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John G. Fairey ’s eye extend when he is postulate to name a favorite plant life , as if he ’s been ask to prefer his favorite child . “ Why , all of them , ” he answer softly in a sandpapery southerly lilt . And hold his surroundings — some 3,000 species of rare and endangered plant at Peckerwood , his 40 - class - old , renowned private garden near the Texas townspeople of Hempstead — you’re rather inclined to believe him .
A reflection pool with ancientDioon edulein the foreground ( one of the most cold - Thomas Hardy of all the cycad ) and , in the background , Serenoa repens(saw palmetto palm),Nolina nelsonii(Nelson ’s blue beargrass ) , andYucca rostrata(beaked yucca ) . The terrace is designed and smithed by Lars Stanley . Photo by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE picture OF THIS GARDEN
make for the Georgia grove in Auntie Mame , Peckerwood has earned plaudit for its astonishing collection of plants — largely from Mexico and Texas but also Asia — and for the horticultural skill with which Fairey spring up them . It also deserves tending for the aesthetic invention of its landscape — unusual for the garden of a collector , in which acquisition often supplant design considerations .
Fairey ’s vision for Peckerwood , which include a calorie-free - dapple timberland , several shimmering dry gardens , and a parklike botanical garden , develop not gradually but in a transformative waking up during a trip-up to Mexico . An artist and professor of design at Texas A&M , Fairey had bought 7 demesne near Hempstead , an hour ’s drive northwest of Houston , in 1971 as a country retreat . He planted azaleas , camellia , and other species conversant to him from his South Carolina childhood , but his interest in collect plants was n’t trip until he met Texas horticulturist Lynn Lowrey , who often trek into Mexico to seek out little - known species to add back for extension .
Fountain heads by Otis Huband . Photo by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE exposure OF THIS GARDEN
In the summer of 1988 , Fairey get together Lowrey on one of his expeditions to the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range in northeast Mexico . They explored from desert to cloud forest , suppose Fairey , and look for for plant from dawn until after dark , by flashlight . The adrenaline high of the hunting hooked Fairey immediately , as did the grounds of the deprivation of fragile home ground triggered by the overgrazing of goats and the sense that he could help lay aside plants from defunctness .
Over the years , Fairey returned to the Sierra Madre 100 time , fascinated by the diversity and architectural ravisher of the plant he found there . Back home he began using a newfound palette of Sunday - loving plants likeyucca , agave , dasylirion , nolina , and dioon in his dry garden and designing with shape and form , confidential information and sunlight , rejecting in one swoop both the English custom of soft , flowering borders and the European manikin of formal framing and balance .
Today , works reign supreme at Peckerwood , providing complex body part for garden rooms with their architectural forms and through massing of related species—“counterparts , ” he calls them - from different region of the world , like his screen of genus Mahonia from both Asia and Mexico in the timber garden . And as John Troy , a San Antonio landscape architect , points out , Fairey also plays up a touch sensation of surprise and dissonance by mingling plants not normally take care together on this side of the border , like palms and magnolias , pines and century plant .
One run across these halt combination throughout Peckerwood but especially in the cheery , dry garden on the west side of Fairey ’s abode , a two - story , corrugate steel - sided social system with a shady porch and attached art drift . In the dry garden , fine , rounded gravel surrounds the plant and flows between them , forming paths and creating a natural - sounding “ floor , ” knitting the garden together with a consistent colouring and texture . To the northwest of the house , in the woodland garden , pine chaff supplants gravel , mulching plant and quieting visitor ’ footsteps . Throughout , pavement , walls , and other hardscaping are sustain to a bare minimum , enhancing the realistic look .
On the south side of John Fairey ’s nursing home is a argue courtyard filled with Brazos River pea gravel and flagstones and a walkway constructed of quarter - inch steel plate frames pave with “ atomic number 26 ore , ” a local crushed rock - and - clay mix . The two - part sword sculpture , Positive and Negative , is by Texas creative person John Walker . The small tree diagram to the leftfield of the carving isFraxinus greggii(little leaf ash ) . Behind the sculpture stands a small dependency ofYucca rostrata . Photo by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Fairey enjoys the act of planting and likes to experiment , cut into things up and trying new combination with such regularity that a Quaker once remarked he ’d “ never seen a industrial plant at Peckerwood that was n’t on the end of a shovel . ” When ride plants , Fairey view the caper of lighter on leaves and the ever - present Texas wind , especially in the ironical garden . During the blazing summertime , that space is psychologically cooling thanks to an teemingness of atomic number 47 and blue - gullible leaves , like those ofYucca rostrata , a strappy Koosh ball of a plant that responds to every cooling walkover with a dazzle shimmer . orotund forms and modernist geometry prevail here ; global industrial plant character likeEchinocactus grusonii , Dasylirion longissimum , Nolina nelsonii , andXanthorrhoea quadrangulatacreate a bouncy rhythm . even up for gully - washer summer thunderstorms and winter rains , Fairey advance each plant life for drainage on its own crushed rock hillock , “ because I like mountain , ” he laughs , a book of facts to his passion for exploring Mexico ’s northeastern range . But Austin landscape architect James David sees the creative person ’s eye at work . “ Individual plants are put on crushed rock pedestals for you to look up to , ” he tell , “ like buckets of hyacinths on display in a blossom store . ”
“ Every bit of the garden is thought through from a design standpoint , ” says Bill Noble , theater director of preservation at the Cold Springs , New York - free-base Garden Conservancy . “ If you know plant , then John ’s collection will squander you away . If you do n’t know the plants , you could still appreciate their dish and the design of the garden . ”
Because Peckerwood is such a unique depositary and because Fairey is look to the garden ’s future , the Garden Conservancy is assisting him in transition it to a public entity . expect what he would wish for gardeners to take away from a sojourn to Peckerwood , which today encompasses 39 acres , Fairey sound out simply , “ diversity . ”
“ John has expanded the pallet of plants for gardeners in the South , Southeast , and Texas , ” says Noble . “ His garden has a hatful to teach . ” After a life of teaching , Fairey persist himself an eager learner , continually experimenting with plants and treating his garden as an artist ’s canvas on which he paint with light , leaf , and even the wind .
To plan a visit to Peckerwood Garden , go topeckerwoodgarden.org .
