Lea Kindt 2016 North Florida Landscape Award Winner

Lea Kindt 2016 North Florida Landscape Award Winner
FANN Real Florida Landscapes Design Competition 2016

Many view Florida’s flora as always lush and green, but this garden showcases ephimeral colors and overlooked attributes like form and texture that vary with the season. North Florida is home to many plants that change greatly by blooming, changing foliage color or losing leaves to reveal beautiful skeletons that the low winter light silhouettes.

Concentrating plants together distills colors and textures, visually contrasting deciduous plants from their evergreen counterparts. The effect maximizes a feeling of seasons and plays with the seasonally variable and often striking light and shadow. Carefully composed views contrast meandering paths that allow for close exploration. Viewers experience and discover the garden through different apertures.

Designed for a modern style home with a large glass window facing the backyard, the garden includes geometric beds made by retaining walls that gradually fade into the existing topography on the yard’s northern edge. A Slash Pine stands near the house. It’s strong sculptural and evergreen form, like the house, does not change noticeably through the seasons. As one travels further away from the house, a more natural organic planting layout is revealed and the character of the plants becomes increasingly ephemeral.

In the spring, white hues of blooming Plum, Dogwood and Fringetree stand out against a blanket of evergreen ferns. The fine texture and vibrant color of Redbuds complement striking Silver Saw Palmetto. Through the summer, a fully grown canopy provides much needed shade and a show of blooms attracts birds and pollinators. In the fall, pink Muhlygrass brightens and contrasts with the Yucca’s dark foliage and white blooms. Orange and red leaves of Highbush Blueberry light up the understory as deciduous tree leaves drop and more sunlight is revealed. In the winter, the southern side of the garden showcases naked stems contrasting with bright green Maiden ferns. Longer shadeows and bare trees provide increased sunlight and warmth on the deck.