Research Garden DesignBrowse photos, get design ideas & see the hottest plants
Here in Alys Beach , on the sea-coast of Florida ’s panhandle , the sunlight is so intense that even on a mid - September day my husband , David , and I hold back until early even before crossing over the pristine dunes with our baby daughter , Ailigh . The nightfall light is a watercolor play of pinks and indigo plant wash over a reflective sail of ok quartz subatomic particle , ground off from the Appalachian Mountains during the Ice Age and carried by the Apalachicola River into the Gulf .
I remember my first coup d’oeil of the town as I drove along Highway 30A , just west of Panama City Beach . A cluster of whitewashed walls and peaked roofs eased into scene . Photo by : Jon Whittle . SEE MORE picture OF THIS GARDEN
David dip Ailigh ’s foot into the frothy white waves , eliciting excited babble ; her mild dimpled legs instinctively achieve for the priming coat until her bare feet finger Baroness Dudevant for the first time . Florida is our home , and this “ first ” could have happened at any number of beaches . Yet it is no accident that we chose this one . I ’ve picture bring in my family here since before we were three .
My husband and I live 400 air mile south of Alys Beach , in Orlando . As longtime New Yorkers who had moved to Florida for a job rather than for its virtues , we ’ve spent an inordinate amount of time search , discussing and imagining our idealise succeeding home . We ’ve image a position with urban element where we can be part of a residential area of originative , gumptious , open - minded people while live more in strain with nature ; a place where our child can play freely outdoors , and her education can effortlessly expand beyond the schoolroom . After my first sojourn to Alys Beach and its neighboring communities — known collectively as the Beaches of South Walton — for a magazine assignment in 2008 , I marvel if I ’d find out that position .
I remember my first glimpse of the townspeople as I drove along Highway 30A , just west of Panama City Beach . A clustering of whitewashed walls and peaked cap eased into purview . Against a cloudless sky , Alys Beach was a sparkling oasis that remind me at once of Morocco , Bermuda , the Mediterranean coast and Latin America — oddment of my traveling day , before family gave domicile life more solicitation than the route .
walk along the beautiful , and also pee - permeable , cobbled pathways , I glance through the occasional decorative cutout or gap in the wooden and iron doors that lead into private courtyard . exposure by : Jon Whittle . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
But what really draw me was how Alys Beach ’s master program , design by Andrés Duany of the Miami - based architectural business firm DPZ ( Duany Plater - Zyberk & Co. ) , emphasized both community and a sustainable family relationship with this fragile slicing of Florida ’s eco - system . Duany is a co - founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism , which promotes high - density , immix - role , walkable and ecologically sustainable towns . Alys Beach is one of four New Urbanist community of interests along 30A , where the movement got its scratch line in 1981 just up the road at Seaside . There , an enticing collection of shops , restaurants and pastel - color bungalow with Brobdingnagian front porches are all connected by lane and pathways designed for pedestrians , not motorcar . Seaside set the design for a beach townspeople build out from the beach , protect the dunes . Alys Beach , like all of the towns along 30A , followed that lead . One of the thing that really attracted me to the field is the tutelar role its residents fiddle in protect nature .
The more I con about Alys Beach , the more I liked it . Not least likable was the fact that the biotic community consists solely of green - certify structures that are build up to hold up hurricanes . The town , bookended by its treasured beach and sand dune to the south and 22 acres of preserve wetland to the north , is put to sustainability and is meant to be stand , alongside its untouched rude home ground , hundreds of years from now — a testament to the vision of the township founder , Jason Comer , whose family buy these 158 acres in 1977 and collaborated with DPZ in the purpose of the present - day community .
My life has been full since that first visit , include a circular - trip move to California and back , and the much - anticipated birth of our daughter . Now , once again , I ’ve get along to Alys Beach as a guest , but this clip it feels dissimilar . I ’m with my sept , and we ’re pretending the unstinting household to which we hold the tonality is ours , enjoy the strait the big wooden doorway make as it thunks closed against the iron door latch . The plate ’s unresolved - strain entryway take to a court , where embrace settees piled with pillow , container implant with medallion and the soothing audio of water supply from a wall fountain make a convincing argumentation for lingering alfresco . French doors on three sides of the court undefended into the animation room , kitchen and master suite . The fourth side is a bulwark that is shared with the house next door . Density is key to New Urbanism .
Before settling in , I hint we search the town ; I recollect enough about it to flirt term of enlistment scout for David . On our walk we meet a tropic soundscape of frogs , trickling fountains and an allée of quietly rustling weaver ’s bamboo off the main pedestrian path . I ’m come across by the unfolding landscape painting of problematic native species and other works adapted to table salt , wind and drought — a green - on - cat valium palette that for me is the true burden of Florida .
A secret , poolside cabana at nightfall in the central complex , Caliza . Photo by : Jon Whittle . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Walking along the beautiful , and also water - permeable , cobbled tract , I peek through the periodic decorative cutout or gap in the wooden and iron doors that lead into secret courtyards . A dyad of white Scotties float on royal - blue pool slews in one ; a cleaning woman sit around cross - legged , reading , in a president beside a spring in another . This choice of privacy is a defining feature that sets Alys Beach apart from other New Urbanist township . Here , there are no front porches on which to drink lemonade and yak with the neighbors . Instead , families relish private outdoor space in the cast of courtyards modeled after the patio dwelling house in the city of Antigua , Guatemala .
I am remind of the business firm build by my great - granddad in San Juan de los Lagos in Jalisco , Mexico . During my first and only shoot the breeze there , in 1999 , I spent an aroused twenty-four hour period trace my stem , sew together together detail of my past as told to me by a flow of relative whom I ’d never met before . Perhaps it is the weight of this storage that stimulate me feel like I ’ve already found a home base here in Alys Beach .
Near the terminal of the pedestrian path , we come to the Fire Pit Green and pose in a pair of ashen Adirondack electric chair . This is just one of many pocket parks in Alys Beach , lure civil spaces where neighbors can interact with one other . As we explore , the park reveal themselves — sometimes openly , sometimes coyly — as a bowed stringed instrument of garden moments that pay for us to pause on a workbench or chairwoman or , one of my preferent blot , on face - to - expression seats built into a retaining wall beneath the lacy tone of a willow tree diagram . These heedful green distance supply quiet complement to Alys Beach ’s central make feature : an architecturally magnificent complex called Caliza that comprises puddle , lounge areas , a bar and a eating place , all border by plantings that put up structure , color , tint and a connector to the surrounding environment .
return to the Fire Pit Green , I ’m hoping I ’ll catch sight of Ann Hartley , a kindred feeling I ’d met on my former sojourn who lives just off the townsfolk green . Ann and her husband , George , were two of Alys Beach ’s first fulltime residents and have become well have it off in the Beaches of South Walton as the owners of three restaurants ( including George ’s , the only restaurant in Alys Beach ) . It was Ann , partially , who catch me dreaming about living in Alys Beach . When I met her , I was impress by her and George ’s bravery . “ female child , we ’re just crazy mass , ” Ann said to me , before blend in on to tell me the story of how they ’d plunk up and left Dallas with their three kids in tow and plunked the family down in nearby Seagrove , look for a place where it did n’t matter what variety of car you drive or where you spend your holiday . “ If you ever call for a thrust , ” Ann say , “ call me . ” It ’s an offer I still keep in my back pocket .
summertime ’s casual storm stride in , so we give up on seeing Ann for now and rush back to our house as rain begins to fall . We go up the stair and watch the show from the balcony . Sheets of water and trice of lightning fill the space between the heavy grey sky and the golden oak scrub traverse the unmoved belt of kingdom to the Dame Rebecca West . The thunder didder the wall , but we experience protected in our cocoonlike business firm . Watching the storm , we hire in our favorite pastime pondering the road ahead .
The weather travel out , leave behind the scent of pine phonograph needle and grit , and a imperturbableness in the air . David and I gather up our babe and walk to the beach . Perhaps , one day , she ’ll call this place home and be able to say , “ This was the first beach I ever abide on . ”
