, and zoos.
The reasons behind this legislation are compelling and highlight the benefits of such policies. Native plants are not only more likely to thrive but also do not overburden the local ecosystem. Additionally, these plants support local wildlife, notably increasing bird populations, and play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gases by sequestering more carbon in the soil compared to non-native species.
This move by the government is not just about environmental conservation but also about fiscal responsibility. By using taxpayer dollars to fund projects that both save money in the long run and improve environmental conditions, the government is setting a precedent for what it considers as judicious spending. This indicates a readiness in the marketplace for transformational change.
Another notable initiative took place in July 2019 when the Audubon Society—advocates for bird conservation—encouraged the North Carolina Department of Transportation to support legislation for planting native species along roadways. This led to the introduction of Senate Bill 606, underscoring the growing recognition and support for environmental sustainability at the legislative level.
However, the integration of native plants into urban planning presents challenges, particularly in municipalities where specific language and requirements are needed to enforce the use of native species. Additionally, community associations and homeowners' associations (HOAs) must also adapt to these changes.
Despite these challenges, the enthusiasm for native plant initiatives is evident. North Carolina has seen a rise in native plant botanical gardens, which not only draw tourists but also serve as educational and recreational resources for residents.
Furthermore, community-led initiatives like the pollinator garden installed in downtown Pittsboro for Earth Day are becoming symbols of attractive, forward-thinking communities.
As we continue to witness these developments, it is clear that the embrace of native plants in public policy is more than a trend—it's a transformative movement towards a more sustainable and environmentally conscious society.
This is the first in a series about my ‘deer-proof' perennial and shrub border. I use that phrase ‘deer proof’ lightly, because no plant is truly deer proof. That caveat follows all who put plants in the ground because if hungry enough, deer will eat just about anything!
However, I have found that deer do not touch spirea at all.
First family of plants represented here: Spirea. The smaller plants in the front of the beds are Spirea japonica cultivars that are sterile.
Be warned that some cultivars are invasive in the mid-Atlantic area and North Carolina. As a garden designer who seeks to be ecologically friendly, I recommend you see the link for the NC Invasive Plant Council to learn more about why we need to take care in selecting plants for our landscapes. I use natives when I can and work with homeowners to create a practical and attractive landscape.
Three great qualities of these two cultivars, along with being deer proof:
Early to emerge in the spring with bright beautiful red foliage for one and yellow foliage, for the other
Droughtproof
Long blooming
Proven Winners created these spirea and touts all their plants in the ‘Doozie’ series to be seedless and, hence, not invasive. ‘Double Play Doozie’ has plentiful pink blooms and green foliage, while ‘Double Play Candy Corn’ has yellow & orange foliage with pink flowers. The brightness of the plant is a wonderful highlight against the darker greens of other foliage and turf.
Additional great qualities are:
Dwarf plants that reach 2'–3’ height and width. Slow growing and small stature makes them low maintenance
Rebloom all summer. A shearing of dead blooms brings on another vibrant show of the pink flowers.
They make a cute, mounded shape that is perfect for the front of the bed
The larger plant in the corner, Spirea x vanhouttei, is a hybrid in the rose family, known for its spring blooms covering long arching branches. It can get 5’-8’ H and as wide which makes a nice border or marks a corner nicely. Spirea prunifolia, similarly, also goes by the name bridal wreath spirea though is an entirely different plant. Both are available in the trade, though you are more likely to find vanhouttei. It makes a beautiful cut flower though it lasts only a few days indoors. The tiny blossoms may end up covering all your surfaces, making it the ‘glitter’ of flower drop.
I recently joined dozens of other landscape industry professionals to learn how and why to construct a rain garden for homeowners or businesses.
Much of it was a review for me, but to get into the details and actually build one was instrumental!
Why plant a rain garden?
With increasing urbanization, the soil doesn't get a chance to absorb rainwater and return it to the water table. Today many surfaces are impervious, so water runs off to places that aren't beneficial, such as streams and sewer drains. Along the way, the rain picks up pollutants and sediment and causes erosion to property and stream banks.
Some of the factors that impact rain garden decisions:
Size in relation to roof size
Location
Managing soil types
How to construct, plant, and maintain suitable plants
Other environmental factors
From a shallow depression to a fully planted and mulched garden!
