Hill landscape design ideas12/14/2023 The yearly layer of mulch has helped to build the soil into a much thicker layer, as well. When you dug down it was pure beach sand,” Ellie remembers.Įvery time she planted something new in the hillside garden, she dug a large hole and mixed in plenty of compost. “There were only 2 inches of soil that the builders had spread on the hill. (The Gilberts live 5 minutes from the shore.) Gardening on a slope is difficult enough, but the soil on this hillside was so sandy that water ran right through it. You can watch Ellie's own slideshow of the transformation above. It’s proven to be both challenging and rewarding. The crown jewel of the Gilberts’ landscape is an 18-foot-deep, 120-foot-long slope garden that rises to a lovely woodland walkway at the back of their property. Ellie planted the ‘Serotina’ honeysuckle ( Lonicera periclymenum) above right on the garage wall and enjoys the hummingbirds that start to visit every year around Mother’s Day. The final touch in the beds around the patio and the house’s foundation are the three trellises Ed built to hang on their cedar shake siding. Ellie says, “I make a habit of doing a daily walkabout, when I can notice where grass might be creeping into the bed edges, see weeds that need to be pulled or catch a fungus starting.” After that, the secret to keeping these beds so beautiful is never letting yourself get overwhelmed. In the last couple of years she’s enlisted her grandson’s help to do the hauling with the wheelbarrow so she can focus on spreading the mulch and making a pass with a hand edger to crisp up every bed’s edges. and hybrids) and forget-me-nots to reseed). This approach has resulted in a lovely repetition and cohesive color palette throughout the entire yard.Įvery spring she has 5 or 6 yards of dark brown bark mulch delivered, and she tops all the beds with a fresh layer of mulch (except the spots where she wants foxgloves, columbines ( Aquilegia spp. She allows forget-me-nots ( Mylsotis sylvatica) and foxgloves ( Digitalis purpurea) below left to reseed.Īfter a few years, Ellie started dividing the perennials that thrived to expand the planting and added them to other beds in the garden. Perennial geraniums ( Geranium x cantabrigiense), garden phlox ( Phlox paniculata), salvia ( Salvia x sylvestris), lady’s mantle ( Alchemilla mollis) and coral bells ( Heuchera hybrids) fill out the beds. Several types of hydrangeas, burgundy barberries ( Berberis thunbergii) and a Koreanspice viburnum ( Viburnum carlesii) planted specifically for its fragrance form the backbone of the curving 7- to 12-foot-deep bed around the patio. She filled them with perennials and shrubs in her favorite color scheme of pink, purple and pale yellow. Then Ellie got to work planning and planting the borders around the patio and the house’s foundation. The 14×24-foot patio above was the next project on the to-do list, and Ed laid every paver himself. That’s why the first thing they did was build a compost pile, knowing it would pay dividends in the long run. But they knew it wouldn’t always be so sparse. When Ellie and her husband, Ed, moved into their newly built home in 2001, the landscape was a completely blank slate. Ellie designed gentle curving borders with a unified plant palette in this zone 6 garden and not only tamed a challenging slope but turned it into a canvas splashed with color and texture in every season. That’s why we chose her as the winner of the 2021 Garden Gate Reader Garden Award. Ellie Gilbert’s patient development of this 20-year-old Massachusetts garden is a testament to what investment in soil, careful observation and a lot of hard work can do.
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