We’ve always had this ugly passageway between one part of our garden and the vegetable garden. It was unattractive for many reasons: 1) there is mechanical equipment located there, 2) there’s a tall wall of a building that dominates the space and 3) there was unattractive leggy shrubbery planted there. I always viewed it as a utility passageway – one that I would never take guests through! One day my husband said, “Why don’t we get rid of this hedge?” That’s all it took to begin a transformation of the space. I knew it would never be a gorgeous location, but it could be a much more beautiful than it was. To undertake this effort, I partnered with Jane Sylvester, a local landscape designer whom I thoroughly enjoyed working with.
Our goal was to bring in a lot of green and layering to the space, while covering up the machinery that had to remain there and breaking up the wall’s presence. My husband requires screening for the tennis court, so Jane recommended star jasmine – trachelospermun jasminoides – for the tennis court screen. She has assured me that this jasmine will provide a solid screen. So far it’s growing quickly up the wall.
Against the wall, I wanted white camellias and Jane recommended Nuccio’s Gem which was also a favorite of mine. I thought that the full plants would not only provide gorgeous flowers but would block out the mechanical equipment nicely.
Then we added two boxwood shrubs that I was not familiar with – buxus sempervirens ‘Rotundifolia’ (the medium height boxwood), which is meant to ultimately be tall and trimmed into a solid hedge; and buxus ‘Varder Valley’ (the shorter height boxwood), which is meant to remain natural in mounds. Over time these will mature and provide the layering I am looking for. The lower boxwood framing the walkway was not able to be symmetrically planted as we were limited on space on the camellia side of the path and we had an overabundance of space on the other side. Of course this bothers the perfectionist in me, but once it all grows up I’m sure it will be less noticeable.
To cap off the ends of this area, Jane suggested two cornus kousa chinensis or Kousa dogwood trees, which will produce beautiful white flowers after our Eddie’s Wonder dogwoods have bloomed. And they look like twins on either end of the walkway, marking the beginning and the end of the space. A perfect choice!
At the base of the dogwoods, she planted a few helleborus, ‘Ice B Prelude’. I love helleborus and find many varieties that range from chartreuse to antique green/red that all look so pretty in our garden, so I am not attached to any one variety.
Ahhh… it feels so much better to have this space not only cleaned up but beautified. Now I look forward to walking through the passageway and I cannot wait for the plants to mature. Thanks for your help, Jane!
