A Tale of Two Gardens: Part One

“I’m glad you like my little jungle out front,” writes Dominique Dart in a witty response to my request to come and investigate her garden.

She’s only exaggerating slightly. Barely contained by a white picket fence, Dart’s front yard is a feast for the eyes: roses, phlox, crocosmia, orange cosmos, lilies, daisies, heliotropes, cone flowers, among others grow up over 4 feet. A snowball hydrangea threatens to engulf the front door.

Sneaking in between the larger plants are various sorts of bluebells, coreopsis, a butterfly bush, and an outsize spirea.

Tomatoes grow in pots as well.

In the spring, there are tulips, primrose, irises, peonies, snow-in-summer and salvia.

In the fall there are sedum and asters.

Started about six or seven years ago, all the flowers have come from an assortment of gardening friends. All are perennials and don’t need much care or watering.

Dart, who teaches art at the , originally wanted a vegetable garden. When she moved to her Sargent Road location, she dug up the back and planted an assortment. A sister-in-law visiting from London asked about lead in the soil, informing Dart that lead was a real problem for London gardeners, a result of leaded gas leaching into the ground.

Dart took her dirt to be tested. When she went to pick up the results, her lead levels were so high the tester didn’t believe the soil came from a back yard. She had to come home and dig up the whole garden--all of it would have been poison to eat.

So, she switched to flowers and the front yard, originally grass, began to be taken over by color.

Her secret? She separates the plants when they get too close together, and credits last fall’s layer of manure for the height and size of this summer’s growth.

Her favorite? Roses, for their simplicity, but daisies too. Daisies remind her of her grandmother’s house when she visited as a child and they grew in abundance around the well.

Next week—the Dutch approach.