The Student Exhibition Gardens have started to take shape! It has been an irreplaceable experience and one that I am truly thrilled to be a part of. It’s not everyday you can say “My partner and I designed a garden in Longwood Gardens!” It has been a lot of hard work and many hours of dedication. Deb Wiles and I designed a garden that is intended to mimic that of a cityscape; we have three main focal points, one which is the “downtown” area and two “suburbs”. We have used mainly reclaimed metal materiels and three fabricated rebar arches that are to represent the various stages of construction and deconstruction of a city. We really worked hard at achieving this look by using galvanized trash cans as our containers and a large trough which Deb located at a feed store nearby. Inside each of the focal points will be different metal forms which we have salvaged from previous projects at Longwood. The garden has a very urban, contemporary feel and design; accompanied by a fragrant palette of plants. The plant choices were very difficult to make and we wanted to focus most of the attention on the focal points and the containers. Unlike the other plots, A Scents of Place does not have a walking path; instead we have “step-in” areas where visitors can gain a closer view of the garden. Due to the shape of our garden, we felt that it would be most beneficial to design it in this manner. The containers are filled with fragrant annuals and herbs; Anethum graveolens, Monarda didyma ‘Gardenview Scarlet’, Mentha piperita, Nicotiana alata, Crossandra infundibuliformis , Ipomoea batatas ‘Blackie’, and Cyperus involucratus. Crawling up the arches will be colorful and fragrant vines as well; Ipomoea lobata and Ipomoea alba. In the beds will be large sweeps of color and fragrance of Nemesia fruticans, Heliotrope arborescens ‘Marine’, Calamintha nepeta ‘White Cloud’, Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’, and Carex pennsylvanica as an urban groundcover. Almost all of our plants were purchased locally. Not only did this save us on shipping costs, but we were able to help support the local economy which Deb and I feel is very important. We can’t wait to get these plants in the ground-it will be a window of time that we must manage because we have to wait until the May 15 frost free date for some of the tender plants and by June 1 it needs to be finished because our class will then be traveling to Spain!

Advertisement