Now Blooming

January 2006

Designer helps clients display art in the great outdoors

By Brad Baker

Andrea Anania and James Stewart love older homes and beautiful artwork. However, Anania’s and Stewart's art collection is not confined to the inside of their Bryn Mawr home; the judicious and artistic exterior placement of objects d'art, and even functional garden essentials, is in large part what makes their landscape so appealing.

Recently, Anania and Stewart built a large pool surrounded by a flagstone patio, short stone wall and several perennial beds and shrubs. After the installation of these pieces, the two were disappointed with how they stood out starkly against the backdrop of their older home and mature landscape. They contacted Wyncote landscape designer Brad Baker of Baker Creative to tour the property and design a more compatible landscape.

" The family had just invested in their property," says Baker, "but they felt that their landscape in the pool area was boring - that it didn't fit the scale and proportion of their home and had a new feel that was inconsistent with their older home. They were particularly concerned that these additions would do nothing to enliven the landscape during the barren, colder months and then on throughout the year."

Baker suggested the couple focus on lawn art to personalize their landscape, explaining how the choice of lawn decor impacts the landscape just as interior artwork creates ambience inside a home. Luckily, Baker had a natural starting point with Anania’s and Stewart's existing outdoor art collection.

The couple's 3-foot-tall giraffe sculpture stood in a lonely fashion in a flower bed. Baker relocated it to a spot where it could be seen peeking out from a climbing rose bush, proffering the illusion that it was nibbling on flowers – a colorful delight for passers-by.

" By moving the giraffe into the bush, where it would appear to do something as it would in nature, the sculpture added surprise when your eye came to it," explains Baker. "Outdoor sculpture is as much about blending into the landscape as it is about standing out. It's intended to give your landscape a more natural feel."

The couple also owned several statues of herons. Baker stood the herons in the shallow water of Anania’s and Stewart's fish pond, among various water plants. These statues gave the pond new prominence and beauty in the winter and fall months, when it is highly visible through the family's kitchen window.
Baker used a basic garden item - the flower pot - to add interest to the flagstone wall. His choice of pots is what gave their addition artistic value. Endeavoring to bridge the new and the old, Baker searched for older concrete containers with a distressed appearance, and he placed them at significant junctures along the wall.

" The wall was already beautiful," says Baker, "and now the way the pots are arranged gives it movement and a nice ending point, causing your gaze to pause along the wall and take in other things." Three of the pots were placed near the fish pond to lure the eye there, The last pot stands at the end of the wall, where Baker planted a mature, 14-foot Japanese Maple, which shares the larger proportions of the pool and the existing 80-foot Beech trees.

A real find was a set of antique granite millstones, which are among the several types of ruins Baker uses to add authenticity to the landscapes of older homes. A full millstone was placed in the perennial bed to provide a historical, antique look. At the other end of the flagstone wall, a half millstone helped fill 3 feet of unused land before the walkway. The half millstone created a natural, raised bed. Ultimately, this became one of the couple's favorite changes by turning an abandoned section of yard into an attractive focal point that could be viewed from the breakfast room.

Anania and Stewart find beauty in ordinary elements of nature, such as boulders and stones, when they fit gracefully into the landscape and add nuance and movement to the scenery. With this in mind, Baker added Belgian block to the edge of the patio which surrounded a flower bed. By the block, he placed a Japanese stone sculpture under a Cut-leaf Japanese Maple.

" James and Andrea love the way the Belgian block winds through the bed giving it a sculptural feel," says. Baker. "Drawing attention to the Japanese sculpture made it one of the highlights of their winter garden."
In another area of the patio, Baker created a vignette by transforming bird feeders into sculpture. Here, water tended to drain off the patio making a muddy mess under the couple’s bird feeders. Arranging large fieldstone to resemble a riverbed or a waterfall through the mud, Baker set up a picturesque scene Anania and Stewart now view through their breakfast room in which the bird feeders draw the eye just as do the other pieces of art throughout the landscape. And no longer is there the muddy eyesore.

Clearly, creating an enticing, unique landscape can be a simple matter of creativity and sensitivity to the natural environs. If you would like to embellish your own landscape, follow these simple rules from Baker;

Your lawn art should blend into its environment, not always stand out in stark contrast.
Remember that your non-plant design elements will become much more integral to your winter landscape. With this in mind, choose elements that can weather the cold and wet, such as concrete flower pots.
Place art to give you something appealing to look at when heading out the door or gazing from a window.
Carefully consider where you place flower pots and other elements of your design. Pick an area you want to highlight - never one you want to hide, such as near a drainpipe. They will draw attention, not act as camouflage.

Brad Baker, president of Baker Creative, is a Pennsylvania certified horticulturist who works frequently on the Main Line and in eastern Montgomery County.

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