Get Inspired at The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Tour in Dallas Tomorrow

Share News:

The Thomas Residence garden is one of six featured in tomorrow’s Garden Conservancy Dallas Open Day. Photo: The Garden Conservancy

Wine connoisseur and author Hugh Johnson once said, “No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden.”

Tomorrow, get a glimpse of six distinctive Dallas gardens as they’ll be for only one day with the Garden Conservancy‘s Open Days program from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This program has shared more than 200 gardens around the country with everyone from horticulturalists to weekend dabblers. The six showcased tomorrow in Dallas are works of art, with a variety of styles and trees, flowers, and shrubs that will inspire you to get your hands dirty back home.

Dallas Open Day

The Rancho Cruces garden. Photo: Chas Fitzgerald

RANCHO CRUCES GARDEN

2321 Fouts Ln.

Remember the summer of three years ago? The super scorcher that set records for temperatures and lack of rain? The Rancho Cruces garden was installed during that time, and thrives today. Part of the reason is Texas native plants, like mesquite, Texas Sage, buffalo turf, and salvia. Heat tolerant and low-water-use plants like these are found throughout the garden, which has varied topography terraced into distinct outdoor rooms. On the lowest level in the back gardens, you’ll find an old ravine, now filled in, and planted as a bottomlands with Inland sea oats, bald cypress, and a sycamore, which the Garden Conservancy notes would be typical of a moist Texas riverine ecosystem.

In the upper levels of Rancho Cruces, you’ll find maples, vitex, black stemmed bamboo, “purple robe” locust, oakleaf hydrangeas, grey cotoneaster, Copper Canyon daisies, and raised vegetable boxes.

Dallas Open Day

The Ravinia Grange garden. Photo: Kevin Althans

RAVINIA GRANGE GARDEN

2901 West 12th St.

This garden shares space with a 1911 farmhouse on a half-acre lot with about 25 mature oaks, cedar elms, hackberry, Eastern red cedar, and a rare pink vitex. The current owners, who bought the property in 2002 and started implementing the garden in the spring of 2005, have created a masterpiece in the heart of North Oak Cliff.

Patrick Boyd-Lloyd, one of the owners, is a designer with David Rolston Landscape Architects in Dallas. Patrick and his husband, Tom Boyd-Lloyd, have let their imaginations create a beautiful, thriving garden on their property. (If you’re looking to get some ideas, a list of plants will be provided on the day of the tour.)

The couple added Arizona cypress, Viburnum awabuki, Eastern red cedar, and “Nellie R. Stevens” holly for privacy along the perimeter. Near the street, where the sun shines hard and hot during the summer, Patrick and Tom planted drought-tolerant Texas sage, crape myrtle “Tuscarora,” red yucca, and Texas native perennials like coneflowers.

Patrick and Tom made beautiful hardscape changes, like a meandering garden path, as well as outdoor rooms and zones that allow for maximum enjoyment of the garden. They also added a wood deck, a granite sand terrace, a raw steel fire pit used as a planter in warm months, a cedar pergola, a brick seating area, a secluded terrace of salvaged bricks, and raised beds that are home to a vegetable garden.

Dallas Open Day

The Munsterman/Frederick garden. Photo: The Garden Conservancy

MUNSTERMAN/FREDERICK GARDEN

2315 Fouts Ln.

This is the second garden on Fouts Lane in North Oak Cliff, and it shows a distinct Texas-Louisiana influence. Water features include an antique, three-tiered, cast iron fountain in a garden pool. Water flows from here through a courtyard wall to the goldfish pond below.

The owners purchased the property in 2011 and set to work creating both hardscapes and garden that work together to make a lovely setting. They cleared the yard, which had lots of junk and overgrowth on it, and placed a screened verandah with a French door. This connects the house to a newly installed lower terrace, which offers an outdoor fireplace, arbor, and fountain.

Also on that lower level, a custom-designed carport/outdoor entertaining space. Nearby, walk around and enjoy the lawn and perennial border, shade garden, chicken coop, and vegetable garden.

Dallas Open Day

The Peeples-Lekar garden. Photo: The Garden Conservancy

PEEPLES-LEKAR GARDEN

1601 Kings Hwy.

Everything in this garden was designed and installed by the homeowners, and it’s gorgeous. The front garden area of the garden is European/Williamsburg-inspired, meaning formal and structured. But around back, get ready for a more fun, unstructured approach with a tropical flair. The owners have a love for all plants, and in the gardens you’ll find both tried-and-true plants, as well as more unusual varieties not typically seen around Dallas.

Dallas Open Day

The Thomas Residence garden. Photo: The Garden Conservancy

THOMAS RESIDENCE GARDEN

4107 Turtle Creek Blvd.

This elegant garden sits on the property of a 1920’s house, which is only on its second owner.  Landscape designer Robert Bellamy Design is the mastermind behind this garden space, which is high on one end, sloping down to a lower green area with topiary plantings and terra cotta pots. There area two gravel walkways next to this area, which lead up to the porch. All around this space, you’ll find a wall of lush, green plantings. Along the south side of the yard, there’s a limestone-bordered swimming pool and a sod area. Over on the west side of the garden, a retaining wall features an antique tile-and-seashell fountain. Opposite the house, the sunken greenhouse is an exciting find, and up the steps, a formal garden and free range chicken area (check out the stucco/tile chicken coop nearby!).

Dallas Open Day

The Wicker Wolf garden. Photo: The Garden Conservancy

WICKER-WOLF GARDEN

523 Hoel Dr.

When the owners bought the property 14 years ago, they got a lot with mature oaks, magnolias, crepe myrtles, and rose of Sharon. They added on this wonderful base, adding dense plantings that look lush and green. You’ll find sweet olives, magnolias, gardenias, aralias, hydrangeas, hostas, angel trumpet, crinums, oxblood lily, hardy amaryllis, and Peruvian daffodils. In collaboration with David Rolston Landscape Architects, they created the pool and surrounding decks, as well as a water-wise irrigation system installed with micro sprinklers and wireless control, koi pond, lounge areas, outdoor dining area, and custom designed steel garden trellis.

Tickets for the Dallas Open Days program are $7 at each private garden. Discounted admission tickets (six tickets for the price of five) are available in advance at the following local retailers North Haven Gardens, 7700 Northhaven Rd., and Redentas, 2001 Skillman St. Learn more about the six gardens here.

 

 

Posted in

Leah Shafer is a content and social media specialist, as well as a Dallas native, who lives in Richardson with her family. In her sixth-grade yearbook, Leah listed "interior designer" as her future profession. Now she writes about them, as well as all things real estate, for CandysDirt.com.

Leave a Comment