Maryland, Maryland, how does your garden grow?
Quite well, it seems.
Several weeks ago, we set out to find the best gardens in the Baltimore area, asking readers to send us pictures and descriptions of their favorite yards.
We were overwhelmed by the response to our first garden contest, receiving nearly 180 entries, ranging from rambling estates to tiny flower beds.
We visited 24 gardens, and with input from horticulture experts from the Maryland Cooperative Extension Service, we selected our favorites.
BEST OVERALL
MARY TROTTA, PERRY HALL
THIS RETIRED ENGLISH TEACHER STARTed her backyard garden 28 years ago when she moved into her suburban home. The initial problem she faced was a steep hill with neighboring houses looming above. The builder had planted a row of pine trees to help screen the view, but Trotta realized it would be impossible to mow the grass on the bank. So she set about slowly creating a garden oasis.
"I don't know how it happened, but I was out here all the time," says Trotta, surveying her yard, which is accented with dogwoods, peonies, hardy begonias, astilbe, oak-leaf hydrangea and sweet woodruff.
Trotta says she got serious about gardening about 15 years ago as her children grew older and she had more time.
Over the years, she hired professionals to install a low stone wall beneath the bank, and a friend helped her change the brick patio from a rectangular shape to a circle. She then created a number of outdoor rooms in which to enjoy the views of her garden, including a small nook where she often eats breakfast.
With a neighbor who shares her gardening enthusiasm, she has created a seamless transition from one property to the next, and she takes advantage of the neighbor's pond, which murmurs over the tranquil scene.
She says she has tried to select plants for year-round interest and is now planting flowers for their fragrance, such as Oriental lilies.
FAVORITE PLANTS
Peonies "for wonderful fragrance." Among her peonies are some from her husband's great-grandmother.
BEST TIP
Having learned that digging flower beds is back-breaking work, Trotta is a firm believer in raised beds. When she creates a new bed, she covers the area with newspaper, then piles on the compost and mulch. In a few months, the bed is ready for planting.
BEST LARGE GARDEN
DONIE ELY,
GLEN ARM
DONIE ELY, A RETIRED DUNKIN' Donuts franchise owner, was another gardener challenged by a shady slope.
When she and her husband bought their 3-acre property, she was confronted with a wooded landscape beset by deer. She began her plantings even before their house was built, starting with a few azaleas.
In the 34 years that followed, she chose plants as they appealed to her.
"I'd see something I didn't have and I'd buy it and find someplace for it," says Ely, whose shady lot is now populated by maidenhair fern, hosta, woodland poppies, columbine, hardy orchids, trillium and toad lily that thrive beneath the canopy of tulip poplars.
A member of the Glen Arm Garden Club for 20 years, she easily rattles off the names of the plants that populate her mostly shady yard. She is constantly surveying the garden, striving for color throughout the seasons.
"I like the Monet colors, the pink, lavenders and blues," Ely says. "I like blues, and I buy every blue I can find."
FAVORITE PLANTS
Astilbe, bleeding heart, spiderwort.
BEST TIP
Spread plants by gathering up the seeds and sprinkling them where wanted. "I do what nature does," Ely says. "My garden is so full because I just sprinkle seed everywhere."
LARGE GARDEN RUNNER-UP
Barbara Holdridge, Owings Mills
BEST MEDIUM-SIZE GARDEN
JUDITH BENDER,
CEDARCROFT
WHEN JUDITH BENDER AND her husband, Neil Brafman, moved into their home in Cedarcroft 11 years ago, they found an overgrown garden populated by diseased boxwoods and climbing ivy, which she hated.
Taking advice from Laurence Belosevic, the landscaper who had helped the house's previous occupants, Bender completely re-envisioned the half-acre lawn. "He gave us permission to get rid of things," Bender says.
The couple ripped out the boxwoods and towering yew bushes that were hiding the front of the house, and Bender, a plant geneticist, learned to look beyond individual plants to imagine the artistry of a garden.
Her plans were helped by the sound structure of the previous garden, which dated from the 1950s and featured various focal points that could be appreciated from inside and outside the house. Bender incorporated edible plants, herbs and fruit trees into the yard and added plants that offered year-round interest, such as paperbark maple and hellebore.
In the shady corners of the front yard, she planted six kinds of hosta. In the more sunny areas, scarlet-colored monarda and climbing roses brought a splash of color.
But it is in the back where Bender's handiwork shines. Within the formal garden and its brick pathways she planted waves of hosta, hellebore, daylilies and eye-catching cardoons. A fish pond and gazebo beneath a large magnolia added interest to the landscape.
FAVORITE PLANTS Hellebore, epimedium, paperbark maple
BEST TIP
"Get rid of your grass. You don't have to mow anything; you can be creative and put anything in you want. ... And don't be afraid to get rid of a shrub or a tree."
MEDIUM GARDEN RUNNER-UP
Cheryl Hodges, Dundalk
BEST SMALL GARDEN
ELVA TILLMAN,
PIGTOWN
IN A 20-FOOT-BY-25-FOOT PLOT OF what was once a depleted industrial site, Elva Tillman, a Baltimore attorney, created a garden of three-season beauty. Black-eyed Susans are the focal point of her small yard behind a rowhouse in Southwest Baltimore. A Japanese maple, forsythia, azalea, honeysuckle, mums, a rose bush and pots of annuals such as marigolds and petunias are tucked within the space.
"I didn't know anything about gardening," says Tillman, who has been working in her garden for 16 years. "I started with wax begonias and started looking in books."
Her friend, James E. Jones, an artist and retired art professor at Morgan State University who has his own flower garden in Howard Park, gave her pointers and plants. Now she enjoys giving plants back to him, and to friends and neighbors.
"It's just a fun thing to do."
FAVORITE PLANTS
Black-eyed Susans, impatiens, mums, hostas
BEST TIP
"You have to be consistent and persistent. Raising a garden is like raising children. You really have to cultivate them and nurture them. You really need to do something in the garden every day."
SMALL GARDEN RUNNER-UP
Sharon and Bill Reuter, Ridgely's Delight
BEST CONTAINER
GARDEN
TERRY AND JUNE BOND, CEDARCROFT
TO MAKE THE MOST OF THEIR small yard, the Bonds planted containers of flowers and vegetables, which line the concrete driveway and add interest to flower beds around their house.
"I love containers. You can move them around," June says.
In rows of planters, Terry grows nine kinds of peppers, four varieties of tomatoes and three kinds of cucumbers, as well as parsley, basil, coriander, arugula and sage. Marigolds add color to the containers of herbs and vegetables.
June plants flowers in her containers, which include an eye-catching urn in the front yard that features a Sago palm, torenia, diamond frost and yellow impatiens. Three smaller urns on the front porch steps contain coleus, asparagus fern, bacopa and torenia.
The containers range in size from pint-sized pots to a claw-foot bathtub planted with impatiens, sweet potato vine, astilbe, diamond frost, asparagus fern and rush grass in memory of June's mother.
While the Bonds also have koi ponds and perennial beds, they say they love the flexibility of the containers. "If you have a bare spot, it lets you fill in a space, plus it lets you experiment with different plants every year," June says.
FAVORITE PLANTS
Queen Anne's lace, passion flower, hostas (June); cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes (Terry).
BEST TIP
"Keep trying different things until you find out what works," June says. "Be prepared to water a little more often because containers dry out. And be prepared to have fun with the flexibility of it."
Want to know more? Go to baltimoresun.com / gardencontest:
to view more photos of the winners' gardens
to see and read about the runners-up for the best large, medium and small gardens
to view a narrated slide show from large-garden winner Donie Ely
to see videos of Barbara Holdridge and Elva Tillman as they talk about and show off their gardens.
to learn how June Bond created some of her container gardens (incomplete)
HOW THE CONTEST WAS JUDGED
In choosing the winners, judges considered each garden's overall composition, the degree of difficulty and the gardener's creativity.
Judges also took into consideration how gardeners dealt with particular problems and their use of native plants and sound environmental practices.
The judges were Master Gardeners and Sun designers Joannah Hill and Carrie Lyle, Sun Lifestyle Editor Liz Atwood, Maryland Cooperative Extension Service regional specialist Dave Clement and extension service horticulture consultant Ellen Nibali.
NEW ONLINE
NEXT WEEK
In our search for the best gardens in the Baltimore area, we came across many outstanding examples of the beauty and creativity flourishing in the yards around us.
We decided to show you some of these gardens in a new feature that will appear in Modern Life and on our Web page at
baltimoresun.com /
gardener throughout the summer.
Look for The Sun's Gardener of the Week and read that person's story starting next Sunday.