Gardens, Pools & Spas
Dream Garden
A Kirkwood garden blossoms with layers of color and character.
BY
Lucyann Boston
PHOTOGRAPHY
Michael Jacob

“We put our heart and soul into the interior of the house, and we wanted the outside to reflect the inside.”
– Lisa Campbell
Vivid native butterfly milkweed loves the sun and attracts butterflies.
A cascade of color blooms along the pool fence.
Hydrangeas in succession line the house.
New plantings in the garden wrap around and conform in scale to the majestic trees on the historic property.

When Lisa and Brett Campbell fell in love with a historic home in Kirkwood three years ago, they knew they had their work cut out for them. While the exterior of the three-story, brick home they purchased was architecturally outstanding, the interior was “in need of loving care,” according to Lisa. Then, there was the huge overgrown yard that surrounded the home, which is located in one of the last areas of Kirkwood with lots that run a full block deep.

“We put our heart and soul into the interior,” Lisa says. “We wanted the outside to reflect the inside.” For that task they called on horticulturist Douglas Zick of Zick’s Great Outdoors Nursery and Landscaping Co. “There was so much potential,” Doug recalls. “But when I first saw the property you couldn’t even see there was a tennis court. There were errant trees and weeds 8 to 12 inches tall growing out of all the cracks in the asphalt. Around the house, 50 to 100 feet of overgrowth had to be taken out.”

What Doug most appreciated about the project was the couple’s desire to preserve as much of the existing landscape and structures as possible. “They weren’t about coming into this part of Kirkwood and tearing things down,” he emphasized. “Their intention was to honor the past and use the existing pieces on their property.”

Lisa and Brett’s renovation called for a new attached four-car garage. That meant transforming the handsome old two-story brick garage into a pool house by moving it to the sloping rear of the yard and situating it so that the second floor was at ground level. And what was probably once a stone chicken house has been reincarnated as a garden storage space and is surrounded with flowers, such as  daylilies, daisies and roses.

Scale was another major consideration, according to Doug.  “A portion of the lot was heavy with large trees. When we tore out the scrub, we added ‘Regal Prince’ (columnar) English oaks with a starting size of 18 to 20 feet to bring the landscaped area near the house back to scale with the rest of the property,” he says. A mass of 56 ‘Knockout’ roses provides season-long color in the same area. The massive garden renovation also included the installation of three dozen of  both 10-foot ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’ magnolias and 10- to 12-foot ‘Foster’ hollies, as well as a mix of 25 pink and white dogwoods and 2,000 perennials.

While those numbers might seem overwhelming, they just reflect the basic bones of the Campbells’ garden. For the colorful icing on the cake, Lisa turned to Julie Mosby of Julie’s Garden Design. “Julie does the containers at Hacienda Mexican Restaurant. I love the colors, so I asked them for her card,” Lisa explained. “We started in the fall of 2007 with bulbs. When she looked at the yard and said we would need 10,000 – I couldn’t believe it. I would have been shocked if she’d said we needed 800.” With spring planting complete, Julie launched a summer plan to fill the garden with plants that not only will withstand the heat and humidity but will look even better in September than they did in June. “I have the most fun with color, and I’ve used plants that can beat the heat and don’t need a lot of deadheading.” 

Tips from Julie Mosby of Julie’s Garden Design

In addition to standards like petunias, lantana and vinca, Julie recommends:
Angelonia: Featuring spiky stems filled with tiny flowers in purple, white, blue or pink, it grows about 12 - 18 inches tall and makes a great cut flower.
‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia: A low-to-the-ground, frothy white annual, ‘‘which looks delicate and refined’’ and spreads nicely.
‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome: Also known as spider flower, with its tall foliage and unusual blossoms, this new variety has excellent heat tolerance, fewer thorns, and less sap and seeds than other cleomes.
‘Bonfire’ begonia: A new tropical variety with profuse red-orange, bell-like blossoms. It’s easy to care for and tolerates a variety of conditions.
‘Purple Heart’ tradescantia: A creeping plant that can trail from containers, creep across the ground or enhance a rock garden. Its purple leaves are a perfect contrast with garden greens.
Gardenias: “Use them near a patio,” Julie says. All you need is one blossom to provide a wonderful fragrance.

When planting containers, Julie recommends adding Axis, a new organic product that improves soil and helps retain moisture. She covers the container soil with sphagnum moss to help maintain the moisture level. “Watch where the sun hits a container and use  plants that can take the heat. One plant can be used to shade another plant in the same container that  might not do as well in full sun,” suggests Julie.