enchanted gardens - garden designs and decoration - Brief Article

Sunset, July, 2001 by Sharon Cohoon

An inspired marriage of plants, furnishings, and accessories makes these gardens magical

What makes a garden enchanting? Quite simply beautiful details. Take the pair of crisp white wicker chairs nestled (at left) in a curve of flowers. With their plump pillows, aren't they an invitation to plop down, settle in, and sniff the roses? Or, in the garden pictured on the next page, can't you almost smell the perfume of the angel's trumpet or hear the splash of the fountain? If you could stroll through the shady Asian garden (page 88), wouldn't you love to linger, letting your eyes wander over the Japanese stone cat, the softly glowing lantern, the miniature Thai spirit house that seems to float over exotic foliage? Wouldn't you want to know what else this coolly mysterious garden hides?

In these three gardens, the details mirror their owners' interests and histories. Laurie Connable, whose garden is pictured here, is crazy about plants. "Nurseries are my candy store," she says. She finds ways to present living bouquets with panache--in massed containers, atop antique iron carts. Charles Eglee wanted a garden (page 86) that reflected his passion for Bauer pottery and Malibu-style tile. Artists Wayne and Barbara Chapman (page 88) can't resist art objects, either; they've woven their collection into their garden in refreshing ways.

These are deeply personal environments--"little worlds unto themselves," says Eglee. Therein lies the secret of enchantment.

* Nostalgic charm

Despite the genteel appearance of her English-style landscape, garden design consultant Laurie Connable of Poway, California, considers herself a bit of a rebel. "I don't necessarily follow the rules," she says. "When I go to a nursery, sometimes I buy one of everything I like, instead of the recommended threes, fives, and sevens. I might mix bright colors and pastels--another no-no. And sometimes I like to put the tall things in the front--or at least in the middle." Her garden is her playground, she says, and the fewer restrictions she places on herself, the more fun she has.

Of course, Connable does have a few guiding principles. First, she plants some areas en masse. When she finds perennials that perform well--like 'Butterfly Blue' scabiosa--she uses them in quantity for impact. And she finds one color to use throughout the garden for continuity. For Connable, that's white, which might be in the form of flowers (such as white sweet alyssum) or furniture. "Even my chicken coop has white trim," she says. She also makes sure every major area has a focus: "When you use a rainbow of color, a few well-placed focal points help anchor it."

* Mission magic

When Charles Eglee approached Los Angeles landscape architect Rob Steiner for help with his Pacific Palisades, California, garden, he knew what he was after: "I wanted to move the inside out." A collection of Bauer pottery from the '20s sets the tone for the interior of the mission revival--style house Eglee shares with his wife, Ninkey Dalton. He wanted the pottery to inspire the garden.

Steiner made a bright orange jardiniere the focal point of a large koi pond encircled by a ribbon of bog plants (below right). "Basically, we made most of the backyard a water garden," he says. The jardiniere also inspired plant choices, such as orange-flowered cannas. And it provided the tie-in for more clay art--a plaque of San Jose tile hangs on one wall, and the table is topped with mosaic.

When an 80-year-old front-yard tree died, Eglee asked Steiner to turn the newly sunny space into "a hacienda courtyard." Naturally, they started with a fountain. And, just as naturally, its centerpiece was another Bauer work--this one, a cool blue oil jar. Again, the jar inspired plant choices. The blue foliage of the agaves, for example, seems dyed to match, and the yellows and red oranges of aloes, nasturtiums, and daylily blooms are a delicious contrast.

As Steiner says, the Eglee-Dalton garden, although quite small, is amazingly rich.

* Asian Pacific allure

Though Wayne Chapman has always loved to putter with plants, the garden he shares with his wife, Barbara, in Solana Beach, California, didn't really feel pulled together until he began adding inanimate objects. "When I started incorporating some of the things we love, the garden really started to take shape," he says. The first item he added was a huge Japanese storage jar, which he turned into a fountain. More transformed objects soon followed. Now they're everywhere--an antique Chinese bed acts as a backdrop for an assembly of pots and plants, for instance, and a Thai spirit house protects the front entrance to the home.

Though the garden contains items from non-Asian countries, too, a feeling of the Far East dominates. Chapman created the temple structure that houses a light near the stairs, the massive gate at the side entrance, and the cobblestone and beach-pebble pathways--all with a Japanese flavor. "When you're a potter," says Chapman, "it's hard not to be influenced by the Japanese. Their aesthetic is so strong." He also made the numerous clay bird feeders and wind chimes throughout the garden.