Ultimate Garden Guide by The Editors of Southern Living

Author:The Editors of Southern Living [The Editors of Southern Living]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TI Inc. Books
Published: 2018-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

GREEN REVIVAL

Bringing a historic Charlottesville, Virginia, plantation garden back to life meant editing the plants and letting evergreens take center stage

photographs by ROGER FOLEY

The symmetrical plan for this garden room features an English urn fountain that’s centered as a focal point between the new porch and arbor. The plantings provide a sense of intimacy and are low-maintenance, so the homeowner can truly enjoy the garden.

When Camille Price first toured Tudor Grove plantation, an antebellum home set on 18 acres in the Virginia countryside, she was beguiled by a 100-yard-long American boxwood allée. The dense evergreen tunnel led to an overgrown walled garden complete with a storybook stone shed. “I was in awe that something so old had survived with its structure intact,” she says. Smitten with the idea of saving this treasure, Camille bought the place in August; by spring, she was deep into the landscape’s revival.

Because the best-looking gardens take into account the style of the house, the Georgian architecture of Tudor Grove meant that the garden would need to have a formal feel. Rather than create new layers with flower borders, Camille worked to emphasize what was already there. She discovered the beauty of the structures, vistas, and fountains, framed by the allée of stately boxwoods. The boxwoods were sheared to open up the 12-foot-tall tunnel for easier passage.

Besides enhancing existing plantings, Camille consulted with a local landscape architect to create a practical, all-green garden below a new porch. The original design featured lots of deciduous plants, but Camille substituted boxwoods, so she could enjoy the garden from her windows even in the snow. Beyond the parterre, a new arbor sits on the foundation of a tumbled-down cabin. It’s on axis with the boxwood parterre and lines up perfectly with the new porch, keeping the formal lines of the garden intact. The four columns are made of water-resistant cypress and sit atop reclaimed fieldstone found on the site. Blending new materials and existing elements and coaxing new life into the established plants, this garden pays homage to the past but also meets the needs of everyday living.

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