In garden design, it's not necessary to stick with one particular style—feel free to combine all the styles you like in your yard. That's exactly what Betty Balcom does. On Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, she has a relatively small backyard where she combines three looks to make a magnificent garden.
Betty uses boxwoods as well as a mature Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) to maintain a sense of formality, plus lavender and roses, making for a perennial garden loaded with color and texture.
The goal was to copy the colors used on 19th century European and Chinese porcelains, which Betty collects. She incorporates orange montbretia (Crocosmia), rose-colored lilies and hollyhocks (Alcea) to do so.
Just a few steps away is a fabulous woodland garden. Betty says that while it was sort of planned, it also was happenstance. Trees were planted to bring in more privacy. They grew hardily and made the area into a wonderful woodland garden. She changed the flowers to go with the trees, adding loosestrife (Lysimachia) and many woodland flowers. She also has Gunnera, planted for its wonderful, large leaf form.
Large-Garden Mix
A mix of designs works great in smaller urban lots, but what about a larger lot?
Off the banks of Lake Washington in Seattle is Susie Marglin, who has done an excellent job of incorporating many different designs into one garden. Susie has a beautiful collection of plants in what she calls her drought-tolerant entrance. While it may seem odd to have a drought-tolerant garden in notoriously rainy Seattle, this garden will receive only about five inches of rain from May through October, so it's a good fit.
Susie has tried to achieve a lush, drought-tolerant design. Some of the plants she enjoys most are the Alstroemeria--the Peruvian lily that comes in many different colors. Sedum is also very effective in this design. It comes in colors from bronze to variegated greens and yellows. One favorite is the Verbena bonariensis that seeds itself around the garden, making it easy to cultivate.
Twenty feet away Susie's garden goes from drought resistance to a marshy, moist bog. Carved from the lowest point in the garden, this area is tailored to collect water, enabling Susie to grow Hosta and several varieties of ferns. One of these, dropwart (Filipendula) comes in about 10 different species and can grow from four to eight feet tall.
The bog garden provides a very pleasant and cool spot in the lawn, particularly in the summer.
"The bog perennials are low maintenance and come back every year—usually thicker and more lush," says Susie. "They're a good source of plants to divide and give to friends."
There's also a water feature with running water that provides soothing sounds. It's a peaceful place to be.
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