The lower "pond" is actually a cleverly disguised swimming pool.
While most attendees at the annual Home & Garden Show at Timonium Fairgrounds may dream of one day owning a garden as grand as those on display, few people actually achieve it. According to Jeff Sachs of Kroh’s Nursery who, along with Fox Run Professional Pond Builders, was an exhibitor at a previous show,
“You always hear how people want to put your garden in their backyard, but that only happens once in a blue moon.” It must have been a blue moon when John Clemson attended the show.Clemson, a residential architect, was looking to build a pool at his Ruxton home, but he didnÍt want the standard issue backyard watering hole. When he saw the exhibit at the show, with its cascading waterfalls, elaborate ponds, and lush landscape, he knew that was exactly what he wanted. “My grandparents had a large property in Glen Arm [Maryland] that was an amazing set of landscapes,” Clemson explains. “They had all kinds of pools and waterfalls and statues and grottos. My brother and I would go there and would roam around in this paradise all weekend. That really stuck with me.”
Clemson’s philosophy is that exterior landscapes should bring the homeowner into a closer kinship with nature. He wanted to design a landscape that would be a series of garden “rooms” joined by meandering pathways that would extend the barriers of the house into the outdoors. He wanted to rid himself of much of the lawn, which required too much mowing and watering. Clemson envisioned a pool with a dramatic waterfall, a terrace for enjoying the garden, and grassy areas where his son could play. The only challenge was the yard itself.
The lot (about .89 acres) was long and narrow with a significant slope and awkward planes. There was hardly any flat space to be seen. To create this landscape with a natural “swimming hole” at its center, Sachs and Todd Fox, owner of Fox Run Professional Pond Builders, painstakingly graded, carved, and terraced the landscape. Literally tons of fill dirt were dumped in the yard and sculpted into terraces. The six-foot waterfall for the pool was carved from the slope to give it a natural appearance, and the dirt was used to form the pool itself. A pond was added; while the pond looks like it flows from the same water as the pool, that is just an illusion that makes the landscape appear less contrived.
The pool water is cleaned using an organic filter system and its water is completely self-contained, allowing the pond to be a home for aquatic plants and fish. Although it was difficult for large equipment to access the narrow site, Sachs and Fox manipulated the hill into a series of landscapes held in place with boulders and terraces and bisected by walking paths and fieldstone staircases.
Fern, hostas, and coral bells in various leaf shapes and colors bring visual interest to a shaded space at the base of a tree.
Once the distinct garden rooms were established, the “interior design” process of plant selection began. The previous owner of the home was a garden club member and filled the yard with beautiful species trees like magnolia, Japanese maples, copper beaches, and a massive and elegant “deodara” cedar. While some of the large mature trees needed to be removed, many were preserved.
Clemson wanted the landscape to capture that natural, wild quality from his childhood memories. He also wanted to attract wildlife to the yard.“Very early on, we realized that the style we were looking for was natural with native plants and a high priority on seasonal interest,” Sachs explains. He planted rare conifers, Japanese maples (a favorite of the homeowner) and grasses on the slope surrounding the pool. The emphasis was on foliage color and texture.
Fox Run grows its own aquatic plants, species that are hardy enough to survive in Maryland. Fox explains that when he plants aquatics in a pond they are set in fabric pots on gravel at a depth that is comfortable for the plant. The plants are not only beautiful but also natural filters. Fox selected aquatics for the pond with a variety of leaf shapes and bloom times, including yellow iris, variegated water celery, and Pickerel Rush.
Another gift left behind by a previous owner were a scattering of Siberian irises, which piqued Clemson’s interest in the flower. Through the Internet he found local iris guru and owner of Sans Souci Nursery, Bruce Hornstein, who introduced him to the fanatical world of iris growers. Over time, Clemson has added over 100 different species of iris to the garden.
Aside from its beauty, the garden is striking for its function. A terrace close to the house is the perfect place for Clemson’s wife to relax with a glass of wine. An outdoor play area built to look like a pirate ship sits in its own shade garden. Designed by Clemson, the pirate ship is big enough to accommodate adults and can therefore be used as a hang out by his son for years. The pool achieves its natural immersion into the landscape and visitors can relax on large boulders as well as lounge chairs.
As a garden is a thing of constant evolution, over time Clemson sought out additional plantings-some for their uniqueness and others suited to the garden’s changing needs. For this most recent evolution, he turned to Claire Jones, a landscape designer with Azaleas to Zinnias in hopes of taking the garden to a new level of complexity and depth. She began by creating a bird and butterfly garden full of plants such as coneflowers, salvia, winterberries, and Joe-Pye weed. “He had a lot of very vertical plants, which were the iris and day lilies,” she explains, “so I was careful not to introduce much of that, which would compete with his nice iris.”
Perhaps as much as 40,000 pounds of stone were used to create the structure of the pool and waterfall, and more was used for the creation of paths and stairways. Jones sought to soften the edges of the retaining walls and steps with plants that overflowed and crept, plants like catmint. To introduce color and a long bloom time, she placed vibrant, cherry red, “Knock Out” roses in the design. These roses are lauded for their low maintenance and will bloom for many months.
The pirate ship proved to be a good location for a shade garden. “You need to have a lot of texture and gold color or variegation to brighten the shade,” says Jones. She calls the shade garden her “gold” garden. There are large hostas with gold leaves, carex grasses, hellebores, and Creeping Jenny. At Clemson’s request there are also hundreds of Virginia bluebells-ephemeral bloomers with showy, vibrant flowers in the spring that disappear by summer until the following spring.
Jones enjoys the garden because it has a bit of everything-sunny spaces, boggy spaces, shaded groves, and dappled ponds. According to Clemson, that was what he hoped to achieve. He quips that, “Instead of a family room, we have a family yard.”
“It really is a story,” he continues. “It’s about both moving through the garden and standing still. It’s a garden that’s designed to be experienced in many different ways. It’s a yard that allows people to find their own place in which to be comfortable.” And, the inclusion of interesting trees like a red stick dogwood and river birches mean the garden can be enjoyed from the inside looking out, even when it is covered with a blanket of snow.
Christianna McCausland is a Contributing Editor to ChesapeakeHome.
Contacts:
Kroh’s Nursery: krohsnursery.com or 410-879-5305
Fox Run Professional Pond Builders: 410-247-1378
Azaleas to Zinnias: azaleastozinnias.com or 410-828-0509
John Clemson: jhclemson.com
