Estate in the Woods

This five-acre woodland property is still in progress, with only two small tester gardens complete. However, those small changes made a major difference. The clients hail from England and love formal gardens. However, the small guest house looked like a place for a banjo-playing session out in a bayou rather than a dignified abode for visitors. Replacing the wild lemongrasses with Japanese boxwood, climbing jasmine, and a few vincas was a vast improvement to this space. The approach to the guest house was also clarified with some repurposed rocks.

The front garden was constantly being annihilated by running dogs and only the sturdiest and pokiest of plants had survived. These plants were exchanged for a simple design of a border of boxwood, climbing jasmine for the porch posts, and a center fill of white Drift roses. Temporary hog fencing holds the jasmine vines away from the garden until the custom trellises are ready. We had to add fencing to train the dogs to run around the garden – they were crashing into the roses and then wondering what had happened. Although the front garden only receives 50% sun during the day, the roses seem to prefer that kind of light scheme in this geographic area and have been performing quite well. The jasmine, not as much, which we knew before we started. We are also testing the limits of a variety of plants in the pine woods to see what works best as a replacement for the English garden standard of hydrangeas, which absolutely do not grow in the Tampa Bay area. This project is active and will be covering all five acres next spring.