Delightful Design
(Beverly Francella's garden is on the 2008 Extension Master Gardener Public Garden Tour on May 16 and 17.)
About the gardener
Beverly Francella provides inspiration for gardeners on a budget. Back in 2003 when she purchased her 50-year-old home, some might have called the yard sparse—four trees and questionable turf. Sparse, however, was not how Beverly saw it. She saw a blank canvas for creating a wonderful garden sanctuary.
With determination, ingenuity, and her natural eye for design, Beverly got to work. She spent the first year “up and down.” The “up” was taking time to plan and observe. The “down” was literally down on her hands and knees digging out hundreds of violets, wild strawberries, and creeping Charlie from the lawn. “It was then I decided to limit grass to the amount required to set off the other components.”
Beverly’s garden design reflects the things that were important to her. She wanted to:
• Create a year-round place of peace, relaxation and repose.
• Enjoy the garden for many years to come as both she and the garden matured together.
• Stay on a limited budget.
• Plant the garden herself (which she did—every plant!).
Beverly’s tips
Number one is patience. Take time to thoroughly study what you have and where you wish to be. Don’t focus on springtime when everything looks fresh and pretty. Focus on the other three seasons.
Think trees, larger shrubs and evergreens. While perennials are enticing, their shining moments are mostly brief, and half the year they are dormant.
When thinking about the type of garden you want, focus on what feelings you want the garden to arouse. Study gardens featured in books, magazines and in person and ponder how they make you feel.
If a plant performs well, use more of it. If it performs marginally, give it only one more year. If it performs poorly, rip it out. Life is far too short to fret over plants.
Don't be lured by the newest, latest and greatest plant introductions. Many are expensive, unproven, and not suited to our growing conditions.
For do-it-yourself gardeners, small one- and five-gallon container plants are the key. They are easy to carry and maneuver.
Special things to notice about this garden.
• Hardscapes for the backbone structure. Notice how the non-plant elements—-the walls, fencing, paths, and structures—-are permanent and the main focal points of the garden. No matter what the season, they faithfully provide the backbone structure.
• Outdoor rooms. Although the garden is small, notice how each area is an area to stop, study and appreciate the composition. Each has a different way of weaving together color, texture and form.
• Use of common plants. For plant materials, Beverly used common tried-and-true, long-standing plants because they have stood the test of time. Notice how common plants are made special by how she executed the composition.
• Window viewing. The view from each large window was instrumental in Beverly’s design process. She wanted to enjoy her garden as much from the inside as the outside.
• Bird friendliness. Providing food, water and shelter for neighborhood birds is a fondness of Beverly’s. She has used Coralberry, Serviceberry, Dogwood, Crabapple and Viburnum to create shelter and food. Adding to the smorgasbord are feeders for hummingbirds, orioles and finches.
• Clematis. There are more than a dozen in the yard.
• Golden Smoketree. It’s always a favorite of visitors.
Beverly’s favorite plants
“These are the plants I would not be without.”
• Boxwoods-—They are evergreens so they provide year-round beauty. A cluster of them is a great backdrop, edger and definer of growing areas. They are neat, tidy and unobtrusive. And with a dusting of snow… oh, such a pretty sight!
• Clematis-—I love them all. My favorites are Duchess of Albany and Petit Faucon. Both behave as if they were on steroids, blooming nonstop from early May until frost.
• Diablo Ninebark-—Such drama and garden presence! And it withstands all of our Kansas weather extremes—wind, heat, too much or too little rain and freezing temperatures.
• Golden Barberry—-It absolutely glows throughout the garden year, especially when paired with burgundy 'Diablo' Ninebark.
• Knockout roses—-These easy-care roses are very long blooming roses and provide wonderful color and gentle fragrance in the garden.
• Moonbeam Coreopsis-—It has ferny foliage, soft yellow flowers from June to frost, and all-winter interest.
• Oakleaf hydrangeas—-Dramatic in all seasons!
• Ornamental, flowering onion ‘Allium senescens’—-While not a well-known perennial, it is hands-down the workhorse of its species. Leafing out very early, it flowers from June through September and has 2-inch light pink balls. It never self seeds like many of its clan.
• Ornamental grass—-I especially like Calamagrostis 'Overdam' and Panicum 'Dallas Blues' switchgrass. It's 5 feet of wide steel-blue blades topped by pinkish hazy flowers are awesome!
• Purple Beautyberry—-In the fall, the purple berries on Calicarpa ‘Early Amethyst’ are incredible.
• Purple St. John's-Wort—Hypericum ‘Albury Purple’—definitely a notice-me plant. It has dark plum-purplish green leaves with bright yellow flowers through summer that turn to red berries in the fall.
• Smoketree -—I always smile when I see Cotinus ’Golden Spirit’ glowing in the sun. It gets cut back to stubs every spring.
• Viburnums-—Although they vary in fragrance, berry production and size (some are giants, some are modest in size), all have spring flowers and good summer and fall foliage. I highly recommend them for a backbone of garden shrubbery.
• Virginia Sweetspire—-It has a nice fragrance and delicate spring flowers. It has a lot of foliage, beautiful form, no pest issues, and spectacular fall color that persists until early winter.