Garden crash: Mid-century beach house

It's been awhile since I've done any garden crashing and this one is more of a mini crash but its still quite different from most gardens lurking around this area. I visited with my mom, who was writing about it for the home and garden section of the local newspaper.
The garden is THE feature at this house, a mid-century ranch. The garden envelopes the house to the point where you have to look for the structure from the entry side. It is located on a beautiful property on the shores of Lake Michigan, which can be a blessing and a curse for a gardener. That giant body of water (skeptical readers who live near the ocean will scoff at that adjective, but Lake Michigan is more of a mini ocean than a lake) dictates the weather, which means summer is slow to come as the water warms up and the growing season is extended in fall as the relatively warm water wards off frost.
My favorite garden on the property may actually be the one that borders the road. I love its simplicity and statement. When you see a garden like this before you even enter a property you know something good awaits.


The shady driveway is lined with beach stones. I imagine they would be a pain to weed around but it's such a charming look.

The front door is flanked by a large Bloodgood Japanes maple. This is view from the right of the front door. Clematis 'Sweet Autumn' crawls over the roof softening every hard edge.


I loved this classic combination of hackenachloa and Japanese painted ferns.





This is the view from the other side of the arbor that supports that clematis. It also supports a climbing hydrangea (it's a beefy structure).

Along the path that runs along the house to the arbor, the gardener kept it simple with just pachysandra and I think eunonymus, providing a nice resting space for the eye.



In the back the gardens are varied. According to the gardener, this will be the last year for a high-mainentance rose garden. Other areas feature native plants (that were looking a bit spent at the end of the season). But the real star of the show back here is the view. You can't go wrong with that.

An expansive (and clandestine) garden crash

I've been so excited about the garden tour I had planned for the weekend. An expansive garden, just minutes from my house, was open as part of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days program. The 120-acre property known as Afterglow Farm was established in 1929 by the Uihlein (pronounced Eee-line) family. (You can read more about the garden in this great article in the local newspaper).

Much of the property is naturalized, with wide paths leading around large ponds, past charming pump houses and off to the far reaches of land. What I found most interesting was that most of the planted areas by the main house relied on what I consider to be "old standards" and often natives. So often when you tour a garden it is full of hard-to-find cultivars that are interesting partly because they are so unique. But this garden used wide swaths of classic plants.

But here's where the clandestine part came in. As I was walking up the path to enter the garden with my SLR, a volunteer stopped me to tell me no photographs were allowed. Why, I cannot imagine, especially since several photos of the garden appeared in the newspaper and on various websites, but whatever. So I put the SLR back in the car and started doing a lot pretending to be text messaging on my phone while sneaking photos (there were volunteers everywhere busting people for taking pictures). So that explains why the pictures stink, which is really too bad, but hopefully you can still get a feel for this great garden.

A winding path that goes past several ponds opens onto this prairie, full of native plants.

The path from the beach (the property is on Lake Michigan) borders a beautiful ravine.

 

An orchard is enclosed by a fence on which vines grow. This is probably one of the most formal parts of the garden.

 

Hydrangeas, blue fescue, creeping thyme and more are combined in the planting on the back side of the house.

 

Ligularia 'The Rocket' is always a stunner, but it is even more eye-catching when planted en masse.

 

At first I thought this was a little well house or something, but it turns out it's just a very creative way to stack firewood. I'd hate to be the one who pulled out the wrong piece of wood though.

 

Purple coneflowers and Eupatorium are a simple but absolutely lovely combination.

 

Why don't I grow astilbes?

 

And why in the wold don't I have any Anise hyssop in my garden? This photo shows how meticulously the beds were edged. I've always said that nothing cleans up a garden more than a fresh edge. This one was amazing and very uniform, and obviously done by some kind of power tool. Anybody know what that might be? Because whatever it costs I think it's worth it.

 

The showpiece of the property is a large circle garden enclosed by a fence covered in climbing hydrangea and full of small paths. A fountain stands in the middle.

Black-eyed Susans and Monarda: more classics that look great together.

There was a little bit of everything in the circle garden, from herbs, to natives, to sedums and standards. You can see the top of the fountain on the left side of the photo.

Potting bench/area of my dreams.

 

Want to see more garden crashes? Check out this one and this one.

 

 

 

Q&A with garden designer Jack Barnwell

I'm very excited to share a little Q&A session with talented garden designer Jack Barnwell. I found out who Jack was last summer after spending years admiring one of his designs without knowing who was behind it. I make it a point to visit the garden at the Hotel Iroquois on the island every year and it continues to be one of my favorites. His designs—lush, colorful, well-structured creations—are impressive in and of themselves, but imagine trying to create these kinds of spaces without any kind of vehicle involved once it got to you.

Picture yourself having to create a new garden by towing everything to the site by bicycle. That's what Barnwell is faced with every day. His company Barnwell Landscape and Garden Services is based on Mackinac Island, Michigan, where motorized vehicles of any kind are outlawed. So everything moves by foot or by bike. How'd you like to move soil that way?

Here's a little more information about Barnwell:

Jack Barnwell taking plants to a garden. Jack Barnwell photo

Jack Barnwell is the owner of Barnwell Landscape and Garden Services on Mackinac Island, Michigan, which designs, installs and maintains Mackinac Island’s most outstanding resort and residential properties. Jack has been designing and planting the gardens at the luxurious Hotel Iroquois for 10 years and expanded his business to include many other hotels and homes three years ago. His  plantings won Best of Show at the Cincinnati Flower Show and have been featured in many publications including Horticulture Magazine,  Lawn and Garden Retailer and Landscape Management magazine. Barnwell Landscape and Garden Services plants thousands of flats of annual flowers every spring to give Mackinac Island its renowned splash of color. They specialize in innovative annual installations including incredible hanging baskets, pots, and window boxes, but also do complete landscape contracting, hardscape and heirloom quality perennial gardens.

Q&A

The Impatient Gardener: What are some of the gardening and design challenges unique to working on Mackinac Island?

Jack Barnwell: The most obvious challenge to landscaping and gardening on Mackinac Island is the fact that we are a motor vehicle-free resort community. We do not even have golf carts or similar electric utility carts that many other resort like communities have. We use horses, bikes, and old-fashioned ingenuity to overcome the challenges we face. It is important to understand and respect the fact that adhering to this code of law is in many ways what has made Mackinac such a unique destination. That, combined with geological wonders, grand Victorian architecture, and of course, stunning gardens, has created an experience that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each summer.

Logistically, running a fast paced gardening company on an island without vehicles certainly gets my head spinning at times. All of our materials have to be shipped up, usually from growers and distributors 4-7 hours away. Then they cross the Mackinac Bridge and are unloaded onto freight barges. The barges are then unloaded when they reach the island onto horse drays (flatbed wagons with a two horse team), or our fleet of bike carts. Once the materials arrive to the job site, they are unloaded by hand and installed ... by hand. There are many people that I rely on to make all of this happen day after day, from delivery drivers, boat crews, dray horse crews, to my courageous crew, we are all working together to blanket Mackinac in color each Spring. During the spring annual flower planting season, my crew and I plant 10,000 flats of flowers, hang hundreds of hanging baskets, and transform the island in just a few weeks. All by horse and bike.

When Jack Barnwell talks about a boatload of plants, he's speaking literally. Here's a shipment of trees on its way to Mackinac Island for fall planting. Jack Barnwell photo

Loaded up  and using bicycle power, one of two main modes of  transportation on Mackinac Island. Jack Barnwell photo

TIG: The gardens at the Hotel Iroquois rely heavily on hardscaping and stonework, without them becoming an overwhelming element. How important do you feel that kind of structure is to a garden?

JB: The gardens at the Hotel Iroquois do have a lot of hardscaping involved because it is important when designing a garden to have in mind traffic patterns and usage. The hotel has a very popular restaurant that receives many patrons every day, and the gardens themselves draw quite a crowd so it is important to allow for space and comfortable access so that people do not feel crowded or overwhelmed when visiting the restaurant, lounging around the hotel, or simply enjoying the gardens.
In the gardens themselves, I like to incorporate small rock walls and boulders for several reasons. First, adding that mineral element gives good balance to a garden, it also creates structure and changes in height within a garden. Stones, especially dry stacked in a wall add an element of timeless beauty to a garden, they create intimate pockets and add a verticle surface that can be climbed up or trailed down with different plants that otherwise would not be utilized in a simple sloped garden.

A dry stacked wall raises the bed to bring a weeping shrub to eye level in Barnwell's Hotel Iroquois garden. The Impatient Gardner photo

TIG: How do you keep designs, be they large-scale gardens or containers, fresh and exciting from year to year?

JB: I keep designs fresh by keeping up on new and exciting varieties. There are so many new plants coming out with wild colors, textures and smells, especially in the annual flower world. It is fun to experiment with those every year. I also keep designs interesting by sharply focusing on developing my sense of place. Gardens on Mackinac Island are unique in that they are on Mackinac Island, but there are many sub-realms to consider when designing here too. The property, and where it is located, where it will be viewed from, usage, the interior design of the home or hotel, and the feeling the garden is intended to present are all very important factors to consider and make every landscape unique with its own signature.

TIG: Do you have a favorite garden that you've designed?

JB: I have designed many gardens on Mackinac Island, as well as many other locations around the country. It would be so hard to say I have a favorite, as they all have their own personalities. There is one garden on the island that comes to mind though. A couple years ago, we did a Japanese-inspired peaceful garden that is quite a sight to behold. There are mossy paths, beautiful boulders and bluestone walls and tea table areas. We planted a 70-year-old Japanese Maple in there that had to be shipped over on a custom trailer built just for that tree so that it could be moved into position without disturbing the tree or the established lawn. In that garden, spring is welcomed by hundreds of delicate bulbs planted under the architectural branching of the different Japanese maples, drifts of Trilliums give it that classic Northern Michigan look, and bouquets of pure white daffodils dotted with a surounding of blue anemone pop up through ground cover areas of Pachysandra and Myrtle. I have a certain affection for that garden, but I still couldn't say it is my favorite. Gardens are constantly evolving, changing, and hopefully improving. My next favorite garden is reborn everyday.

TIG: You mix a lot of annuals in with perennials, shrubs and bulbs in your design, creating a truly mixed garden. With so much going on, how do you keep it from being too much?

JB: I usually design gardens with a very diverse mix of annuals, perennials, shrubs and bulbs because they all have their place spacially as well as within the contraints of bloom time. For example, I love the origami like blooms of a white siberian iris, but as they fade, their foliage can still be appreciated for the mass of spikes left over once the flowers are cut back. Better yet though, why not use a couple of those spikey pillows to hold up the stems of ornamental lillies, with some vista supertunias climbing around and through the spikey fronds still holding strong from that mid-spring bloom of the siberian iris, then at their foot, and under the supertunia structure, try bacopa, allysum, or dichondra as a groundcover.

This is how my mind works as I look at designing, that is why many of my gardens are so diverse and constantly changing through the seasons.

At the water's edge, roses mingle with annuals and herbs. The Impatient Gardener photo

TIG: What are some of your favorite plants right now?

JB: My favorite plants right now... hmmm... that is a tough one. I am constantly amazed at the innovative stuff coming out of Proven Winners. They have incredible annuals that thrive, but their Colorchoice Flowering Shrubs are outstanding as well.

Barnwell uses many Proven Winners plants in the Hotel Iroquois garden including Papyrus 'King Tut', multiple varieties of Supertunias, Argyranthemum frutescens 'Butterfly' and more. The Impatient Gardener photo

TIG: Is there a plant of any kind that you feel a garden just isn't complete without?

JB: In zones 4-6 which I work in most often, I would say there is no garden complete without some kind of hydrangea. They are such a classic that can be used as a great cut flower, dried, or appreciated as big lush foundation plantings and hedges even.

TIG: What sort of combinations are working on for the containers in downtown Mackinac Island this year?

JB: The containers downtown Mackinac that will hang from the light posts will be all Proven Winners annuals again this year. Most of them are Supertunia based, with three or four other varieties in there including a grass on some kind in the center. I like using spikey grasses like blue mohawk because things can climb up the sturdy reeds. I am excited about the combinations I have designed for this year and can't wait to see them when they all arrive on the dock. That day, when the city baskets arrive, we have 350 hanging baskets all arriving at once this year. Wahoo...
The combination I am most excited about though has climbing black-eyed Susan vine in it. It will trail down throughout the combination as well as climb up the hanger and onto the lamp post!

Some of Barnwell's container designs hanging on Main Street in Mackinac Island. The Impatient Gardener photo

Containers with grass in the middle or a vine that will go up the hanger and trail down will feature into Barnwell's designs this year as well. Jack Barnwell photo

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A garden crash

You know how the folks over at Young House Love are always out crashing houses? Well, here's my take on it. Welcome to Garden Crashing!

This is a garden that was actually spotted from the road on a bike ride. You know a garden is good when it's so impressive from the road that you do a reverse address search online then call up the owner out of the blue to see if you can come see the whole garden close up.

This garden has evolved over a couple decades and covers a huge expanse. The owner does all the gardening herself, but she's dedicated: She spends between five and eight hours PER DAY working in the garden during gardening season. In winter, she said, she spends a lot of time repainting her walls (boy can I relate).

So without any further adieu, welcome to our first "official" garden crash.

Groundcovers are used throughout the garden, rather than mulch. Here Lysimachia nummularia (Creeping Jenny) brightens up the area around the sunroom.

There is great texture in this garden, including these evergreens. The puffball feeling of the dominant evergreens in back is accented by the threadleaf evergreen in front and the pointy Sumac on the right.

You know I love hydrangeas, so when I saw this massive stand of Limelight hydrangeas, which do an incredible job screening the parking area from the driveway as you approach the house, I was in love.

Here you can get a better idea of the scale of them with my mom in the background.

Aren't they just to die for?

There is also great use of repetition in this garden. Here, these large evergreens screen a naturalized area of the property, but you'd never know it was lurking back there.

Here's the same area looking down the bed.

This area, a border between two parts of the yard, is a great example of symmetry.

There are fantastic arbors throughout this garden (note to self: I must find a place to put an arbor). What was so charming about this one is that it leads to the neighbor's house and garden. Both talented and dedicated gardeners, these neighbors actually garden together and encourage people to walk back and forth between the two yards. I love that.

Here's another beautiful arbor (bulit by the homeowner's husband). I love how the path is lined with Alchemilla mollis (Lady's Mantle) and leads to a less structured portion of the garden.

This is another example of repetition: potted red geraniums are dotted between hydrangeas at the end of the driveway.

This is a very inventive use of containers in the garden and a great way to get some height, while again, using a repetitive element.

There isn't a lot of sculpture in this garden, but these two birds were given a prominent position.

This is the view by the road, which offers passersby a glimpse at what might be lurking beyond.

I love that the garden is as welcoming as you leave it, as it is when you arrive.

So what do you think about this garden?