If the plants can't quite do it, there's always another way to unify a garden design, and that's by repeating certain elements as you take the journey from front yard to back, and around the side.
Landscape designer Mary LeBlanc used a lot of latticework, as well as plants, to bring this garden together in New Seabury, MA on Cape Cod. Note the latticework as you enter the garden at the end of the driveway and proceed through the latticework gate.
Had you entered through a garden arbor on the other side of the house, you couldn't have missed the latticework in the front of the porch (which could easily take a climbing vine) and yes, even up on the roof (that's a first for me).
Of course the spectacular thing about this site is its proximity to the ocean, and Mary took full advantage of the deck off the second story for views of the swimming pool, the natural seascape plantings (old mugo pines, salt spray roses, thickets of sassafras, as well as bayberry) and Nantucket Sound. Around the pool, flowering plants, including Japanese spirea, lavender, daisies and roses provide color throughout the summer season. And just out of view, to the left, is a fence with a latticework inset at the top.
The garden itself contains many other summer flowering and/or shade plants: hostas and heucheras, sedums and astilbe, coreopsis, verbena bonariensis, more roses and blue colorado spruce.
The planting palette is simple and spare enough to complement the ocean seascape and give this garden a serene and classic feeling.
(photos©Jane Berger)
Placing lattice on roofs is a common technique on Nantucket, where "New Dawn" roses ramble over porch roofs and tool sheds. I've also seen it used with Autumn blooming clematis on a garage in Alexandria, VA. Very cottagey and charming.
Posted by: McLean, VA | October 05, 2009 at 03:04 PM
Normally, I prefer a garden flooded with plants but this setting steals the scene doesn't it?
Flowers overflowing onto sidewalks would be a distraction.
Posted by: Martha | October 04, 2009 at 07:22 PM