Lynchburg Living

Departments

By Camille Smith

It’s one of the most beautiful times of the year in Central Virginia. The azaleas and the rhododendron have budded and bloomed, while flowers and trees paint the landscape the colors of spring and early summer. Pinks, purples, blues and yellows are covering the trails that weave through our area, lining the highways and byways throughout the city. However stunning those wild flowers can be, it will be the carefully planted and tended gardens that will be the sight to see.

The 78^th annual Virginia’s Garden Week (VGW) just passed in April, celebrating these gardens and the homes they accessorize throughout the Commonwealth. The VGW tour featured over 250 homes and gardens from Virginia Beach to the Alleghany Mountains and is known as America’s largest open house as well as the oldest and largest statewide tour in the nation. Sponsored by the Hillside Garden Club, the Lynchburg Garden Club and the Garden Club of Virginia, five homes in Lynchburg were featured this year, along with a few local landmarks.

Though the tour has come and gone, local gardeners and even green-thumb novices can still benefit from the knowledge of some home owners featured on the tour. Enter the Aylors.

Veteran gardeners, Judy and Lee Aylor, put their gardening knowledge to use every day at their family gardening store, Aylor’s Farm & Garden, on Route 221 in Forest, Virginia.

The gardens that surround their own home have been 28 years in the making. Camellias, encore azaleas, pieris japonica, lilacs and other bulbs too numerous to name lead the way around the home to the back garden. A large koi pond sits as a beautiful centerpiece, surrounded by bird houses and other blooms.

“We have been gardening forever,” Judy said. “We took a master gardening class and, of course, sell plants out of the store. The more types of flowers I have tried and continue to have in the yard, the more helpful I can be in telling people what to do with the seeds and flowers they are buying.”

A unique aspect of the Aylor’s Garden Day presentation was their small vegetable garden. While vegetable gardening can seem a bit overwhelming at first, the Aylors have solved the biggest problems with practical solutions.

“We had a lot of animal problems when we started our garden,” Judy said. “We put netting under the soil to keep out the moles and created the smaller fence around the garden to keep out the rabbits and a high fence around the entire yard to keep out the deer.”

With these protective measures taken, the Aylors enjoy cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and other cold crop veggies in their garden during the cooler seasons.

When planning a flower garden, Lee suggests finding inspiration from the parts of life that bring you joy. Gardens can be reminiscent of memories or places that you love. In the Aylor’s case, vacation memories inspired them to create replicas of their favorite places.

“When we went to England and fell in love with their gardens, we had to bring them home,” Lee said.

Intrigued with other cultures, the couple travels frequently and find ways to bring highlights from each of their adventures home to become a part of their outside retreat. The more they travel, the more their garden changes and grows.

The finest example of this is the front patio with its garden chimes and European lion fountain, where the couple frequently dines under a large Kwanzan Cherry tree that blooms light pink in the summer.

“When we were in Napa, we found a great restaurant that I’ll never forget. We ate on an outside patio with a fountain nearby,” Judy said. “When we came home, we had to recreate that scene to bring back that moment.”

Visitors to their gardens on Garden Day may have thought it to be the perfect creation, but to the Aylors, it is an ever-evolving creation. Each year brings new flower hybrids to choose from; every few months it is time to plant new seasonal blooms. And with each plant, a lesson is learned.

“From season to season we adjust, uproot the spring flowers to plant the summer and so on,” Judy said. “We have taken things that we liked and found what worked well. We learn by trial and error … it’s a work in progress.”

Most gardens are just that–a work in progress. What works well in certain climates won’t work well in others and soil can be different from one neighborhood to the next. Garden Day homeowners, Sallie and Walker Sydnor, are the perfect example of a garden prevailing in spite of the soil.

“We started out hoping that we could have plants that didn’t require a lot of watering and maintenance,” Sallie said. “Even the thought of having a lawn seemed impossible.”

When the Sydnors purchased the lot of land that now holds their rustic English cottage, it had previously been cleared in preparation for a nearby dam. The top soil that would have cultivated a healthy garden was gone. After careful plant selection and one irrigation system later, they enjoy a small lawn and a few well-tended flowers and trees. It continues to be a garden in development for Sallie, who treasures the areas throughout the garden where she can sit and enjoy the flowers.

“I do love the Dawn roses on the pergola. I always envisioned roses around the house,” Sallie said. “I have a favorite tree and it is outside our front door called a Coral Bark Maple. In the fall, it quickly turns a pretty ordinary looking maple tree into this gorgeous, corally-red bark and it is just glorious. When everything else is gray and dormant, the setting sun will backlight it and create a look, just like fire.”

Sallie refers to their gardens as a display of their struggle with nature evolving. However, as Garden Day tourists can attest, their gardens nicely compliment their cottage-style home that boasts panoramic views of the Blue Ridge and Apple Orchard Mountains.

“This home is our forever house,” Sydnor said. “It’s very homey and comfortable. It is just us.”

Another home featured on the tour is owned by Peggy and Billy Andrews, built in collaboration with Architect Bob Garbee. The Andrews wanted more than a room with a view; they wanted a home with a view all the way to the gardens that were visible from the moment they walked in the door.

Consulting a professional when testing out your green thumb can prevent you from making the wrong choices that can be pretty costly. With so many architects, designers, landscapers and gardeners in the Central Virginia area, a fresh garden free of avoidable beginner’s mistakes can be within anyone’s reach. The Andrews are the perfect example of a family that knew what they wanted but needed to get expert advice to make their dreams a reality.

For the garden, Peggy reached out to Donna Hackman, a retired landscape designer who has been published in numerous magazines and books, as well as landscape architect, Proctor Harvey.

“I learned a lot from Donna. She led the way and created the designs for our gardens. She has a gift, just extraordinary talent. Proctor was a delight as well,” Peggy said. “I love being able to look at the gardens from the house and see the color and the texture and the berries and flowers and everything about it.”

While many consider gardening to be a personal retreat, it can also be a great family project. Getting the kids outside and in the dirt can not only be educational for everyone, it can be fun. The fifth garden on the tour this year was the Duerson home featuring a garden that will soon have a new addition from the youngest member of the family.

“Our youngest, Sara, is 10 and she is so into gardening herself and wants to do a vegetable and flower garden. She is already asking which piece of land she can have to start her garden,” homeowner Linda Duerson said.

When the family decided to renovate their home in 2008, the backyard took the toll and they started from scratch. What was a plowed disaster is now a garden retreat complete with an in-ground pool and a pool house with a full kitchen and bathroom.

“The garden is still a relatively younger garden since we gutted the whole backyard, but we really enjoy it,” Duerson said.

The collective expression from the 2011 Garden Tour homeowners was to take chances and learn from your mistakes. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned green thumb, gardening can be a creative outlet, an education lesson or a relaxing hobby. And without a doubt, it will be a growing experience.