Peek Inside Ryan Gainey's Personal Georgia Garden

The backbone of this Georgia garden is having flowers in bloom 12 months out of the year. "That’s why it’s so fragrant,” says designer Ryan Gainey. In the spring, flowers in bloom include 'Paul’s Himalayan Musk' (an antique rose) and geraniums.

A stone urn serves as a table base in this temple garden, which has a hand-carved limestone top and plants in terra cotta pots by Hewell’s Pottery in Gillsville, Ga. Star jasmine (also known as Confederate jasmine) on the iron arbor fills the Georgia garden with a sweet perfume. The sculptures belonged to a friend of Ryan Gainey, like many of the accessories in his garden.

The cottage garden has a sense of formality and reflects its Italian Renaissance roots with the structure of the clipped boxwood and patterns in the stonework. “Since we cannot shape our own destiny, we can shape plants,” Ryan Gainey says.

Blue agave plants, which are used in the production of tequila, stand tall in Ryan Gainey’s Southern garden. “They represent bringing plants in from another world, to give a garden an exotic feel,” he says.