LAFAYETTE GREENS
The Greening of Detroit’s Lafayette Greens is a green space and urban garden in the heart of downtown Detroit. Visitors, city workers, and neighborhood residents enjoy and relax in the space, watch veggies and flowers grow during the summer and enjoy seasonal programming. The award-winning garden was donated to The Greening of Detroit by Compuware in 2014. The Greening grows hundreds of pounds of chemical-free fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers every year. Everything harvested goes to food banks, church pantries or volunteers. Visit www.greeningofdetroit.com for a calendar of events. Lafayette Greens is open to the public from April to September, Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm.
MY SECRET GARDEN
It was August of 2012 when I did a landscape consult for this client. The house sat in the front quadrant of their property adjacent to the road. There was a smattering of perennial gardens and some trees near the house, but most of what I could see was a vast field of grass. During our conversation, it became clear that she did not need my design work. She had a vision for the development of the landscape, and she could imagine and create it as she had the time available. The drawing above of her garden tells just a bit of the story behind how a gorgeous, expansive, and exuberant landscape devoted to the garden came to be on ten acres of grassland. Each of the numerous gardens reflects her sensibility, taste, and a healthy dose of whimsy. Some gardens are a highly personal interpretation of a historical expression and form, as in the willow maze. The living willow is 11 feet tall this year! The Flower Farm is a working and thriving cut flower business that is a delight to see. There are features too numerous to mention. There will be loads and lots of everything garden for visitors to see. In fact, 10 acres worth. Though she is solely responsible for the design and making of this incredible garden, she is a regular and valued client of Detroit Garden Works. You’ll see. We all enjoy and respect her brand of garden-making, and we are thrilled she has agreed to put her landscape on tour. Plan to spend an hour traveling to this garden from Detroit Garden Works. Parking is available at the barn.
CHELSEA PERENNIAL GARDEN
This lovely West Bloomfield home is unique in its siting of a large English-style perennial/annual garden in the front yard. Meticulously cared for, this garden is profuse and graceful in feeling and is home to both butterflies and hummingbirds. A collection of dwarf evergreens line the walk to the front door and give weight to the landscape. The rear yard is a small, intimate space, given the woodlands that back up to the house, surrounded by hostas and other unique shade-loving shrubs and plants. This garden is highlighted by an upper terrace enclosed by a hand-wrought iron railing and the sound of a beautiful European fountain in the background. One should take in the other very unique features of this mature garden space. There is a fairy garden with fairy-sized live shrubs and plants. The vertical garden is exceptionally gorgeous and brings a new dimension to this garden! There is also a one-of-a-kind garage that is not to be missed, exhibiting birdhouses, antique watering cans, and garden tools like you’ve never seen before. This property will make you smile and admire the garden’s caretaker and his creativity!
SHADY OAKS
Once in a blue moon, a young professional horticulturist casts a special light on their own landscape. I have been a witness to this. It has been my privilege to be close enough to watch this gardener and his garden evolve and grow. His landscape is imagined, designed, owned, planted, tended, and organized by the formidably talented horticulturist that he is. He routinely puts my skills to shame. He revives old ideas that he once discarded. He doesn’t give in or give out. He persists as often as he walks away. He travels to nurseries far and wide to inspect their available plants. He researches what he wants to learn, and then he learns it. He takes risks and is good-natured about the consequences, good or bad. His knowledge of plants is breathtakingly wide and deep. How do I know all of this? He superintendents all of my landscape staff and all of our installations. He and I frequently review and design together. At home, his predominantly shady garden is presided over by a cluster of older oaks. All the plants he has nurtured in the shade of those oaks over the years are unusual and interesting. He has been at this property long enough to establish colonies and grow great plants to a great size. He maintains relationships with other horticulturists all over the country. But do not think for one moment that he and his garden are not approachable or too scholarly. His approach to gardening is friendly and charming enough to sweep you off your feet. His first appearance on the tour was eight years ago. Don’t miss this update.
BEAUMOL LANDSCAPE AND GARDEN
This stately home sits on a substantial and immaculately kept property. Our relationship began in 2014 with a major renovation that changed almost every aspect of the landscape except for three mature trees. It took several weeks in early April to transplant better than 100 shrubs. The rear terrace was removed in its entirety and relaid with a new design featuring the addition of vintage brick. The landscape accompanying that spacious terrace was completely reworked. A low retaining wall and flight of steps was installed a good distance from that terrace. The wall added a significant structural element to the landscape, enabling the backyard to be graded flat. A garden fashioned from transplanted shrubs and perennials near the rear lot line was a focal point for a large lawn space. Significant portions of the rear yard were regraded and hydro seeded. A number of birch were planted on either side of the long narrow property in anticipation of a new meadow. That meadow was installed several years ago and is a striking accompaniment to a precisely scribed circle of lawn in the center. My client paints a labyrinth on the ground within that circle every year and maintains it for a month at harvest time. He will paint the labyrinth the week before the tour so visitors can experience the full magical effect of it.
CORGI RUN
My landscape and garden have been on every Garden Cruise since its inception in 2008. It was remarkably stable over those years, except for losing a mature rose garden during the terrible winters in 2014 and 2015. However, since 2019, there have been some significant changes in the fountain pool yard landscape. A collection of Princeton Gold maple trees planted on the lot lines was removed. In its place is a grove of compact growing tulip trees called “Emerald City.” The trunks of those tulip trees have been whitewashed, a practice that exists in gardens in many and various countries. The change is dramatic, as the tulip trees are young. What once was a very shady garden is now drenched in sunlight. A new Ipe deck replaced an old pine deck overlooking the fountain, and new furniture was added. A substantial planting of liriope spicata around the perimeter and around the tree trunks contrasts the clipped lawn and the geometry of the fountain. A collection of Belgian-made stoneware “toadstools” permits sitting in the garden from 9 distinctly different points of view. Feel free to try them all! As usual, container plantings are sprinkled throughout. A mix of new and old makes this garden interesting.
Updated 6-19-24