Welcome!

Thank you for taking the time to stroll through some of my favorite garden design commissions.  I began my practice in 1984 after graduating in Landscape Architecture in 1979 from The State University of New York, and working for 3 design/build firms for 5 years.

I’ve included photographs of these special gardens in chronological order.  When asked the question:  What is your favorite plant?  I don’t have an answer.  For me it’s the synergy and the synthesis of the ground site, the home, the people and the divine spirit that make  the memory indelible.  So here are my most beloved projects.

Wellesley Private Garden  (an Arnold Arboretum Tour garden in 1997)

Coast of Falmouth, MA

Cambridge, MA Private Garden (an Arnold Arboretum Tour garden in 1998 (2))

More projects will include my public commissions:  The Holmes Public Library Reading Garden, The Town of Middleborough, MA Veteran’s Memorial Garden……please stay tuned as I add stories and photographs.

I invite your questions and comments to the blog here, or to my email or phone.

Carol Julien, caroljulien231@gmail.com, 781-293-6469

WELLESLEY   PRIVATE    GARDEN, 1985

My first large commission in 1985 was a complete garden plan for this beautiful antique home.  This Harvard Business School Professor and his young family enjoyed the property to its fullest after a $40,000 (1985) updating.    My client, a native of the state of Maine, requested the ferns be kept on site.  Everything else, except for large Maples were removed.  Privacy was created to shield views from the closest neighbor.  A circular drive was added for parking that would accommodate frequent entertaining.  An oval court was formed off the drive to lead to the terrace and perennial garden.  One  neighbor commented upon completion, “It’s beautiful and it doesn’t look ‘designed’.  Thirty years later this is still my endeavor, to improve a property and also keep the ‘natural’ look in every way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COAST OF FALMOUTH, MA 

This client was my largest commercial builder, and his summer home on the beach in Falmouth became one of the most exciting projects.  And the only project to be planted twice!  Originally designed and planted in 1991, it was destroyed by Hurricane Bob soon afterward and replanted the following spring.

Coastal conditions dictated that plants be very hardy and stand up to salt spray, intense sunlight, wind and survive without irrigation. I ‘borrowed’ the curved lines of the neighboring jetties to use as the outlines for the shrub and perennial beds on both sides of the pathway to the private beach.

 

 

 

CAMBRIDGE, MA PRIVATE GARDEN  1997-1998    An Arnold Arboretum Private Tour garden in 1998, twice.

This is the commission that personifies the phrase, “Dreams sometimes come true.”

While teaching at The Arnold Arboretum about 1994 or 1995 along came on of the gardeners employed by this European family. I was hired to renovate the gardens at their Craigie Street home before they bought this property at 51 Highland Street in 1996.

 

 

The interior was brought down to its shell and all new windows and doors were handmade to match the period of the original home.

 

 

At the entrance here, part of the stonewall was kept and then extended to frame the monolithic granite curved stair at the front door.

Layers of plant materials offered blooms and foliage color and texture.

 

 

Common names:  Andromeda, dwarf Inkberry, Daphne ‘Carol Mackie’

The Viburnum ‘Mayflower’ was part of the planting when the house was purchased. Andorra junipers were added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blad Bok (Swedish), River’s Purple Beech at 30 feet tall to start.  A newly constructed wall of antique cobblestones.

 

My two walking tours for The Arnold Arboretum in the Spring of 1998.