1 of 2
Photographs by Greg Rannells
2 of 2
The Gardener—we’ll just leave his identity at that—lives in Clayton, in the Ellenwood subdivision, with his partner and their two dogs, Alex and Stella. They have a lovely house; it’s on the traditional side. Their garden is just as lovely, but you can’t really call it traditional. It’s too much a reflection of its creator.
“I’ve been gardening since I was about 8 years old,” he says. “My mom had a garden for me to take care of when I was little—flowers and vegetables. I grew up over in Illinois in a little German community called Waterloo. One of my favorite things is doing things outside, because I have a lot of good memories of my mother working with flowers and plants.”
His mother passed down to him not just her love of gardening, but some serious growing skills—and her mother’s violet phlox. “My grandmother’s name was Sophia,” he says. “So I call it Sophia phlox. I had some of it at my previous house, and then I planted it over here—you just dig it up and move it. Actually, the more you break it up, the more it’ll spread. Those phlox are, I bet, 80 years old.” For variation, he sprinkled in some white phlox that he picked up at a nearby Home Depot. “The stalks get to be about 5 feet tall,” he says. “And they bloom in early to midsummer. Then they’ll stop, the buds fall off, and in another two weeks, another set of buds come out.”
We should mention he doesn’t maintain particularly flowery beds. He prefers evergreens. He’s especially fond of conifers and shrubbery in pots. One handsome Alberta spruce “was just the size of your hand when I planted it,” he says. “It’s been in a pot for probably 12 years. What I like to do is use a lot of boxwoods in my pots. That way during the winter months, there’s still something green.”
When he and his partner moved into the house, he says, the only green things in the backyard were a patch of lawn and two elm trees at the back of the lot. There was also an asphalt driveway and a ratty pergola.
The couple replaced the driveway, laying dark pebble aggregate and sealing it “so that it always looks wet.” They built retaining walls and installed a patio, edged with bluestone, to match the sidewalks in front and back. Then the Gardener began to plant trees: dogwoods, redbuds, blue spruces. He planted 80 barberries along the driveway to create a nice, dense hedge. “If you plant things close together, you get something out of it sooner—I’ve learned that,” he says.
The couple did leave an expanse of lawn (the dogs of the house have frolicking requirements, after all!), but that’s where the yard ceases to be ordinary. That trick is how the landscaping unfolds, how it seems larger and more complex as you follow the stone walk away from the patio. Amble past the thoughtfully placed statues (lead, purchased at auction), potted plants, and water features, and you will suddenly find yourself in a “secret garden” not visible from the house. It’s lush with hostas and equipped with an old wooden swing, wind chimes, and a glass birdbath that the Gardener constructed himself.
In late summer, this garden has surprising pops of color, from fruit, not flowers: white grapes growing over the back door, purple ones on the fence, a strawberry hedge, and peach trees that the Gardener started from pits. That’s a feat he assures us anyone can pull off, though he does admit they take some work to keep them looking nice. “A couple of them were getting so yangly-like,
I had to cut them down and plant some Bradford pears instead,” he sighs.
The Gardener does get sentimental about certain things; in fact, he really misses the redbud near the patio that died last summer. But in general, if something looks bad, he’ll pull it out and start over. And he’s no purist, either. He goes with what works, whether it’s starting from seed or…not. “I buy a lot of my stuff from Lowe’s or Home Depot,” he says, citing the advantage of being able to buy in bulk. “Say you bought one azalea, you thought that would be enough, but sometimes planting three or four together in a bunch, you’ll get more of a response from them, you’ll have more of a look when they bloom. I do the same thing with Alberta spruces and things, plant three of them instead of just one, and maybe get them in different sizes.”
But even more important is this advice: “I would say don’t be afraid,” he says. “Early on, I was afraid to put a lot of things together. Don’t be afraid to do things differently. The more you do, all of a sudden, you can just step out a little bit further, and before you know it, you’re coming up with stuff that really looks good, you know?”
