Glories of Summer

Sunset, Spring, 1997 by Lauren Bonar Swezey, Kathleen Norris Brenzel, Joyce Kerr Reeder, Dick Bushnell

Summer in a well-tended garden means abundance. Flowers are blooming, vines are scrambling up trellises, vegetables are ripening. Perennial borders are in their prime. The air is filled with fragrance, and trees and shrubs cradle new bird life as nestlings grow and spread their wings. Sure, there's work to do - watering, weeding, feeding. But mostly, summer is the season to enjoy your garden's crowning glories - bouquet-perfect blooms, sun-ripened vegetables.

Above all, it's the time to kick back and just enjoy your own private Eden, surrounded by the plants you love.

Edens: As cozy as good rooms, these two California gardens are peaceful retreats from the outside world

What gives a garden tranquillity? Trees or a vine-covered fence for privacy? The sound of running water? The scent of angel's trumpet or jasmine flowers wafting in the air? A wonderful statue peeking out from a curtain of glossy leaves, or a weatherworn bench that invites lingering? The soft touch of Scotch moss or duff underfoot?

The gardens pictured on the following pages have these things and more. Yes, they are tranquil. But they are also playful, imaginative, and fun. They're havens for wildlife and people, filled to the treetops with magical touches and magnificent vistas guaranteed to slow a visitor's pace.

A garden to get lost in

Oakland, California

Making people forget the outside world for a moment is what Bob Clark's garden is all about.

A "semi-maze" of paths winds through it. Around each corner is a new vista. Turn one corner and you come upon a spouting fountain. Turn another corner and there's a sunken lawn "theater" flanked with raised perennial beds and concrete benches. Roses and salvias are just around another corner. And every few turns, a surprisingly beautiful scene asserts itself.

Clark describes the garden as one that "makes people stop and look." But it is also a living laboratory where he and his partner, Raul Zumba, experiment with plants and with designs that Clark hopes to use in his clients' gardens.

"We also purposely leave holes in beds between permanent plantings, where we can use seasonal color and play with new plants," says Zumba.

Clark and Zumba also experiment with color. "I like to try different color combinations - to use playful colors, such as yellow, that aren't in vogue," says Clark. "If they work, my clients eventually get them, too."

Clark's gardening style is unusual. He prefers informality close to the house, formality farther away. Next to the house, his plants are purposely lush and tangled; clematis and passion vines intertwine, and ferns mingle with shrubs. Farther out, low boxwood hedges (parterres) surround planting beds.

When the perennials go dormant in winter, the garden's structure reasserts itself. Paths, walls become more visible again. Trunks of deciduous trees stand out. But Clark doesn't mind this downtime. It's his time to take a break, too.

One enchanted acre

Rancho Santa Fe, California

Agatha Youngblood's garden is like a clearing in an enchanted forest. Tall trees such as liquidambars, oaks, and sycamores surround it, providing shelter for birds. Flowers are everywhere: on a gentle slope edging the driveway, near the front entry, and in beds near the back patio. ("I love perennials because cottage gardens used lots of them, and this is a cottage garden," she says.)

Water fills birdbaths, a fountain, and two big Japanese pots - one planted with water hyacinths, the other with water lilies - that nestle among the perennials.

Wildlife flocks to this slice of Eden. Hummingbirds and butterflies flit among the blossoms of columbines, foxgloves, and penstemons. An owl sits in the side yard fountain on warm mornings with his feathers fluffed up, cooling off in the spray. Bobcats have stopped by for a sip of water from the pool, and peregrine falcons swoop overhead.

Youngblood, who moved here from the Midwest, created her garden from a neglected citrus orchard. After enriching the soil with manure, she planted perennials - "my grandmother's flowers," she calls them. Among her favorites: asters, feverfew ("it looks beautiful in bouquets"), roses, and wine cups (Callirhoe involucrata). She propagates her flowering plants from seeds and cuttings "It's part of gardening," she says. "Perennials don't last forever, after all."

She finished her garden with animal-shaped topiaries and with folk-art birdhouses. Birds do not use the houses much, although a family of songbirds - in the true spirit of outdoor living - built a nest on the porch of one of them.

To keep the wildlife healthy, Youngblood uses no chemicals. Beneficial insects, with occasional help from insecticidal soap, keep down pests.

Bouquets

In spring and summer, a gardener's fancy turns to growing flowers for cutting

Like thank-you notes from the garden for a job well done, homegrown flowers can bring all the cheer and warmth of a sunlit day indoors. From the simplest bouquet to the most elegant arrangement - in soft pastels or vibrant colors - flowers brighten a home and lift the spirits. They make an ordinary day special.