New Homes

"I really try to connect with their intuitive part of what is right for these plants and it is fascinating. It is the real art of it, "explains Christie Barry.

For Christie's Fine Gardening & Creative Landscapes, a project is not about drawing up a tidy plan with specific plants in a set number to be placed just so. Her landscape team crafts unique home gardens using artistic creative license to form a consciousness between the homeowner and the elements in the garden.

"I really try to work in tandem with nature, and feel intuitively what is the right way to go in each garden. I really want to teach the average homeowner how to connect with plants and nature," Barry says. Her firm consists of herself, husband Kevin Barry, designer Ric Erickson and a labor crew.

Fewer Rules, More Creativity

This company's distinctive approach using less than standard parameters and much more creativity was exactly what Louanna Heuhsen was looking for when she wanted someone to landscape the yard at her house near the University of Richmond.

"My goal was to have a place that suited the feeling of the house but mostly what I wanted it to be was inviting and warm," said Heuhsen. Her front cement patio was falling apart and her back yard had little else but a crape myrtle and grass.

"I knew I wanted stone to be a big part of it and I had 'cottage garden' in my head. But my feeling was more for the aesthetics that for the horticulture. And I really did not know exactly what I needed to do."

"It was Going to be Great"

Heuhsen was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which they were able to come up with ideas at her first meeting with Christie Barry. "Sometimes you deal with a professional and they make you feel stupid. I could tell from Christie's attitude that she had a feeling for the space and she was really respectful. She asked a lot of questions and I had a sense she liked my house. So I realized whatever she did to the space it was going to be great," Heuhsen said.

"Rarely do customers know exactly what they want, but they recognize it when they see it. It is like a painting—you see a painting and it either moves you or it doesn't move you," said Barry.

Projects are pursued with an artistic flair and an almost intuitive understanding of what is going to be beautiful and what is going to make the customer connect with nature, every time they go into their garden they feel good and uplifted."

Barry and her team transformed Heuhsen's crumbling front patio into a bluestone terrace with a white pergola to the left of the front door, a trellis to the right and a sitting wall capped in bluestone. Team members also topped the cement walkway and faced the steps going out of the front door with bluestone to match the terrace.

More than a Garden

The back yard is now a beautiful sloping garden surrounded by boulders, accentuated by a bluestone sitting/retaining wall and dotted with lights under the camellias and a serviceberry tree.

A wooden pergola over the back gate allows entrance to a bluestone patio that flows out with an irregular edging into the grass. The patio features a wrought iron table and chairs.

"It is much more than just having a garden; she made a room out of my back yard," said Heuhsen." It is my house—it just got bigger."

Christie' Fine Gardening takes an unconventional approach to landscape design. Though plants are sketched out to include hardscaping, ponds, entertainment areas, service areas and lighting, the company asks for room to change the plans as the designers see fit. The company also asks for complete leeway when it comes to choosing the plants and placing them in the garden.

Plan not Ironclad

"I tell them what our intentions are, and if the customer doesn't get the expectation of an exact plan and exact plants, they really do not mind," says Barry. She works within a budget for the plants and installation, but says if she tries a plant and it won't work, she takes it back to the nursery and gets something else.

Once team members get to know the homeowner and the space, they see what the site offers while looking for artistic opportunities, says Barry; they choose hardscaping first—garden accents, stone and wood.

"We are always looking for focal points and objects of art to create the art in the garden," she notes. Next, team members address the mechanics of the garden—dealing with drainage, burying the conduit for lighting and tackling soil retention. The hardscapes are assembled first, the plants go in last. Barry chooses plants for fragrance, color and texture.

Mix of Colors, Textures

"People expect too much from their gardens. You should have two to three fabulous things blooming and then something else instead of everything blooming at once," she notes. A realistic expectation is 20% bloom and 80% leaf color and texture.

Christie's Fine Gardening also offers its clients full-time maintenance. "People very rarely want to mess with their gardens much nowadays because they are too busy," Barry notes. She's willing to show an owner how to maintain their garden, but most prefer that the company do it.

The company forms relationships for the long term. "We believe that if you do the right thing the money comes. The great blessing is that somehow we connect with this."

"You feel like she is a partner for the undertaking," says Heuhsen, who has hired the firm for the long-term maintenance.

And she is currently talking to Barry about designing some sort of platform to go over the grass ditch in her front yard at a later date. "It is an ongoing relationship and to me that says it all," says Heuhsen.

— Richmond Times-Dispatch