10 December 2013

By the age of 7, Suzanne Turley was already showing her future leanings. Walking home from school one day, she spotted a beautiful bloom hanging over a neighbour’s fence. “I loved picking flowers,” explains Turley. So she promptly snapped it off to claim as a pretty treasure of her own. “The lady owner chased me home. I was terrified,” she laughs. Luckily, the neighbour only wanted to educate Turley to snip flowers off at the base of the stem, rather than decapitate their heads.

“As a child, I wanted to be a florist,” says Turley, who has worked as one of New Zealand’s foremost landscape designers for close to 20 years now. She remembers trailing happily behind her green-fingered grandfather in one of those old-fashioned gardens that had a chook run, fruit trees, a vegetable patch and a potting shed.

The path to her current profession was not perfectly paved, however. Somehow, she side-tracked into fashion and, together with her mother, opened the Blanche Maude boutique, an icon in the industry in the 70s and 80s. With the arrival in New Zealand of big-name high-end brands, the retail arena became too fractured, and Turley wandered into the world of garden design.

This mid-career move was not a purposeful reinvention of self, but rather a gradual realisation of where her talents lay. “I had a garden in Remuera on a busy road that had featured in some lifestyle magazines. Friends and friends-of-friends started to ask me for advice about theirs.”

Self-taught, Turley set herself up initially as a garden consultant. But when those same friends began asking for her to create pools and entire landscapes, she knew she had to enlist trained help. “That stuff was beyond me. I knew what I wanted, but I couldn’t draw it.” From such organic beginnings, Suzanne Turley Landscapes, a full architectural practice, was formed.

Although there are many landscape designers around these days, few seem to accomplish the richness of experience that Turley captures in her work. Hers is not the milieu of static design. With her palette of plants, she paints an ever-evolving picture of layers and textures. She calls this ability the “choreography”of the garden. “Plants are perishable. What looks nice today is not going to stay that way. You need to tame the garden, manage it – and have the vision to know what it is going to look like in 10 to 15 years.”

She says her success comes down to an intimate knowledge of plants. “A cook has to know their ingredients, and how they’ll react, or they’ll never bake a good cake.”

Step one in her design process is to create the “bones”, those elements that will hold the garden 24/7. That’s fairly easy in an expansive, rural space, where stone walls and magnificent trees bring structure, but less readily achievable in compact suburban gardens. “That’s when you need to look at the wider landscape and see what you can borrow from the neighbours.”

Space was not an issue in what is probably Turley’s most-awarded project, the garden at Huka Lodge. That is now listed as a New Zealand Garden of National Significance, and Turley has worked closely with interior designer Virginia Fisher to develop the property over the past 15 years. “That garden has soul,” says Turley. “The moment I step into it, I am engulfed by a lovely feeling of peace.”

Combined with the power of the Waikato River that cuts through it, the Huka experience is one that international visitors indulge in just as much as a trout fishing excursion on the lake, or a trip to the nearby falls. “At Huka, I was lucky enough to inherit a garden that already featured some European deciduous trees and some redwoods that were at least 80 years old. They are its backbone.”

Weaving a tapestry of form and foliage, Turley has designed several garden rooms for entertaining and dining. These enclosed, private spaces are juxtaposed against blade-perfect manicured lawns that lend a park-like feel to the area in front of the main lodge. Another garden journey involves boardwalks, bridges and ponds. Turley worked alongside the gardener for two weeks, carefully placing pumice-like rocks into the pond so that it appears as though they have simply tumbled down the hillside to rest in its waters.

She also asked owner Alex van Heeren for the budget to extend the pond just a little further. “A boardwalk needs a good start and a good finish and the pond needed an extra bit to put an end on it,” she explains.

Van Heeren went along with Turley’s gut instinct and, on his latest visit to Huka, gave it his highest accolade.

Turley has gone on to design the gardens in van Heeren’s other lodges in Fiji and South Africa, but although the big jobs bring the glory, she also relishes the challenge of working on small domestic projects. “Mainly these days, I have to ask myself how I am going to achieve everything that is in the brief and on a site that is mostly taken up by the house.”

She believes good landscaping can really make architecture “sing”. It’s a hand-in-hand process and, she’s happy to report, landscape design seems to have taken its rightful place at the drawing board.

“I used to struggle to get clients to allow for landscaping in the budget. I’d be pulled in at the end and asked to ‘make it look good’. Now, I’m usually consulted from day one.”

When asked for her views on the much-requested “low-maintenance” garden, she laughs. “There’s no such thing. If you want that, you had better live in an apartment!” Turley also points out that smaller gardens are sometimes even harder to maintain because every leaf of every plant is right in your face. “In a wider landscape you take in the big picture and can overlook the weeds.”

Working at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather is a given but her pet hates are cute-but-destructive rabbits, and pukeko. “They’re such aggressive birds. They don’t like anything new going into their territory.” On one job in Waiheke Island, the stroppy fowls ripped up all the plants in a wetland area the team had shaped.

After two decades in the field, Turley says she’s still learning. “I’m not afraid of using common plants, but I like to see how I can use them in a different way, how I can add more drama.”

Like the seasons’ effect on a garden, she sees her career as ever changing. It’s this dynamism that fills her with excitement. “I daren’t take my landscape gardening books to bed or I won’t sleep all night dreaming about the ideas I can’t wait to create.”

– VIVA

Raised beds have cropped up in backyard gardens just about everywhere in Texas. Typically 8 feet wide by 6 inches tall, they promise a near work-free way to grow herbs, greens or a couple of tomato plants.

I’ve dabbled with raised-bed gardening since I was a teen in the ’80s. I used to see them on a PBS show called Square Foot Gardening. Host Mel Bartholomew’s method of growing vegetables in small, tidy beds separated by mud-free pathways seemed better than tilling an entire field, only to plant seed in a fraction of the prepared soil. Mulching, watering and weeding were easier in Mel’s bite-sized plots.

I’m in my sixth year of using raised beds, with a setup of more than 30 in my garden. I’ve reaped some benefits, but I’ve also come to realize that they’re not the cure-all for what ails the farmer. In fact, for every pro, there’s a corresponding con:

Pro: Raised beds warm up faster in the spring and start crops off sooner.
Con: Raised beds get hotter in the summer, raising soil temperature higher than crops can endure.

Pro: Raised beds have good drainage.
Con: Raised beds do not retain moisture well and must be watered daily, sometimes twice a day, in the hottest part of summer.

Pro: Raised beds can be filled with sterile, weed-free soil and bagged designer dirt.
Con: Raised-bed soil that has a different texture from the ground cannot efficiently wick up moisture from native soil underneath the bed.

Pro: Raised beds are small, with neither weeds nor crops beyond arm’s reach.
Con: Raised beds are small with no room to grow melons, beans, peas or any crop that vines out or needs a large area for a harvest to be worth the work.

On the plus side, the good drainage of raised beds rescued my crops in 2010, when it rained every other day from April to June. The soil became so saturated that water accumulated in some areas up to half a foot deep.

If not for the height of the soil in the raised beds, my plants would have drowned, and I’d have lost several months worth of work. Instead, they sat healthy and safe in soil that was slightly above water level.

But monsoon-like conditions are rare in Texas. More typically, we have drought — as in the summer of 2011, when we broke the record for the number of consecutive days at or above 100 degrees. That’s when the cons of raised beds wrecked my garden.

No matter how much water I poured into my beds, my plants faltered. Despite frequent waterings and inches of mulch, soil temperatures rose too high — a direct result of all the surface area that the sides of a raised bed add to the soil around plant roots. Unlike native soil that draws heat away, raised beds are cut off from the natural heat sink that occurs with soil at ground level.

That summer, my plants were cooked by mid-July. Strolling through the beds at sunset smelled like steamed veggies — it was just that hot.

They are indispensable in fall and winter, when frequent rainfall makes drainage a priority. In the winter, elevated soil temperatures boost plant growth. Also, raised beds are easier to protect from frost.

For root crops and greens, raised beds remain a sort of living produce aisle near my house right through the fall. I credit raised beds for my year-round harvest, even when the weather gets cold.

They’re neater. The pathways keep my shoes clean, no matter how muddy the soil is under the landscaping cloth. And finally, the beds offer focused spots for vegetable production.

But for summer growing, I plan to lower the soil to ground level in the majority of my raised beds. I may also replace the tall frames with simple edging.

At ground level, they’ll no longer be suitably called raised beds; perhaps they should be called framed beds. I may even find that I need to raise and lower the soil levels in each bed as the seasons change.

I’ve had to adjust the vision I had of enjoying trouble-free food production with raised-bed gardening. Raised beds are not the last word in growing food.

But they are a useful tool with advantages to exploit in specific applications. No attempt to opt out of industrialized agriculture can succeed without a little bit of effort.

.

cheerful: Painting doors or window shutters in a beach blue colour brings the garden alive. Picture: Kay Montgomery

Related Stories

• How to protect plants from harsh sun
• Turn your garden into a paradise for birds       
  
• Get your garden ready for Christmas

Johannesburg – Colour can influence the mood of a garden. Some people prefer subtle colours, while others are stimulated by bold shades. Warm colours of red, scarlet and orange are exciting, blue and green introduce a feeling of coolness and tranquillity, while yellow can be bright and bold or soft and fresh depending on the intensity.

Never think of colour in the landscape in isolation. Have a picture in your mind of the overall impression you wish to create using not only flower colour, but also in combination with hard landscaping.

One-colour gardens need a variety of textures and forms if they are to maintain interest. In shady gardens where the choice of flowering plants is limited, foliage plants of varying forms and textures in forest green, emerald, chartreuse, blue-green, grey-green and purple-green make this a restful and calming place on a hot day.

Planting in blocks of one colour, or one type of plant, are a feature in many modern-day gardens. In a large garden, the movement and texture of ornamental grasses planted in broad swathes can be very dramatic. In smaller spaces, try wide ribbon plantings of Carex “Frosty Curls”, Carex “Bronze”, black mondo grass or blue-grey Festuca glauca.

Pastel colours suit small gardens where they create an illusion of more space. Used at the entrance to a house, soft colours give a serene and gentle welcome, they appear to add greater depth to shallow borders, lighten dark corners and remain visible in the twilight long after darker shades have disappeared.

Whether you use blue in the garden in its pure form or in one of its many beautiful tints and tones, blue will cool down gardens on a hot summer’s day. Grow bright blue flowers to emphasise a flight of steps, soft blue to carpet a mini-woodland, and lavender-blue shrubs to hide a white wall.

Agapanthus in a variety of plant sizes ranging from miniature to intermediate and tall, with umbels of flowers in shades of pale blue to deep violet, are a treasure trove for summer gardens.

The hardy shrub plumbago and its cultivar “Royal Cape” has clusters of sky blue flowers. This is a versatile shrub that can be encouraged to grow over arches and walls, and tumble down banks. Cutting it back after flowering will keep it under control.

Indigenous felicia is a neat, low growing shrub with daisy flowers of light or deep blue, useful in sunny rockeries, containers and the front of a border. Plant Lobelia “Cambridge Blue” to edge borders and spill over pots and Salvia farinacea “Victoria” and Salvia “Black and Blue” to add vertical height in borders.

Yellow flowers can be bright and bold or soft and fresh. Lemon flowers are the easiest as they blend well with other colours. Clear yellow can anchor a pastel colour scheme or add richness to bold colours, be the main player in a border, play a secondary role, or be used boldly as an accent colour. Brassy yellow is not as easy to place in a garden, and is best used sparingly in all but the largest gardens.

Orange and red are the extroverts of the flower world, exciting, dramatic and stimulating. Striking plants such as red-hot-pokers attract attention, while red flowers in combination with copper and bronze foliage have a rich and opulent appearance.

Many African flowers in these shades make excellent garden subjects – aloe, watsonia, bulbinella, protea, Leonotis leonurus and Bauhinia galpinii, Tecoma capensis, crocosmia, gazania, ursinia, gerbera, clivia and nemesia.

Purple adds depth to pastel colour schemes and looks stunning when combined with red or orange, or used as accent points with cream and yellow flowers or lime-green foliage.

Hard landscaping

Colour in the landscape is not just about plants, it is also about colour on hard landscaping elements of walls, decking, garden sheds, outdoor furniture and pots. If you are uncertain about using colour on permanent fixtures, then introduce pots in colours that appeal to you into various places in the garden to see if they achieve the effect you want.

Gates and doors painted grey or green tend to merge into the background, but paint a door watermelon, or a bench periwinkle blue, and they become decorative accents. Terracotta walls and benches, a freestanding fountain and Versailles planter boxes of citrus trees add a touch of the Mediterranean to a courtyard. A grey-blue wall would show off the dusty pink bracts of Natalia bougainvillea; just as pleasing would be maroon Phormium tenax in front of a suede wall.

Paint can be used to help disguise an undesirable feature or draw attention to a pleasing aspect. A tool shed can be transformed from a utilitarian storage space into an attractive feature by painting the walls a colour of your choice and adding a small veranda framed with decorative white trimming.

Use garden furniture as a colour accent to blend or contrast with plantings. Place deckchairs painted Chinese red among tawny grasses, a hot pink or violet-blue bench near pastel flowers, or for a more sophisticated effect, paint an old patio table and chairs black and add white cushions.

GENERAL GARDEN TIPS

* An eco-friendly pond should have gently sloping sides, with rocks jutting out into the water to allow small creatures to climb on or hide under.

* Colour can influence the mood of a garden. Some people prefer subtle colours, while others are stimulated by bold shades.

* Create a moonlight garden. Fill pots with white and pale-coloured flowers and silver-grey foliage. Scented plants to add to this garden’s enjoyment are Mexican orange blossom, (Choisya ternata) and star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides). Add a bench and a small pool to reflect moonlight.

* Roses need deep watering twice a week. To help retain moisture in the soil, spread a layer of mulch, keeping away from the stem. Leaves are the pantry of the rose, so leave as many as possible when cutting stems for the vase.

Tip pinching is the key to a full and bushy fuchsia since flowers only develop at the end of stems. Each time a tip is removed two or more branches should form, thus multiplying the bloom potential of the fuchsia. Continue pinching new tips until the plant is full of branches. – Saturday Star

Visit IOL Lifestyle on Facebook

Follow @IOLlifestyle on Twitter

Get our free Lifestyle newsletter – subscribe here…