When Kathy and Peter Swanson built their new home in Sherwood Forest, they wished for a maintenance– free garden with no lawn to mow. They had no intention of investing time toiling in a garden but wanted to be able to enjoy, live in, and entertain among well–behaved plants that would provide a changing seasonal panorama visible from inside their home and out.

They shared their dream with local horticulturist Chris Shearen who was able to draft a master plan matching their specifications and meeting their approval.

Shearen believes healthy gardens are built from the ground up. After clearing the site of debris, he brought in truckloads of soil amendments to incorporate into the compacted clay.

The garden’s plant register was based on a design plan for year–round appeal in a zone 8 climate. Zone 8 allows for both temperate and tropical plants to be mixed and matched with such aesthetic elements as shape, texture, color, and fragrance.

Agave easily adapted to the site and sent out new plants. With the ground prepared, the structural plants, the trees and shrubs, were added first. These included sago palms, Natchez crepe myrtle, Little Gem magnolia, Japanese red maple, sasanquas, Encore azaleas, golden mop cypress, weeping cypress, Italian cypress, variegated yucca, agave, and rosemary. The Japanese holly, Ilex crenata “Skypencil,” makes a living exclamation point in any garden with its pencil thin growth habit and dark glossy evergreen leaves.

Once the framework plants were in, Shearen added the details. In the sloping front garden, he produced a dense perennial and flowering shrub bed to attract pollinators and wildlife. Purple and harvest moon coneflower and Mexican petunia vibrate with color all summer. In the fall the seed heads add food for the birds or drop seed to naturalize the area with wild- flowers. The Encore azaleas are reblooming along with sedum “autumn joy.” Scutellaria or skullcap is a diminutive perennial covered in salvia–like blossoms. It blooms heavily in spring and in fall and attracts hummingbirds. Clusters of tall Miscanthus grass in bloom bring additional earth–tone fall color.

Kathy Swanson with Rocky who enjoys digging and pruning in the garden. Groundcovers are used to control erosion or to provide accent at the base of plants. Purple ajuga con- trasts with variegated Yucca filamentosa “Color Guard.” Evergreen Asiatic jasmine is used as a thick carpet to control erosion on a steep slope. Dwarf mondo grass makes attractive green mounded fireworks displays along edges of the garden. Mat–forming dianthus with grey–green foliage and pink flowers edges a silvery stone path. Double–ground hardwood mulch is added to the floor of the garden. It returns nutrients to the soil and serves as another erosion control since it does not wash away in the rain as lighter mulches do.

Encore azaleas bloom with kale. An irrigation system oversees the watering. Spearen who returns to the garden each season for routine maintenance says the garden is systemically healthy and needs little outside intervention.
Foundation plantings of golden mop cypress.
Dwarf mondo grass can become a matlike ground cover.
The front garden slopes from the street to the house.
Shearen returns once per season to conduct routine maintenance.
Yucca filmentosa “Color Guard” is found along a walkway.
Double–ground hardwood mulch controls erosion on sloping terrain.
Foundation plantings of golden mop cypress.