Janet Butler
It’s a trademark in New Orleans: the antebellum house with wrought-iron balconies, stately pillars and colorful shutters against clean white exteriors…and a city property that often has very little “green space” to use for a suitable garden. So the question becomes how to make a compact area as beautiful as the home it surrounds: the answer in this case comes from Page|Duke Landscape Architects. Step inside the front gate and you’ve entered a separate world of calm, placid green, mature trees, and flowering shrubs. Cobblestones sweep in a grand semicircle; geometric patterns in stone lead you around the house and through the meandering space, through touches of green everywhere — here, in vines climbing a wall; there, in pots of bachelor buttons, deep green ivy, and miniature evergreens.
Amble through tiny “rooms” into which the yard is divided. Sit on a green bench, fronted by lawn and stepping-stones. Is that water you hear? Yes, it is, in a fountain gushing over rock to a round, stone-edged pond and surrounded by lush palms and ferns. Pause for some conversation in another sitting area, hedged in for privacy; enjoy alfresco tea or lunch at an ornate table and wrought-iron chairs within a brick-walled arbor, or linger until twilight with the light of a lantern to make the night magic. This garden is the perfect combination of exuberance and restraint, done up in a hundred shades of green that provide a jewel-like setting for the home and a constant sweet oasis in the midst of the city.
