A Glimpse Of The Garden—

Shades Of Green

By Nancy K. Crevier

“A Glimpse Of The Garden” is a miniseries focusing on the heart of a gardener’s work — a special spot, an extraordinary plant, a place of respite, or a place that evokes a heartfelt memory. What is down the garden path of your friends and neighbors? What is down your garden path?

Dick Kovacs is pleased with what he sees when he walks the perimeter of his home.

“No matter where I go, there is something beautiful to see,” declared Mr Kovacs

Nearly 40 years ago, when he and his wife Margaret bought their house, the landscaping consisted of a lot of shrubs.

“I kept trimming them, and they were fine, but then one day about five or six years ago, we decided it was time to replace them. We had two rhododendrons that were taller than the gutters in front of the windows, and grasses that were so big, I tried to dig them out and couldn’t. There were big bushes overtaking the front by the door,” said Mr Kovacs.

The Kovacs knew what they did not want, but they were unsure what they did want. When their daughter-in-law introduced them to Jane Walker, a land designer from Woodbury, it was a great match, he said. “I call Jane ‘The lady with the vision,’” laughed Mr Kovacs. After some discussion, Ms Walker came up with a plan, reusing some of the shrubs that existed, and adding texture and visual interest with other plantings to a garden that wraps completely around the house.

“We didn’t really want a lot of flowers to take care of,” Mr Kovacs said, “so Jane told us she wouldn’t give us flowers, but she would give us lots of color.”

The Kovacs bit the bullet and installed the entire garden at once.

“A truck came and dumped a couple loads of black mulch — Jane told us red mulch would just look terrible — and then all the plants came.” Mr Kovacs put in some of the plants, he said, but mainly Jane’s husband, Tom, was responsible for the installation. “It took him and about three other guys a couple of weeks. But everything came out just the way she drew it up,” said Mr Kovacs.

In just five years, the gardens are lush, and as his designer promised, they are colorful.

Blue-leaved hosta spread broad foliage above smaller, bright green hosta tipped in pale yellow. Peeping from beneath the shade are deep pink astilbe, all wedged in between semi-dwarf rhododendrons that provide colorful flowers in the spring, and greenery all year around.

Below the back deck, purple butterfly bushes tempt up to three dozen butterflies at a time, and attract hummingbirds, as well, said Mr Kovacs. A lime green mugo pine and yellow Stella D’oro daylilies brighten this plot, contrasted with deep green ornamental grass and a low growing shrub sprouting maroon leaves.

Around the corner of the house is a cascade of sky blue, as five-foot tall Nikko blue hydrangea spill from back to front of the garden bed, a skirt of golden Hakone grass waving from beneath its shadow. Towering behind it all, are the two rhododendrons transplanted from the front to the back of the house, where their topmost branches just tickle the rail of the deck.

One of a very few flowers in the garden is a dark purple clematis vine that tops a wall-length trellis. Beneath it, the heart-shaped leaves of Sieboldia Elegans hosta mingle with a spear-leafed hosta edged in gold.

A raised garden bordered by a natural stone wall juts up from the next side of the house. There, two ornamental pines stand guard over the lower growing blue spruce, red leaf maple, and spirea.

The front of the house boasts red-leafed barberry bushes flanking dark green ornamental grass, all of them just nudging the window sill. Daisies that have dotted the garden all the way around the house stand tall here, mixed in with blue-green and gold-tipped juniper bushes. Deep blue salvia blooms at the end of the front path, providing a feast for bumblebees.

The Kovacs have been so pleased with the foundation gardens, that this spring he called upon the expertise of Ms Walker once again, to put in another garden at the back of the lot.

“Rev Carpenter, from the Newtown United Methodist Church, gave us two fir trees about 30 years ago, when he lived next door,” said Mr Kovacs. For three decades the trees stood at the rear of the property, but when the October snowstorm damaged them last year, the couple had them removed and decided to put in another garden. Red Knock-Out roses covered multiple bushes there this spring, Mr Kovacs said — until the deer decided to make a meal of the tasty blossoms.

Spirea, hosta, daisies, rhododendron, and Nikko blue and blue lace hydrangeas echo the garden that winds about the Kovacs’ house. This garden is in its infancy, said Mr Kovacs, but he has great confidence that it will more than meet his expectations in the not too distant future.

“It’s really something,” said Mr Kovacs, “how with just shrubs and grasses and evergreens, we get color all year around. We’re pretty proud of it.”

That is what is down the garden path at the home of Dick and Margaret Kovacs.

(Please visit NewtownBee.com and click on the Features tab to find this story, which is accompanied by a slide show of photos taken at this property.)