This eye-catching image is from the entrance to a James Island car wash. I like this landscape design because it uses a combination of native Charleston plants to create a radiant coastal motif that looks good year-round. (It reminds me of long summer days on Folly Beach.)
Some people have an aversion to “spiky” plants such as palms and ornamental grasses, and I take that into consideration in my residential landscape designs. However, if I had a full-sun section of my yard to accommodate this design, I’d install it in a heartbeat.
Here we have a curved plot of land adorned with elements that radiate from their centers:
- Sweetgrass abutting the front of the curb
- Green saw palmettos abutting the middle of the curb
- Silver saw palmettos abutting the rear of the curb
- A Natchez crape myrtle, which remains small and flows outward
- A boxwood, which has been rounded to accentuate the flow of the crape myrtle
- Palmetto trees in the rear of the plot, flowing over the area
- Dark mulch to make all of the green pop
This type of landscape design isn’t for everyone. But, for those like me who enjoy the radiant nature of the unique coastal environment in which we live, it’s brilliant. Literally and figuratively.
Seth Mason, Charleston SC
