Live, Learn, Landscape

(See our slideshow of even more photos from this spectacular garden.) 

             Phil Servidea's enhthusiasm for gardening grows each year as he enjoys the beautiful fruits of his labor. It all started when a Park Place neighbor, Jerry Trotter, took Servidea to hear Leslie Santapaul of the Smith Mountain Lake Association speak about the importance of riparian buffer gardens. Santapaul explained that a wide border of plants along the shoreline helps to filter runoff water before it gets into the lake, in the process removing excess fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals that contaminate the water. As an added bonus, the borders become an important habitat for shoreline wildlife, and they attract butterflies.

            "It made a lot of sense to me," said Servidea, a former lobbyist for communication and information technology corporations in the Washington, D.C., area. "I was concerned for the ecology of the lake, and a border of plants along the water is a lot more attractive than bare riprap."

            So began Servidea’s gardening odyssey. He planted his lakefront border, putting in a mixture of sturdy American native plants such as black-eyed Susans along with the ever-blooming rose Knock Out, Crocosmia ‘Lucifer,’ delphinium, Phlox paniculata, larkspur and cardinal flowers. The border has been a huge success, growing fuller and looking richer every year as the plants mature. Butterflies flock to the flowers, and the variety of plants means there is something in bloom all season.

            Inspired, Servidea began work on a water garden. Situated on a gentle slope facing the lake, the pond consists of a small waterfall and stream that spills into a rock-lined, randomly shaped pool. Once it was completed, Servidea began planting the garden around it

            "I found a smoke tree at a nursery and chose it as the anchor plant to the design," he said. "I had never heard of it before, but it turned out to be the perfect choice. I wanted something that wouldn’t get too tall so it wouldn’t block the view of the lake from our deck. This grows only 10 to 12 feet tall, and I love the purple foliage. The only problem is cleaning the leaves out of the pond in the fall, but it’s worth it."

            Other plants that add to the composition around the pond, softening the edges and providing color and texture through the season, include Coreopsis ‘Zagreb,’ a blue-flowering annual sage, and Evolvulus nuttallianus ‘Blue Daze,’ a low-growing shrub covered with sky-blue flowers throughout the summer. Nearby is a bench Servidea made from plans he found online. Placed near the pond for optimal close-up viewing, Servidea said he envisions enlarging the bed behind the bench, filling it with a variety of plants.

            Populating the pond turned out to be another learning experience. The first summer, Servidea added some goldfish, which thrived until late November then disappeared.

            "I assumed they had been eaten or died," he said.

            The next spring, Servidea drained the pond to almost empty to clean it and refresh the water. To his surprise, he found his goldfish; they had been happily hibernating in the recesses at the bottom of the pond. Now, five years later, the same fish are thriving.

            True to form for avid gardeners, Servidea has numerous ongoing projects, and he is looking forward to expanding and improving his garden. Over the past two seasons he installed four drip-irrigation-system hubs: one for his vegetable garden on the side of the house, another for the potted plants on the back deck, a third for the hanging ferns on the front porch and the fourth in his lakeside flower border. Set on automatic timers, the systems will keep the plants watered regularly and deeply without losing a lot of water to run off or evaporation.

            "Drip irrigation is a wonderful thing," Servidea said, "and it’s a piece of cake to install."

            This summer he said he will experiment with different drip emitter head sizes (they range from ones that flow at a rate of 1 gallon of water per hour up to ones that emit 4 gallons an hour), working out the optimum water delivery rate for different plants and their needs. For example, the cardinal flowers are native to bogs and require a lot of moisture, while the black-eyed Susans are prairie flowers that thrive in drought conditions.

            "I’m an amateur at this, and each year I lose some plants," Servidea said. "But every year the garden gets better and fuller."

Catriona Tudor Erler is a freelance garden writer, photographer and speaker who divides her time between SML and Charlottesville. She is the author of nine garden books, including Design Ideas for Home Landscaping, Poolscaping: Gardening and Landscaping Around Your Swimming Pool and Spa, and Complete Home Landscaping.