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WE WANTED LANDSCAPING THAT’S BOUNDARY TO BOUNDARY,” SAYS PATSLEY. “THERE’S LOTS OF SYMMETRY BUT IT’S NOT MATCHY-MATCHY.”
s Pam Patsley leads a leisurely stroll through the gardens of her midtown Palm Beach home, she can’t resist touching. Stopping to monitor the ripeness of her Meyer lemons, she finds two near the bottom of the tree that are nearly ready. Farther on, she pauses by the white gardenia. “You can cut these and float them in a bowl of water and it brings the aroma inside,” she notes. Outdoor living is the core of Palm Beach life for Pam and her husband, Gary, Dallas residents who both retired from the financial services industry. Their well-designed garden unfolds like a series of rooms, with inviting spots in which to relax and dine. On this quiet afternoon in early May, it seems a good place to sink into a chair under a palm tree with a glass of iced tea and a book. But just the day before, 135 guests celebrated the wedding of the couple’s son at an alfresco brunch on the grounds. “We put bars in various spots, and we had a barista from Colombia who set up a cart with espresso and all the different flavors for coffee,” Patsley says. “There was Latin jazz music and people just sat everywhere—inside the house and out in the gardens and around the pool.” The easy, indoor-outdoor flow was the ultimate goal from the time the Patsleys purchased the Italian Renaissance–style home on Clarke Avenue in 2013. They recruited two designers to help realize their vision: Mimi McMakin of Kemble Interiors designed the inside at the same time landscape architect Keith Williams, partner at Nievera Williams Design, began work on the outside. Every change to the home reflects the original 82
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