Morningside Gothic Whimsy

The clients were long time Morningside residents looking for a low maintenance, colorful wildlife habitat, as they were passionate about entomology and herpatology.

 

Their priorities were: 

• Successional planting for blooms/interest in every season despite the shady site

• Increase curb appeal to make their home look welcoming

• Very low maintenance site, as they were not hands-on gardeners

• Drought tolerance for their sloped spaces

• Solid in ground root structures, as they kept losing new plants during storms

• Decrease in mosquito visitors

 

THE FUNCTION

To increase the site's usefulness as a habitat year-round, the site includes a large variety of native plant species offering nectar and blooms throughout the year for visiting bees, wasps, and butterflies.  There are overwinter nesting spaces like ornamental grasses and evergreen shrubs. We carefully sourced long blooming plants that have some shade tolerance, and we removed the existing plants that mosquitoes love and added native plants that repel them. We xeriscaped the slopes with drought tolerant species and planted into burlap carpet, so the plant roots could establish without the threat of stormwater.

 

THE LOOK

For a cohesive look and welcoming look to boost the curb appeal, we reshaped the lawn and added a new permeable flagstone cottage style path from the front steps to the home. We also planted the sloping walls with dwarf plant species to invite vistas of the whole garden from the street. For the color palette, we played off the gothic tones of the home and using both high contrast and soft pastel blues, purples, pinks, whites and small amount of yellow. The whole garden is planted in dots to make it feel loose, inviting, and relaxing.

​​​

​