Photos by Dustin Holmquist
February 2019
On driving through this neighborhood in Missoula, a boulevard planting caught my eye: There was a sure skill visible that went into the creation of a Rocky Mountain landscape scene. Interesting earthen shapes combined with boulders, shapely conifers, appealing forms and long-lasting textures. Even now, covered in mounds of snow, this property stood out, and I wondered, “Someone is taking advantage here of every square inch to create a garden… When there’s so much thought given to the boulevard plantings and they hold so much appeal even now in winter, what does the interior garden look like? How is the snow affecting the design here?”
I count myself privileged to meet the garden’s designer, Billie Gray of Grace Note Designs, and to be invited to see the interior of her garden.
As I had anticipated, the garden seen from her favorite window in the dining room is no less appealing than her street yard. There is such a variety of forms and contrasting shapes and textures; the snow adds romance and suspense to it, and the eye is soothed and tantalized anticipating the colors and textures it will see when spring melts allow blooms to happen again. Yet it is restful, with the muted colors of foliage against the glowing snow subdued.
It started for Billie Gray some 60 years ago when she and her husband bought an old homestead on 2 acres, close to the heart of the city on the Clark Fork River. It was overgrown with barley and corn fields and a jungle of trees, many unsuited to the clay soil and dry, hot summers and disease ridden, making the house feel dark and damp.
Rock, Apache Plume and Juniper
The first order was to make room for several 40 ft long rows of raspberries (now all removed) and a garden for her growing family. The tight “stockade” of Arbor Vitae that surrounded the house was cut down to let light in and free the view into the future garden, for which close to 30 trees had to be removed. She set out to create an ornamental garden and went about learning about low-maintenance plants for the Mountain West region.
When seeing Billie’s garden today and listening to her describe what she created over the 60 years since those early times, I can feel the passion for plants and gardening that has nurtured her throughout and that has been a faithful engine in her work.
Billie tells me, “The garden is part of my life; I’ll do it until I drop. There’s something about being in the garden that grabs me; I have to get my hands in it. There are a lot of connections. I get to watch the birds, the way the wind moves things.”
Her professional career started with work in several local nurseries and with the US Extension office; she also took a class in design and has been a professional landscape designer since 1972.
It is framed by a dwarf Alberta Spruce, left, and a leaning Juniper, right.
What she loves most about gardening and designing here are the seasons, when every 2 weeks all changes, with the shifting light or temperature. Sometimes when the light is right, the colors of the flowers glow, and with fading light the foliage of the trees looks different. She employs a lot of shrubbery; shrubs are important because “they have character.” Many of them carry their berries late into winter, shining above the grey and white of the snow, and attracting birds with their food. Flowers will provide texture and colors; bulbs will come and go.
“Gardening is a spiritual thing: Working and just being. Making a garden has so many levels of activities; it is so essential. For some people it’s not important but that’s too bad; they’ll miss something so basic to us. In big cities people don’t have that relationship… they have been cheated.”
The berries of Barberry on the right are food for the birds.
As the path winds through the garden, new scenes open as wooden screens and “sentinels” such as the Arbor Vitae “Spire” mark the transition from one section into another. In the planter beds on the perimeter of the lawn there will be lots of Iris and other flowers everywhere, mostly perennials and some annuals that reseeded themselves, such as Flanders Poppies and Snapdragons. She allows things to reseed; she will sell the surplus at the Farmers’ Markets.
horizontal layers of a Montgomery Blue Spruce’s branches
In order to cut down on her workload, she quit growing lawn along the boulevard years ago. She also kept only a small circular lawn in the backyard. “Lawn allows the eye to rest and offers great possibilities in allowing other things to be displayed. A patch of grass is good for kids, but acres of lawn are at this point not what we can do any longer; grass takes too much water.”
Here a Twisted Filbert, left, and a Weeping Spruce, right
Seeing her garden, Billie Gray has taught me these lessons:
Glean garden design ideas and design inspiration from the surrounding mountain landscape, and mimic our natural environment with mounds, rocks and boulders and durable, resilient plants.
Think of winter berries that will attract wildlife and delight our eyes as they are standing out against the snow. Consider Rosa glauca, Hawthorne, Cranberry Cotoneaster, Choke Cherry, Barberry, Blueberry and Serviceberry (if we don’t harvest those berries first!). Also consider trees with exceptional bark or branch form, such as Contorted Filbert, that stand out against the snow.
Remember that conifers and other “evergreens” are not just green; they’re available in yellow, such as Gold Thread False Cypress, and blues, like Dwarf Blue Spruce, and all colors in between, in many attractive forms and sizes, including many dwarfs. They are really important for a winter landscape and they make good focal points all year-round.
Winter is a good time to see where your landscape is missing focal points. The solution to enhancing your winter landscaping might not be a plant at all. A trellis, a bench, an arbor, even a birdbath or other garden sculpture are really essential.
Gardening, landscape design and ‘doing it’ has fulfilled Billie’s ambitions
and need for connection to the soil, and still provides her great joy.
