Hi GPODers!
I’m so pleased with the diversity in gardens we are able to showcase on the blog this week! After starting the week with spring blooms in Pennsylvania (Spring Blooms in Rhonda’s Pennsylvania Garden) and traveling down to Arizona to check out a spring kitchen garden (Dawn’s Spring Garden in Arizona), we enjoyed autumn in Buenos Aires yesterday (Ezequiel’s Autumn in Buenos Aires). Today we’re back in the northeast to see fabulous cottage garden flowers with a city skyline backdrop. This is the roof deck garden of Natalie King in the South End of Boston.
I’m an interior designer in Boston, and I come from generations of women who have loved plants and nurtured gardens throughout their lives. This is a small garden on my city roof deck, with a palette inspired by the drama and naturalistic qualities of English gardens. My family treats the garden as an extension of a room in our home, and it brings so much beauty into our lives each season.
In a small space, like a balcony or roof deck, I like to blend formal and informal elements, such as a wrought iron table topped with a humble terracotta pot, spilling over with herbs and flowers. Along a balcony edge, an herbaceous border style of planting softens an urban landscape, with the dramatic presence of delphiniums creating height and structure, dotted with the graceful bell-shaped blooms of foxgloves, wispy lavender, and a climbing rose or two. I like to design for dusk as this is the time of day that the garden is most enjoyed, and so, I select a color palette that looks dramatic and elegant in the early evening, such as rosy purple of the foxglove, regal blue of the delphinium, lavender, soft pink of a climbing rose (creating a spectacular evening fragrance) and shades of green herbs, some that I let go to flower like mint, to enhance the fragrance and the naturalistic quality of it all.
A water feature creates ambiance, sending a hush to the city noise, and can be ‘aged’ with small pots planted with moss and lavender surrounding. A small fountain, birdbath or even a small bowl with river rocks and water, will create a haven for birds and bees on hot afternoons. These elements combine, ranging in tone from a humble kitchen garden, to the drama of a rose rambling along a balcony-edge, dripping in blooms, give a sense of place that feels so welcoming. There’s an element of creating a garden where the odds are against you (up flights of stairs, in the wind, on a small balcony or roof deck) that has a level of defiance about it, where you’re doing something that’s not easy, but you’re doing it because of the love of it, and I think that makes each bloom or herb even more precious. It’s the ultimate luxury to cut a bouquet of roses for yourself, that you’ve nurtured, and will in turn will nurture you back with fragrance and beauty throughout your home.
Herbs in this garden include: mint, basil, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, oregano along with spring onions. The more that you cut, the more that grows. You can place large groups of cuttings in jars with 1″ of water in the fridge, and it creates the most beautiful scent when contemplating what to cook for dinner.
City or small space gardening is always about going with what inspires you more-so than selecting smaller or more typical plantings often seen. I’m inspired by ambiance, and the simplest way to create an elegant arrangement is a single stem of delphinium in a small bud vase on a bedside or kitchen countertop, where the height and drama infuses the space in the beauty and inspiration of nature.
Despite Natalie’s rooftop location, she is able to create a lush scene with the help of various containers. Larger troughs accommodate larger plantings, and a wrought iron table acts as a pretty pedestal for smaller pots to get some lift.
Spires of flowers, like these delphinium (Delphinium elatum, Zones 2–7) also inject a lot of varied height interest that is quintessential in English cottage designs.
A closer look at those incredible delphinium blooms.
What Natalie loses in gardening space, she gets back with the Boston skyline that makes for an interesting and unique backdrop for all of her plantings. Her garden is a true green oasis amongst the hard lines and concrete that surrounds.
Natalie’s spires of blooms somehow become even more vibrant at dusk. Towards the back, delphinium reaches up toward the crescent moon, and the lavender-pink blooms of a woodland sage (Salvia nemorosa, Zones 4–8) in the foreground glow against their dark stems.
But salvia is absolutely still delightful in the sun.
And one last shot of this cozy space at sunset, with the skyscrapers starting to illuminate. While you won’t be able to enjoy the sounds of nature in this garden, you can enjoy the architecture of the city and listen to the nighttime sounds without having to deal with the hustle and bustle below.
Thank you so much for sharing these beautiful photos of your spectacular space, Natalie! It’s easy to see your designer’s eye on this space, and you’ve provided endless inspiration for those who do not have traditional gardens.
I mentioned this earlier in the week, but here’s another reminder that all gardens are welcome on Garden Photo of the Day! Container gardens, indoor plant collections, veggie beds, long sweeping borders, and everything in between. If you care for plants that you love, we would love to see them. Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
We want to see YOUR garden!
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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