I have written about my friend Jeff’s garden before, first here and then, here. It has been a work in progress for several years now and just this summer, the work will finally be completed.
And the front of Jeff’s country ‘estate’ will have gone from this:
To this:
This garden has been a labour of love by three people: the homeowner, Jeff, of course who had high standards of excellence and a very clear vision of how he wanted his garden to look and feel; Jo Hodgson, who excels at making stone do exactly what she wants, in a way that is durable, beautiful and totally sympathetic to the landscape around it; and me, who just wanted to play with plants and be a part of this garden creation in paradise from Day 1.
The house and garden in question are on a hill overlooking a lake in the Quebec hills.
The slope from back to front is substantial, necessitating not only a tall wall but also a considerable staircase from the front road to the back door of the house.
This curved stone wall is one of the masterpieces of the project, with monumental stone steps alongside it.
The stairs are now how Jeff envisioned them: wide, generous and planted with mother of thyme and taller scented thymes, so that the progression downward is a sensory experience.
There are chairs placed here and there so that Jeff can come out with his morning coffee and experience the garden from different angles….
The gravel driveway is bound by large stones that hold a series of garden beds. This raised one holds a tapestry of ground hugging sedums, Siberian cypress, creeping phlox and then diaphanous grasses — these are Molinia caerulea (Moor grass) that will throw up wands of waving seed heads in the late summer….
This highest bed, closest to the road, includes a Bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata), which although slow-growing, will act as an evergreen anchor to this entry garden bed.
The lower bed closest to the entry patio sports classic perennials like catmint, Siberian iris and more…
…and the bed against the sunny side of the house sports beebalm, achillea and other hot plants, with morning glory climbing up the blue walls.
The bed next to the front door is Jeff’s Ode to Tom Stuart-Smith and his love of juxtaposition: here we have used the species Hakonechloa macra alongside Thuja occidentalis ‘Golden Globe’ and a central pivot provided by an Acer ginnala (a multi-stemmed Amur maple) — as the Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ expired the year before from the harsh winter conditions.
A beautifully large and lusciously chartreuse pot holds a spectacular petunia cultivar called ‘Phantom’, along with an Angel’s trumpet (Datura cv.) Despite being nipped by the frost in late spring, the display is lush and striking.
The last frontier is the retaining wall at the rear of the house — certainly not a highly visible location but nevertheless, the same attention to detail and precision is going into the construction of this wall.
It is a spectacular project that is coming to a close. I hope to return in the fall to take some more shots of this beautiful house with its developing garden in the fiery autumn colours. Stay tuned…
HORTUS 2: There is life after retail 