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fresh ideas 20 for your 2006 garden CHARLES MANN

STORY BY JENNIFER JEWELL ■ PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLES MANN AND FRANK MEEKER ADDITIONAL TEXT PROVIDED BYTHE ASSOCIATED LANDSCAPE CONTRACTORS OF COLORADO

it takes a village

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it takes a village to raise a child, it takes almost that to raise a garden on the scale and caliber of Mary Rossick Kern and Jerry Kern’s garden in Castle Pines. Set alongside the famous Castle Pines golf course, with views of the Rampart Range, the Kern garden, tended by a village of experts, has everything that makes gardening in Colorado divine.

Jerry Kern moved to Colorado from New York in 1998. After adding on to his existing home, he chose Martin Mosko, founder of Boulder-based Marpa Design Studio, (303) 442-5220, marpa.com, to create a garden.

Known for his stunning,“contemplative designs,” Mosko believes that “gardens more fully engage all of a viewer’s senses than any other art form.”

With this in mind, Mosko seeks to bring a viewer intensely and fully into the present moment.

Mosko’s design is derived from aspects of Buddhist mythology and includes eight man-made “mountains” symbolizing four animal spirits (the dragon, the turtle, the phoenix and the snow lion) and four colors (yellow, white, red and blue). These mountains surround a larger “Mother Mountain,” the symbolic source of all creation, represented by the color green. What comes across to a first-time visitor is the incredible depth of the space: its complex, and completely man-made, topography of boulder mountains, its rushing streams, the Japanese tea-house overlooking a small pond in a tiny valley, and the organic shapes of old-growth Piñon pines hunkered down like monks. Visitors notice the interplay of the height against bulk, light against dark and the many shifting plant choices.

Gwen Kelaidis, alpine plant expert and noted rock garden designer, was brought onto the project by Kern and Mosko. She vowed not to put more than five plants of any one variety or cultivar into the alpine sections of the garden. This kind of plantsmanship holds true throughout. The original alpine areas included 200 different varieties and currently holds closer to 500 varieties. Mosko estimates the first planting of the garden included 40,000 perennials, 18,000 bulbs, and countless shrubs and trees. continued on page 122

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1 The Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC), alcc.com, Colorado’s largest association of landscape professionals, in conjunction with our garden editors, have compiled this list of 20 ideas for you to consider (or reconsider) in the upcoming gardening year.

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ADD WATER . Martin Mosko, founder of Marpa Design Studio, feels that even “the allusion to or remembrance of ” water, such as a dry rock stream bed or a small fountain, will add a soothing “oasis” element to a garden in our arid climate.

ADD STRUCTURE TO YOUR GARDEN. Even if it is not as substantial as a formal tea house (shown top right), any structure can help to visually ground and define your garden space.

CONSULT PROFESSIONALS. Even dedicated and experienced gardeners and designers understand that professionals can help make a garden better—and more fun. Professionals are money well spent,

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allowing you to spend your time doing what you enjoy—reading a book, running through the sprinkler, planting new seedlings or starting on the next project.

THEMES. Try looking at your garden, or some portion of it, from a thematic perspective. Sometimes this can help link collections of plants, spaces or garden ornaments with a much stronger purpose.

Themes might include areas dedicated to one color such as the Kerns’ color mountains (shown here in red), a whole garden dedicated to an overarching theme, or a small section devoted to childhood memories.

PATHWAYS. Rosemary Alexander, founder of the English Gardening School, maintains that “pathways are the arteries of a garden.” If they are not functioning well, neither is anyone’s journey through the garden.

Are your pathways going to the places you want them to? Are they a proper width for two people? Are they a comfortable material to walk on in all kinds of weather?

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7 8 THRESHOLDS ARE YOUR FIRST VIEW OF THE GARDEN. Each “threshold,” whether the main entrance or exit, sets a tone and also provides a transitional space between areas of the garden. These thresholds should be mindfully marked.

PERSONAL MEANING. Personal details mark the difference between a public park and your own home garden. One person’s kitsch is another’s high style, one person’s perfect plant is another’s nightmare. And nothing is sacred—if you don’t like something, get rid of it. If your garden does not speak to you, why bother having it?

EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT PLANTS EVERY YEAR . Interesting native shrubs and perennials are introduced annually by the Plant Select program and such suppliers as High Country Gardens out of Santa Fe and High Country Roses in Utah. New heirloom flowers, herbs and vegetables are reintroduced by suppliers such as Seeds of Change, Renee’s Garden and Old House Bulbs.

GARDENS IN SMALL SPACES ARE BIG. Even the most humble yards are being converted into outdoor sanctuaries. If your garden is mid-size or larger, see where logical subspaces exist within the whole. Subspaces make the scale more human, allowing visitors to feel sheltered and comfortable. They also allow for a variety of activities, an eating space, a playing space, and an intensely gardened space. This in turn makes all members of your household, from pets to children to spouses, feel welcome.

EDIBLE LANDSCAPING IS ORNAMENTAL if planted and presented in the right way.

And what could be more inviting than plucking ripe raspberries, basil, plums or carrots as you make your way around a garden?

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he evolution of a well-loved garden is one measure of the growth of the people who love it. The Simchuk garden, surrounding an 1890s home in Loveland, is very much a personal garden. And their potager (the French word for vegetable garden) is the physical and spiritual center. English garden writer Anna Pavord defines potager as “a style of gardening using vegetables as part of a formal design, mixed with flowers, fruit or [anything else] that makes them decorative as well as useful.” The Simchuk potager is mixed with all that, plus the daily input of their two small daughters.

When Jennifer and Erik Simchuk bought their farmhouse, their daughters were eight weeks and two years old. Jennifer, an avid gardener, was staying home with the girls and wanted an outdoor space that would “welcome, engage and nurture” the whole family.

While Jennifer is the gardener, Erik is co-designer and head builder. As she was dreaming of sweet peas and raspberries, he began building an arbor to contain a grape vine that had engulfed a small shed. He then moved on to the fenced vegetable garden with triangular-shaped raised beds and built a chicken coop, an arbor-seat that serves as a threshold into the vegetable garden, continued on page 123

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COMPOST. Make your own or buy it from local suppliers.

Both the Kern and Simchuk gardens rely on at least one annual top-dressing of compost to keep their plants and soil healthy and happy. While synthetic fertilizers can be useful, they should not be your first choice.

NEW-AND-IMPROVED DECKS AND PATIOS. Weatherproof and wood alternatives are in demand. A wider selection of beautiful, natural products such as tumbled stones and bricks are also paving the way.

WATER-WISE LANDSCAPES. Wise water use through plant selection, garden design, and proper irrigation and maintenance is more than a passing fad.

FOCUS ON FRONT YARD LANDSCAPING. Scrappers and new housing developments with smaller back yards are putting water features, fences, courtyards and patios in the front.

BRINGING THE INDOORS OUTSIDE. Outdoor living continues with kitchens, fireplaces, showers, spas, family rooms and more weatherproof furniture, sculpture and art.

SUBSURFACE IRRIGATION SYSTEMS. Systems that use drip tubes installed below the soil to water the plants’ roots to avoid water waste are growing in popularity with homes and businesses.

PLANNING IS IN. Homeowners are researching garden plans on their own or hiring professionals to create welldesigned yards to fit their lifestyles and budgets.

EXTERIOR LIGHTING. Hard-wired lighting illuminating the garden, trees and the house sheds light on nighttime activities while enhancing security.

USE CONTAINER GARDENS to add interest and form as well as to extend the growing season. Remarkable pots can be focal points in and of themselves, whether planted or left empty. More ordinary pots can be grouped together in interesting ways. Containers need to be watered, fertilized and dead-headed throughout the growing season, but the effort is worth the bloom, fragrance, cut flowers or interesting foliage.

HAVE FUN. BE PATIENT. All gardeners can tell you the chores they do not enjoy in the garden as well as the ones they love. Alpine expert Gwen Kelaidis notes: “May in Colorado is the month in which you wish you could clone yourself over and over!” But, if your garden is not an overall source of joy, see if there are actions you can take to bring it closer to what you want it to be, while remembering that a good garden is always changing and evolving.

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Travis Rumsey, founder and President of Estate Landscape Management, (303) 667-5408, estate-landscape.com, is the head gardener. A trained horticulturalist and a member of the Association of Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC) and the Professional Gardeners’ Guild, Rumsey has also been involved from its inception. “Jerry and Mary love this garden, and Jerry has such sophisticated knowledge,” he notes. “It is very satisfying to work in a garden that is enjoyed for its own sake.”

Rumsey clearly loves the garden as well. He estimates that it requires three full-time gardeners year-round, as well as Kelaidis, who checks on the alpine sections almost monthly. In the spring, every section is pruned and the plantings are tweaked as necessary. The summer brings weeding, dead-heading, watering and planting. In the fall, the garden is top-dressed with compost and prepared for winter.

This remarkable outdoor sanctuary is finally gaining national attention. The Kerns, wellknown philanthropists, were married in the Japanese teahouse shortly after it was completed in 1998. They now use the space to host charitable events. Beyond that, the horticultural world is also taking an interest: last year the American Conifer Society visited, and in 2006 the Garden Club of America will call. The garden, however, is first and foremost a personal refuge for the Kerns. They have chosen well the village of people—Mosko, Kelaidis, Rumsey and myriad additional craftspeople— who helped them raise this garden. It does them proud.

a compost system and a castle-like play structure.

“We moved here after two years of living in England, where we visited many formal gardens,” says Jennifer. “The raised beds are a nod to the intensely ‘designed’ spaces typical of England.” A raised bed allows a gardener to provide rich, welldrained soil for the crops “without any difficult digging and bending.” Every year, the Simchuks try several types of vegetables, and while varieties change, carrots, green beans and tomatoes are traditions.

To the west of the vegetable garden is the original grape vine and arbor. In this area, the Simchuks planted raspberries and a hedge of red-currant and gooseberry bushes. To the east, they planted a small “orchard,” including two sweet cherry trees, two European plums, one peach, one apple and one sour cherry.

Jennifer says that one of the best decisions they made was to hire Phase One Landscapes, (303) 750-6060, phaseonelandscapes.com, to help tie the many areas together. “We have great ideas and a good sense of our style,” she says, “but when I explained to landscape architect Scott Kleski that I needed help weaving our ideas together, he improved on what we had accomplished without overshadowing it.”

Kleski designed a curved gravel pathway and an undulating perennial border running along the fence line of the back garden.

Flow, character and design are indeed important. But ask the little Simchuk girls what their favorite part of the garden is and they are quick to respond: “Eating raspberries!” exclaims the little one. “Collecting eggs and picking sweet peas for my bedside table,” decides the elder.

Who could want more than that?

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