Susanne Clark's Garden Tour
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On July 18th, Susanne Clark of Chilmark hosted a private garden tour for Garden Club members. A wonderful, inspiring time was had by all.
See photos >>> A note from Susanne about her gardens: I designed our landscape, taking inspiration for the general layout of the garden beds, walls and central steps and the distribution of the warm and cool borders from an English garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll in the 1920s. I used some of the same plant material as was used in the Jekyll garden. Warm colored plants from the original design include crocosmia, helenium, orange tiger lilies, marigolds, and kniphofia. Cool colored plants from the original design include phlox, eryngium, nepeta, purple sage, dianthus, lavender, echinops, and iris. Liriope and, a Jekyll trademark, bergenia, are used as edging and corner plants as in the original. The terraced herbaceous borders cover about 1000 square feet and currently have about 550 plants. But, this perennial garden is hardly a static copy of an old plan. I designed (I prefer the word “choreographed”, as each plant has a different role throughout the seasons) it to be of interest from April through November. My design work (fun) continues. Each year I keep a log of notes on what is working well (or not so well) in the garden. Each week I review the garden and rate each plant on its contribution to the overall design, whether this is foliage or flower. These design ratings are entered into an Excel spreadsheet, which is my Martha’s Vineyard data base for redesign of this garden and for the design of gardens for others. Then, each spring I assemble my notes by section of the garden and decide what to move, divide, remove, or add. I make these changes and maintain the garden myself. Sincerely, Susanne Clark |
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