By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine
Two neighbors in Eugene, Oregon, were separated by an English laurel hedge that otherwise-unoccupied small boys decided to cut down one day (give those boys a medal!). Instead of waiting for the hedge to regrow or replacing it with a fence, the owners—Sarah & Tom Bascom and Nancy & Tom English—called in Rebecca Sams and Buell Steelman of Mosaic Gardens to make a garden that would join instead of separate—the two properties. You see the result pictured above.
Now a path lets the neighbors visit, and the garden gives pleasure to both. One reason I love this garden is because it uses a full range of grasses, perennials, shrubs, and trees.
Total maintenance takes just one hour per month, with watering done by popup sprinklers.
Partial planting list:
Acer circinatum ‘Monroe’ multi-stem
Acer palmatum ‘Oshu shidare’
Acer shirasawanum ‘Aureum’
Adiantum venustum
Athyrium nipponicum ‘Metallicum’
Begonia grandis ‘Heron’s Pirouette’
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’
Carex morrowii ‘Aureovariegata’
Cornus canadensis ‘Variegata’
Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’
Daphne odora ‘Zuiko Nishiki’
Disporum cantoniense ‘Night Heron’
Dryopteris erythrosora
Eleuthrococcus sieboldianus ‘Variegatus’
Epimedium ‘Froleithin’
Fargesia robusta
Hakonechloa macra ‘Albostriata’
Helleborus hybrids
Heuchera ‘Plum Pudding’
Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Little Honey’
Iris ensata ‘Agoga-kujyo’
Ligularia dentata ‘Britt Marie Crawford’
Magnolia ‘Yellow Lantern’
Mukdenia rossii
Ophiopogon nigrescens
Polystichum polyblepharum
Polystichum setiferum
Rhododendron pachysanthum
Rhododendron sinogrande
Rodgersia aesculifolia
Salvia x ‘Mystic Spires’
Trochodendron aralioides
Tsuga canadensis ‘Pendula’
