By Stephanie Holland
Enjoy these reflections on the Kiawah Garden Tour.
Walk with me. Enter into one of those beautiful, crisp days, where all of creation is alive with sparkle and sunshine; the cool air is a welcome harbinger of the burgeoning fall. It was on such a day, a few weeks back, that I had the opportunity to meander the residences displayed on the Kiawah Garden Tour. As a landscape designer who works on the state’s coastal islands, you can imagine my child-like excitement as I dragged my loving (but disgruntled) husband on our grand adventure. Below is an abridged peek into the well-run production, which was staffed with friendly and knowledgeable volunteers, and featured fabulous gardens full of inspiring designs and details. Studying the gardens we toured, I noticed many trends, two of which are detailed here: a focus on threshold and the battle between “his” and “hers.”
Amidst all the gardens’ varied plants, colors, textures, and styles, there emerged a consistent theme of the importance of the threshold. As to be expected, many focused on the main entries into the building, such as the fantastic walled garden with the antique Parisian gate; or the Sanctuary garden which featured such a colorful selection of warm-hued annuals and perennials that even my husband was impressed. But for a few, it was the entrance into the garden itself that was the highlight. Take, for example, the geometric design of stepping-stones flanked by mondo grass, which perfectly offset the ajuga, ferns, and planter on the journey to the garden. The threshold acted as a transition point, a foyer to the main room beyond. The common denominators of such a space included the use of evergreen plants as the bones of design, the employment of formal shapes, groupings of even numbers, and reliance on shades of green. Combined, these elements gave an inclination that this was important space, but, perhaps what lay beyond was more exciting. The garden designers had expertly employed varied textures and shades of green to highlight the formality of space and to lead the eye through the transition into the next zone, be it foyer or landscape.
Now, I am sure you are all curious: just who is “he,” who is “she,” and why are they engaging in battle? Let me approach it this way. They are age-old enemies who constantly war and bicker over landscape versus landscaping. She, of course, is Mother Nature: that wonderful and terrible matriarch who governs the daily rituals of our yards. He is (and forgive my generalization, dear lady designers) the architect, the designer, the human mastermind. These two opposing forces – man and nature – vie for control. Man arms himself with weed whips, edgers, and design theory while Mother Nature composes her army of “volunteer” plants (better known as weeds), insects, disease, and the idea of succession plants. As with properties all across the globe, the gardens on Kiawah showed marked lines of distinction between natural areas and manicured ones. Designers etched these lines with brick and stone, edging and sod, pinestraw and mulch. A perfect example was the narrow strip of sod that was edged in brick, with breeze grass on one side (manicured), and saw palmettos on the opposite (natural). Those items inside the brick zone were maintained and manicured; those outside, transitioned from landscaping into merely landscape. In an adventitious island ecosystem such as this, it is vital to claim only what is deemed necessary by the homeowner, and bastion it whatever may come. Edge your turf, prune your shrubs, and the devil take whatever is outside of your irrigation zone.
Although at present, I do not have a garden to claim and fortify, my husband did admit how much he enjoyed the tour and the gardens within. Typical man, his favorite space was the Sanctuary lawn overlooking the ocean, while mine is still yet-to-be-determined; however, we did agree that the gardens were an excellent display of ideas and talent, and the tour was a wonderful way to spend a lovely afternoon.
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on Tuesday, November 27th, 2012 at 8:12 pm and is filed under All Articles, Events, Faces and Places, Local News, Nature.
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