A simple garden design that he commissioned for his own backyard turned into an award-winning career change for Thomas Wheaton.
Wheaton’s new career began after he and his partner moved to Littleton in 2005. Their backyard was “nothing but grass that became just a big patch of burnt grass in the summer,” Wheaton said. The following year they hired a garden designer to create a perennial border for their backyard. Wheaton, who has a degree in art history and was working as an accountant in Boston at the time, enjoyed the process so much that, when he started thinking about changing careers, he decided to become a garden designer.
In 2011, he enrolled in the Garden Design School USA at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in West Boylston, where he earned a certificate in garden and landscape design.
After graduation, he teamed up with classmate Christine Kendall Quinby, of Natick, and they designed a garden to enter in the Boston Flower Garden Show in March. They won four awards for their design, titled “A Welcoming Urban Oasis.”
“The theme of the show this year was called ‘Seeds of Change’ and they were looking for innovative uses of materials — new kinds of plants that need less water; a very environmental sort of green approach,” he said.
Wheaton said the design had to be contained inside a 400-square-foot plot.
“That was fun because I was given a blank space – a perfect square,” he said.
He put a circle inside the square, accessed by two paths.
“I imagined … a small space somewhere in a dense area like the South End or Beacon Hill with buildings all around it. I imagined a little courtyard and for purposes of the show, I imagined it as a parking space. My imaginary clients had the space they weren’t using and they wanted to put in a garden. So I imagined taking out the asphalt or brick and resurfacing and putting in a garden.”
Wanting to create some interest, he shifted the circle a foot in two directions, to create four slightly different triangular spaces surrounding the circle. The design included a built-in rainwater recovery system that provided irrigation.
The next step was deciding what materials to use in the finished design. Keeping to the theme of the show, he chose porcelain tiles for the pathways because they contained 20 percent recycled material. He used weathered steel for the retaining wall, because it took up less room than rocks or bricks and lent a nice texture to the design.
Selecting the right plants was a little tougher.
“Because we’re in New England,” he said, “we had to have all the plants for the show picked out before the holidays last year. The next step was to find a nursery that could store them in the winter and trick them into blooming early.”
They chose Weston Nurseries in Chelmsford. Once all the materials were gathered and the design was complete, it took a team of eight volunteers two and a half days to build the garden in the showroom, before the start of the show. All in all, Wheaton said, it took them about eight months to plan the garden, and $15,000. But it was worth it, he said, because it generated new clients.
“The exposure I’ve gotten from the show has been incredibly valuable,” he said.
Now he hopes to continue the momentum to build his new business – Thomas Wheaton Garden Design.
He offers a range of services and prices – from initial consultations to design to overseeing the entire project.
First, he meets with the clients on site to take a look at the space and determine their preferences.
“Then I look at ways I can design the space to meet their expectations and make it more useful to them, more beautiful,” he said.
Wheaton says he is a big fan of modern designers, but he tries not to let his personal style influence his designs.
“It starts with listening carefully to what [the clients] want,” he said. “I sometimes have to restrain myself from designing what I want and start thinking like the client.”
“What I’d like to end up doing is working at home on designs for people who want to have their landscape composed in a thoughtful way,” Wheaton said. “And along the way meet some great people and exchange ideas and create some beautiful yard scapes.”
Visit thomaswheatongardendesign.com, email tom@thomaswheatongardendesign.com tom@thomaswheatongardendesign.com or call 508-345-2029.
Speak Your Mind