2016 I-Plants Magazine International Design Contest – First Place Award
Exterior Fall Planting – “Kellwood’s Fall”
Project Description —
A building owner needed some pop and pizzazz in her curb appeal. After not being very thrilled with her summer plantings she called on us to come in to give her some wow for fall. We had worked with her coworker at other locations and she knew what we were capable of doing. In her words “your designs and plantings do not get lost on me”.
It was already September so there was little time for planning and procuring fall plants. We knew we might have to take whatever color mums our growers had left. We got lucky with a grower who had planted too many swiss chard and still had large kale left in his greenhouse. I requested my mum colors and crossed my fingers. My numbers were large as I intended to pack it in to give them the biggest bang for their buck.
We have three levels of plantings starting at the parking lot (1st level), going up to the driveway (2nd level) and then to the built-ins (3rd level) at the doorways. There are 2 plantings/beds on each level with a total of 6 plantings/beds with steps down the middle. After removing the existing summer plants, we laid out the beds and began planting them to coordinate with one another.
The colors look great….purple mums blending with the kale, mixed pansies in the first bed and the built-ins at the doors. When you stand down in the parking lot and look up at the beds as they go toward the building the colors and textures really were amazing.
The all white mums at the parking lot level pull your eye to the white mums placed in the middle beds. We love the bright yellow next to the shiny green of the swiss chard. Maiden grasses, a few pygmy barberry’s and boxwood finish it all off.
Service to this building was set up once a week with a water tank and long hose as there is no irrigation at this place. When it was requested that we design the following year’s spring and summer at this site, we knew that we had done a great job.