The time I spend planting pots and containers for clients sometimes enables me to see landscapes I would not otherwise see. This old and stately Tudor style home has a landscape of considerable age- still viable, and still beautiful. I am sure I have quoted Henry Mitchell at least three times on this topic. “There are no beautiful old landscapes…beautiful landscapes are a result of the intensive care of the present.” That being said, there are times when intensive care really means sensitive care. Though this client is an interior designer of considerable skill, she felt no need to take apart, streamline, cleanup, remake, or other wise impose on a landscape beautifully situated and thriving in its own right.
There is an understated but fully mature beauty to this property. It takes a very mature and sure eye to leave untouched what is an integral part of the history of the property. Her ability to leave be is pretty impressive. These vintage wood boxes at her front door got tree-form hydrangea “Pink Diamond” . It is a classically beautiful white hydrangea of paniculata grandiflora heritage, whose blooms pink as they age. They seem so appropriate to the architecture of both the house and landscape. There are times when seeing what you expect to see is completely satisfying. Certain plant materials feel right with certain architecture. Nantucket style houses have a love affair of long standing with Rugosa roses. 1950 style ranch homes, on the other hand, can easily handle boxed hedges of gold vicary privet. These plant materials are authentic to their respective time and place.
This gorgeous stone staircase which I am guessing dates back to the 1920’s, is a home to old boston ivy vines. My client made no effort to break up this old relationship-she only and gently prunes the vines away from the stair treads. The urn set in a bed look like it has been there many years. I have been guilty as charged plenty of times-thinking that gardening is another word for housekeeping. Like most people, I can be a contradiction in terms. The Italian garden on the verge of ruin that I love so much I would never permit on my own property. So I do recognize and respect a designer who deliberately keeps her hands from cleaning up the evidence of age from her landscape.
This pool is original to the house; the horizontal arms are a lap pool; the vertical arms designed for lounging in the water. I have never seen another pool of this shape and design in person or in books. How it works to accomodate swimmers and loungers alike is simple and effective. The overall shape striking-and well worth preservation.
This very large oval wirework plant stand of an age and design quite sympathetic to the house and grounds, does not hold individual clay pots, as it once would have. My client wanted to plant it of a piece. Her point of view contrasts with the original intent of the piece, in a very effective way. A garden of size is growing here. The blues and whites are friendly to the overall white and lavender color scheme in evidence in all of the garden areas. The piece sits on a bluestone terrace adjacent to the kitchen, at the rear of the house. This garden is a very private space.
A contemporary French terra cotta pot from the south of France is whitewashed, and planted in concert with the wirework stand. Like other places in the landscape, my enchantment with the space does not rely on surprise. Every element seems to belong.
New to the kitchen terrace this year, a table and chairs in an entirely contemporary vein. The terrace has a new reason for being.
As sculptural as they are utilitarian, the suite is a substantial and confident dose of individual expression. Unexpectedly, I really like it.
I could easily picture Gertrude Jekyll perched on this old English wood garden bench. Wearing a long skirt, a cardigan, and serviceable brogans, I can hear her in dignified fashion holding forth on some garden design topic or another with as much energy as authority. This straight-backed bench, of slight design and simple materials, is unmistakably English in origin. I have never been to Britain, and I know few people of British extraction-but I have looked at vintage and antique English garden furniture long enough to successfuly guess its origin. 
This decidedly English style high backed bench of utterly simple design is a contemporary piece that seems authentic to the culture of its origin. It used to be there were no designers, just craftspeople with good sense about proportion, practicality, and sturdy construction. What worked was also beautiful. This bench doesn’t try too hard. No doubt it will be in service a very long time, given its heft. Its visual heft makes it a good candidate for a special spot in a garden. It could just as easily hold a number of people waiting for a bus, or a pile of kids intent on climbing it. 
Sir Edwin Lutyens was a British architect of great renown whose practice spanned the late 19th century and early 2oth century. Gardeners all over the world know of him, from his association with Gertrude Jekyll. Her steadfast support of his career, and the projects upon which they collaborated are well documented. The most beautiful bench of his design might be the Hestercombe bench, but the bench most often associated with his name is known as the Lutyens bench. The distinctively curved back and scrolled arms have been the inspiration for subsequent English bench-makers; this version is a beauty. 
Many of our antique and vintage pieces come from dealers in England. Most of them represent garden objects from of other countries, not just their own. As much as the English gardener of my imagination is keenly interested in plants of all sizes, species and habit, the antique dealers we buy from with are game for anything that might endow a garden with beauty and history. 
However, one must go to England to find English garden benches. Their modest and sturdy look is so appealing. Even the old benches clearly have many years of service yet to come. A colony of pale green lichens found a home on this bench-no doubt the result of many years of service in some English garden blessed with regular rain. 
This quietly elegant spindle back bench is likewise mottled with colonies of this lichen and that moss. Its timeworn surface and low key design made it so easy to incorporate into a garden. British wood benches are team players.
This old painted bench had sustained some dry rot from years of contact with the ground. We stabilized the legs from underneath, and placed it on a gravel terrace. Though 70 years old, I think my clients will enjoy it a good many more years. Painted furniture in a garden has a charm all its own. The frilly skirt and the angled back of this bench is a departure in form from most English benches I have known and loved-but how I like it. 
I have never done one lick of design work for this client-she and her husband do their own. They design, they plant, they mow and maintain-on their own. They shop my store, and I may advise about this object or that pot, but they have a point of view, and they act on that. Parts of their gardens are designed for the pure unadulterated pleasure of their three childen. They cleared this shady area behind the house, and set to making that spot condusive to play. The blue rectangle in the above picture-an in-ground trampoline- what a blast.
They like rustic and whimsical objects in their garden-this spot is no exception. The Adirondacks style bench with integral planter gives them a place to sit and watch the kids. The ground is thickly mulched with pine needles. This makes for soft landings. 
This playhouse began as an actual stump, to which a second floor was added. What small child would not be delighted to have this as a clubhouse in the woods? I could not help but laugh when I first laid eyes on this. Though the architecture was aimed at their children, it is incredibly beautifully built. The child-size doors keeps adults out. My favorite part? That brand spanking new roof, sagging dramatically.
The staircase with its woven rope railings looks like a gangplank-I can imagine lots of childplay set on this stage. Nestled in close to an existing tree, and furnished with its own birdhouse and barrel of flowers, its a home away from home. 
My clients situated their seating area close enough to the woodland to keep an eye on the kids, but this space was designed for grown ups. Oversized furniture and pillows upholstered in bright colored fabrics looks sumptuous and inviting. The pergola overhead makes outdoor entertaining in the rain a distinct possibility. There are gorgeous views to gardens on three sides. 
The pool deck is loaded with big handmade Italian terra cotta pots, stuffed to overflowing with annual flowers in mixed colors. The old farm pump spilling into a vintage wood farm bucket is not only whimsical, but fun. My clients tell me their kids love splling the bucket on each other’s heads. This does sound like great fun.
Its my idea to eat outdoors for 120 days of the year at the very least. I like summer food- grilled burgers, fresh corn and tomatoes, big salads with chicken. I am at my most vulnerable for good potato chips, and ice cream, as well. I am impatient for this first day of the outdoor dining season, and so sorry to see it end. In Michigan we have a lengthy dose of “lets go inside” weather. For this reason I will still be having dinner outdoors in October, with my blanket around me. Just get me outside, under any and every circumstance. Dinner in the garden is my idea of fine entertainment. This 22 foot long pine and steel table can handle lots of dinner guests with ease. Pine is a very traditional material for American garden furniture; it just requires upkeep. Its traditional material aside, it has a decidedly sleek and modern silhouette. It interests me how overscaled furniture has such strong visual interest. This long table suggests a lot of people, close together, having fun. 
