David Hess's Grove sculpture echoes and contrasts the organic and architectural forms in the garden.
But the signature feature of the garden is the marriage of modern art and horticulture throughout the two-acre property. It is like an outdoor sculpture museum with plants as the co-stars. Paul has nurtured strong ties with the local community of artists and garden designers while living in Baldwin, Maryland, for almost three decades. “Art is a passion of ours,” said Paul, “I was exposed to art in my family when I was young.”
Although the Babikows are not artists, Paul’s own creative abilities shine through with the way he arranges his plantings. A case in point is the Australian tree ferns that Paul plants outside every spring when the weather warms up. At the end of a clearing he places a row of five Australian tree ferns, each about five foot tall, in front of blue Colorado spruces. With their large, primitive looking fronds, these unusual plants lure us back to their ancestral Jurassic period. Placing them alone (and contrasting them against the spruce), at the end of a clearing, focuses attention on them as if they were paintings on a museum wall.
To the right of the clearing is a bog garden with a deciduous conifer—a bald cyprus tree—and more prehistoric plants such as horsetails and ferns. When the liner of the original pond sprung a leak, Michael Mehring, a German landscape design student visiting on an internship, suggested transforming the pond into a bog garden. Paul gave him full reign—the result is a naturalistic site with moisture loving plants and a rustic, wooden footbridge.
Throughout the property are various forms of bamboo reflecting Paul’s involvement with the American Bamboo Society (ABS). “I was interested in bamboo as a child,” he explained. “There was a stand of yellow bamboo (Phyllostachys) on my parents’ property.” When the ABS Northeast Chapter was about to visit last summer, Nancy Valk, a Baltimore painter, suggested painting portions of the Phyllostachys culms in vibrant purple, red, yellow, blue, and green. Paul liked the idea of transforming plant material into a work of art and the striking painted culms remain today.
Culms in a gove of yellow bamboo are transformed from plant to art by Nancy Valk whp painted sections in vibrant purple, red, yellow, blue, and green.
Near the painted bamboo Paul has planted a native bottlebrush buckeye to mix the origins of the plants—a theme Paul repeats throughout the garden. “The placement is a very man-made juxtaposition,” he said. “It is very contrived, which is a form of art.”
Paul and Beth often open their home to group tours and company parties. There is a large wooden deck and a patio in the back for entertainment. The patio, the small fish pond, and the waterfall were designed by Wayne David Hand, a Baltimore artist who has since moved to California. Slate pavers, arranged in units of nine, make it easy to water the large containers of maples and several troughs of plants. German artist Paul Rintelin contributed a striking sculpture called End of the Rainbow. Its nine bent columns, all of which are painted white except for the center column, repeat the number of pavers in the flooring. To complement the middle column, which has been painted red, Paul planted a bed of red-flowering Persicaria in front of the sculpture.
At the right side of the patio, a pendulous gingko tree weeps over the waterfall, which splashes down into the small fish pond. Large rocks serve as steps down to the pond, where a cobblestone landing fans out like the shape of a gingko leaf. To the right, on the perimeter of the Australian tree ferns, is another gingko tree; to the left is the colony of Japanese painted ferns (Athyrium niponicum) thriving under the wooden deck.
Small native trees such as shadblow, redbud, sourwood, fringe tree, and magnolia dot the landscape near the house while very tall, deciduous trees create the boundaries of the property in the background. “I can count on the native plants being successful in the garden,” says Paul. “They tolerate our weather conditions well. I also like the notion of ‘community’ and ‘local economy’ and using native plants fits into that scheme.”
A nearby white pine was limbed up to echo the bamboo form.
Under the deciduous trees, groundcovers thrive throughout the season. In the winter, the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger, provides white flowers from January through April. Spring brings a solid mass of silver Lamiastrum, lightening up the understory. In summer, a Pleioblastus bamboo groundcover takes center stage. A native groundcover, Carex plantaginea, thrives alongside an Asian counterpart, Rhodea japonica.
Nine moss hills also dot the clearing beyond the patio. Inspired by Dejan Ernestl, a Baltimore landscape designer, each 3-foot high mound of soil is covered with moss.Like a string of small tropical islands on a map, the number repeats the pavers and columns; the moss echoes the primitive theme; and the shape is similar to the large boulders that Paul brought from West Virginia. Each boulder was deliberately placed, but the result is a very natural appearance.
Another excellent example of placement is Grove, an abstract metal sculpture by David Hess, a well-known Maryland artist. A clearing on the east side of the house leads to Grove, which consists of stainless steel columns grouped together like pipes of a church organ. Concrete balls sit on top of the columns with more balls strategically placed on the lawn. An evergreen backdrop of pine trees contrasts with the silvery concrete and steel, and the tension of large balls about to topple off creates a scene of visual unrest.
From Grove, one can see the entrance to the house, which was designed by Dejan to mirror the back patio. In addition, Dejan added his own signature troughs full of dwarf evergreen, alpines, and succulents. Twenty-two rectangular troughs overlap each other in a modular pattern, as if Dejan had played a life-size domino game. Paul then adds bright color in the summer by encouraging an ornamental sweet potato vine to flourish on the ground, creating a carpeting of lime green leaves.
Paul’s intuitive feel for placement and his passion for art result in an original show at twilight every day. In the back of the house, on the eastern side, Paul planted a grove of Phyllostachys ‘Robert Young’ noted for its bright yellow culms with thin streaks of green. As the sun sets opposite the grove, its rays are captured by the bamboo culms, creating a final, brief gold shimmer before the sun drops from view.
Click Here for more photos of Paul and Beth Babikow’s private artistic garden.
Peggy Riccio is a Contributing Editor to ChesapeakeHome.
Contacts:
American Bamboo Society: americanbamboo.org
Babikow Greenhouses: babikow.com or 800-835-7617
Dejan Ernestl: dejanernestl.net or 410-243-3726
