A Border Bridge Between Topiary Clouds
A long new border was created to bridge two venerable plantings of cloud-pruned topiary yews that frame the lawn beside a pool house. Set in front of mature trees and existing shrubs, it gives the garden a flowering connection between the sculpted evergreen masses at either end.
Ten to twelve feet deep, the bed is layered from low grasses at the lawn’s crisp edge, through drifts of coneflower, salvia, phlox, cleome and veronicastrum, to tall upright grasses and the burgundy foliage of smoke bush at the back. Stepping-stone paths cross the border at intervals, inviting a walk through the planting toward the woodland beyond, and a carved stone sculpture on a boulder marks its center.
The softness and movement of the grasses and perennials play against the dense, billowing forms of the topiary, while the deeply furrowed trunks of the old trees above lend scale and dappled shade. The lawn was re-edged to a clean, straight line so the border reads as a single generous sweep from one cloud of yew to the other.
The Finished Border
Seen from the lawn, the border runs the full length of the garden between the topiary at either end, stepping up from low grasses at the edge to tall upright grasses and shrubs at the back.
Stone Paths & Topiary Clouds
Stepping-stone paths lead through the planting, one toward a deep red smoke bush and another beneath the old trees into a fern woodland. The cloud-pruned yews, shaped over many years, anchor each end of the border.
Construction
The lawn was cut back to a new line, the old soil turned and broken up, and rich new topsoil spread before planting, with the existing sculpture and shrubs kept in place.
Design
The garden plan, drawn over an aerial photograph, shows the new bed between the two topiary plantings, with new stone paths, a sculpture at the center and the re-edged lawn.