Sunday, June 17, 2012

A Closer Look

This past Sunday, I visited some beautiful private gardens that were part of the annual Parish Art Museum's Landscape Pleasures garden tour.

I started the tour at the garden of Daniel Chung and Alexandra Alger.  I had once before toured this garden near Georgica Pond in 2009 as part of the ARF garden tour. (Click here for my first impressions.)  This garden was designed by the firm Oehme van Sweden.  As is their signature style, the plantings marry the house to the landscape using bold sweeps of plantings of grasses and perennials. Though totally designed, the garden blends beautifully into the existing woodland.  Since I had been here before, I took a closer look and found beauty beyond my earlier observations.  It was pointed out that this garden is both drought AND deer resistant.

I have more photos tour to share from the other gardens on the 2012 Landscape Pleasures, but I have to return to my own garden now before it starts to to look neglected.  I'll post more soon so stay tuned.

Plantings marry the stone and cedar  house to the landscape

The edges of the gunite pool are softened by plantings of grasses and Nepeta.

Persicaria polymorpha in full bloom
The spiky flowers of Acanthus add drama by the pool
Delicate seed heads on an unfamiliar grass or sedge


4 comments:

James Golden said...

Your photos make me want to see more.

Anonymous said...

I took the tour as well and was very impressed with the gardens. Thank you for the summary though.

Mario said...

What a fantastic place. I'm such a big fan of planting in mass, and these plantings are executed beautifully.

Jeff, Gardener in Chief said...

I started reading the books from Oehme van Sweden a long time ago and quickly realized that a mass planting of one plant always made a bigger statement than a garden with only one or two specimens of a perennial or shrub. I posted today another garden on this tour that also used mass plantings. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks for all your comments.
-Jeff