I have been working with Mr. Burress on his garden since the summer of 2001. We've been tackling bits and pieces of his landscape all summer long. I've quite an extensive slide show of his property as it has changed over the years. You can visit that by clicking

      This bed that is featured in the above photo are of the shade garden which is located on the north side of the home. This is its second year in the ground. The walk and the garden wrap around the garage and lead to the backyard. Since not a whole lot will flower successfully in the shade, I had to rely on mostly foliage color to get some interest here. I used some Heuchera 'Purple Palace, Hosta 'Patriot'; & Japanese Painted ferns. I utilized some large blue hosta, and some of the yellow leaved hosta in the front for some contrast with the deep purple leaves and also to brighten up the spot. For height, I thought some tall ferns like ostrich ferns would be great.

     The other spots we worked on are a sun garden that connects to this shade garden along the back side of the garage. To the right of the garage door, he planted a compact form of Big Leaved Hydrangea called 'All Summer Beauty'. Last year Mr. Burress attached that white lattice paneling to that large empty wall. I suggested that he put climbing hydrangea on either side of the bulkhead to soften the lattice. This summer we installed the 'Aconitafolium' Full Moon Maple to the right of the bulkhead, for privacy of that window, with various hosta underneath and Ajuga in between the hosta.

     The summer of 2003, we installed a kidney shaped bed in the back of the property. It's main purpose is to shield the Mr. and Mrs. Burress from the open view of their neighbors. The fall before, a magnolia tree and a large rhododendron were relocated into the bed. We installed many fast growing shrubs which require little maintenance. Some of the shrubs we used were Butterfly Bushes, 'Ruby Spice' Summersweet, Blue Mist Shrub, 'Shirobana' Spirea, and 'James McFarlane' Lilac. We planted Liatris, daylilies which repeat bloom, butterfly weed, 'Chocolate' Joe Pye Weed,  'Sunny Border Blue' Veronica, and several different types of ornamental grasses. Mr. Burress was very happy with the outcome of this bed because of the ease of care and the continuous color.

     Mr. Burress has developed a liking for boulders in the landscape and wanted to incorporate some in his landscaping. He wanted to place a bed near the driveway to add some interest and to cut down on the amount of grass he has to mow. We have the rock delivered from Peckham Brothers in Middletown and then planted around it. There is a tree missing  from this planting that was unavailable this fall. We planned for a compact red Japanese Maple in the space you can see in the foreground. There are no perennials in this bed, only shrubs, trees, and grasses. We used a low graft red cut-leaf Japanese Maple on the opposite side of the rock, hydrangea, Japanese Holly, 'Rainbow' Leucothoe, Bear Berry, Variegated Maiden Grass, Caryopteris, and dwarf red barberry. In October, we planted small bulbs like crocus, Iris reticulata, grape hyacinths, and rock garden daffodils.

     This spring and early summer (2004) has been the most we've done to Mr. Burress' property since I have been working with him. He had decided that he really needed to remove some of the grass to minimize the time he takes mowing it and wanted to spend more time gardening. So, we worked on these plans for the front of the house and the back perimeter beds this past fall and winter. We had the plants delivered from Sylvan Nursery in Westport, MA which I then spaced out for him. The beds in front of his house are made up of primarily shrubs  which will require little maintenance. Some of the shrubs we used were Inkberry 'Shamrock', Japanese Holly 'Green Luster', Dwarf Hanoki Cypress, Rhododendron 'Purple Gem', and Itea 'Henry's Garnet'. Mr. Burress really wanted more trees for his very open property so we planted a Witch Hazel 'Jelena' which blooms a coppery-orange flower in the late winter. The plants selected for in front of the boxwood which lined the front of his residence are low growing grasses, shrubs and perennials. I didn't want to crowd out or hide the large boxwood that were currently there. I chose to use Juniper 'Blue Star', Lady's Mantle', Blue Oat Grass, Dwarf Fountain Grass 'Little Bunny', Japanese Barberry 'Royal Burgundy and Winterberry 'Red Sprite'.

     We are winning the battle for the "back 40" as Mr. Burress calls it. Last fall he went to Blithewold in Bristol, Rhode Island and decided he wanted more trees in his backyard. He wanted to lose the open feeling to the backyard and make it feel more private from his neighbors from behind. I designed two gardens on either side of the kidney shaped bed that was installed last year. We looked over some pictures of different gardens in some reference books of mine to gather some new ideas for this new chapter of the gardens. Mr. Burress really liked the looks grass paths that would lead the garden visitor through the gardens. He also wanted to remove as much grass as possible as mowing was becoming tedious. He would rather spend that time he was mowing working in his gardens. So, I created a large plan which included the design of the front of the residence. He wanted trees along the back property line and I designed in Japanese Stewartia, Yellowwood, Honey locust 'Shademaster', and Korean Dogwood 'Satomi Pink'. Underneath the trees are a mix of Inkberry, different varieties of Summersweet, Oakleaf Hydrangea, Hydrangea 'Alpengluhen', and Holly 'Blue Princess'.