Paths to Discovery

Enter a garden of wild discovery with its winding paths, bright colors, varied textures and unique stone structures.

Shades of orange, rust, amber and brown saturate the color scheme of foliage and flowers here.  The front door color is within the owner’s preferred palette. Complementing that warm shade, look for  ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’ shrub dogwood, blue grama grass (sometimes called eyelash grass), and orange sedge Carex testacea).  In winter, the heaths and heathers show off with pinks, reds, and lavenders.

Distinctive in texture, two New Zealand plants highlight the entry to the house. Corokia, with zigzagging branches, is to the right, and Tetrapanax ferox (christened “chainsaw plant” by the gardeners’ grandkids) is by the stairs. North of the gravel garden with grasses and a pond made from a large lid, are three mature katsura trees with the spiny-looking bear’s breeches at their feet.

The highlight of the back garden is a comfortable retreat and fire pit, with a sheltering bay tree behind. Against the house the elegant Eucryphia with its brilliant fall leaves is native to SE Australia and Tasmania. Four crabapple trees with interwoven branches become “a hedge on stilts” in summer and form a backdrop for the pollinator garden. Look here for love-in-a-mist, ranunculus, evergreen Sunshine Blue blueberries, lavender and various alliums. 

Sweet peas, fava beans, anemones, and abundant perennials grace the various containers and water troughs throughout the garden.