Landscape designer helps a struggling gardener find her passion — and the perfect plants

I have a love-hate relationship with gardening. I love those Zen moments when I'm digging in the dirt among eye-popping colors and sensual smells, working side-by-side with the bees, beetles and earthworms.

But too often, I find myself sweating and grunting as I'm whacking weeds, chiseling clay and wondering why the azaleas I planted last year are besieged with brown spots.

This isn't what my husband and I envisioned five years ago when we spent weeks removing mounds of ivy from our front yard, fueled by visions of a spectacular showpiece of flora and fauna that passersby would "ooh" and "ah" over.

Sure, I knew it would take time and energy to get my foliage fantasy going, but wasn't a garden supposed to evolve from year to year? Wasn't it supposed to take less time and money to maintain each spring?

In March, as I surveyed the meager blooms among the winter's casualties, I decided to get real with my inner gardener. I had to admit that I was lacking that "it" factor that separates people who possess a passion for petunias from those who plant a row of shrubs so nobody can look into their yard.

A gardening guide

I wanted to find that passion, so I had an idea: I would hire a guide, a "gardening mentor," as I called it.

My first thought was to turn to friends whose gardens I admired, but I wanted to develop my own style, not just mimic someone else's.

So I called a handful of independent landscape designers for initial phone interviews, and weeded out several, mostly due to price. The average charge was $45 to $65 per hour, and I wanted to stick to the low end as my budget for the entire project was $800.

I knew I'd met my mentor when I called Cheryl Wilson, an award-winning landscape designer who's had her own consulting business for 30 years (Creative Garden Designers, 425-885-9709). She told me she learned most of what she knows from her grandmother and I immediately liked her down-to-earth demeanor as well as her background in art and interior design. And at $45 an hour, her price was right.

I told her I wanted more than a landscape designer, that I wanted someone to really walk me through the steps of caring for flora and fauna, that I wanted a mentor. Unlike some of the other landscape designers I'd interviewed, she immediately took to this idea.

"I help people create gardens that fit their lifestyles," she explained. "I find out how much time they like to spend gardening, I choose plants that bloom during the time of day they like to garden."

I could see that this wasn't just a job for Wilson, it was a passion. Still, I admit I was a bit skeptical that she could cure my anything-but-green thumb. She put me at ease during our first meeting, however, as she asked more questions about what I wanted to get out of my gardening experience as well as what I hoped to see sprouting out of the dirt.

As we bonded over our disdain for Dusty Miller plants and our love of early evening dead-heading, my hesitations gave way to a newfound enthusiasm.

The planting plan

During that first hour-long meeting, we set realistic goals that matched my budget and desired outcome for the garden. Instead of tackling the entire front yard, we settled on two main areas: the front perimeter and the side of the driveway.

"These are the primary garden beds in your yard, so we want them to set the tone," Wilson explained. "It's like choosing the furniture in a room before you choose the accent accessories."

We decided on six sessions, meeting weekly to plan and execute the gardens, and then the last two sessions would take place throughout the summer to discuss maintenance of my new pride and joy.

Session 2 was about plants and planning.

"You don't want a jellybean effect in your garden, and you want year-round color instead of a few eye-popping months in the summer and then a lot of dead space in late fall through early spring," Wilson explained as she showed me pictures of dozens of flowering shrubs, perennials of different heights, evergreens and groundcover in the jewel tones and bright accent colors I loved.

Rediscovering the joy of it all

One of the best things Wilson did during those first two sessions was to help me rediscover what it is I like about gardening and how I can focus more on the joy and less on the maintenance work.

Her strategy centered on covering every inch of ground so that the weeds blowing over from the nearby woods couldn't take root.

At the same time, she helped me choose plants, shrubs and flowers that didn't compete with each other for space or attention.

In short, Wilson designed a structure that she could easily teach me how to care for throughout the summer.

By our third session, when 50 bags of fertilizer were dropped off to prepare the soil, I knew this was the beginning of a beautiful new relationship between Wilson, my garden and me.

Jennifer Haupt, a freelance writer living in Bellevue, will check back in with us in August to share how her garden is shaping up.