At home in their Ingleside garden

Only the front yard of their home looks like the other well groomed lawns on the quiet street in the historic Ingleside neighborhood where Susie and Richard Guerreiro have lived for 22 years — but that may change soon.

Under a shade tree to the right of the house, an almost secret path is encroaching into the wide sweep of front yard. That path winds along the neighbor’s fence to a small sitting area tucked between two wings of the house that will soon become Susie’s potting space — not the typical potting shed, but a well appointed work space that will retain the same charm as the rest of the garden.

After retiring from nursing in 2004, Susie threw herself into creating vignettes that she and Richard could enjoy year round from their perch above the back yard on an expansive covered porch, which was completed in 2010. Having previously engaged the architectural services of Daly Smith for a kitchen renovation, they relied on him to interpret their vision for an outdoor living and dining room, complete with a fireplace for the winter months.

After much research on outdoor living, Susie narrowed her sources to a few favorite authors — Mary Palmer Dargan and Hugh Graham Dargan, co-writers and professional landscape architects, and P. Allen Smith, a familiar gardening and lifestyle professional with several TV shows. The Dargans’ “Timeless Landscape Design” is a four-part master plan for creating “rooms” in the landscape that incorporate not just plants, but other elements to complement the planting. Smith’s “garden home” series of books emphasizes his 12 principles of good design for any interior or exterior project.

Through the eyes of an artist

For years, Susie painted with a group of fellow artists who still invite her to critique their work at their regularly scheduled sessions. Having worked in the sterile environment of health care for such a long time, it is hard to believe she would rather dig in the dirt than paint! However, the discipline of painting and landscape design requires a perceptive eye for composition and for application of the components that produce pleasing results. Looking at the elegant design of the gardens is akin to appreciating a fine painting — at first glance, the details are not obvious, but the consummate effect is magnificent.

After poring over ideas in her books and carefully examining the topography of the back lot, which drops in elevation, Susie was delighted with the idea of terracing the slope as her grandmother had done in her own garden.

“When we moved here, this was a blank canvas, other than several white crapes along the side,” Susie said refering to graceful crape myrtles she has allowed to grow to tree size and has incorporated into the curves of the beds bordering the garden.

Susie was confident she could design a master plan that would address the shady and sunny areas of the yard and that would orient their lifestyle to the outdoor living spaces — on the porch and in the yard. The new driveway, installed in 2011, features flagstone as expansion joints, at intervals that are more interesting than a wide expanse of concrete and that seamlessly tie the driveway to the rear patio. The parking area is scored in an oversized diamond pattern and can serve double duty for outdoor parties around the fountain.

The Guerreiros’ garden combines perennial and deciduous trees, large enough to screen the yard for privacy in any season. The mature camellias at the back of the terraced area were moved from the front yard to intersperse the junipers at the fence line. Susie adds seasonal bedding plants to the beds and fills large planters — on the porch and around the patio — with summer colors that soften the formality of the garden. From the initial planting stage, and for guidance on what to add to the garden, she has depended on Nikki and Josh Taylor of Dig & Design, to supply her with the ideal shrubbery for her painterly garden.

A self taught mason

The Guerreiros credit Smith, the architect, and Eric Thompson, the building contractor, with the success of the interior renovations and of the porch addition. When they were planning the fountain as the centerpiece of a round parterre garden with brick and stone walkways, and the approach to the terraced area behind the fountain with wide, stone steps, they hired contractor Franco De Michiel to facilitate the masonry work and the landscape lighting.

Although the extensive, curvilinear flagstone wall defining the beds at the borders of the yard were built by Lorenzo Sanchez, Susie laid the brick circle around the fountain and has proficiently laid stone walkways and raised borders throughout the back and side yards.

The path that leads to the future potting cum sitting area, according to Susie, was a muddy slog through weedy plants before Richard installed underground drains to redirect the runoff, making it possible for Susie to lay a stone walkway, bordered with blue mop-head hydrangeas. The raised beds in the potting space are enclosed by her handiwork — low stone walls that are the perfect height for weeding, working the beds or for extra seating in this intimate hidden garden. A tall, freestanding metal fireplace, outfitted for gas logs, can be the perfect accompaniment to a chilly evening.

Home and garden reflect the owners’ tastes

Richard, who also is retired, had a lot of input in the planning of the kitchen, for he is the cook in the family, with a kitchen that would be the envy of any master chef. Susie collects antiques and interesting furnishings, which she sells in booths through several Georgia dealers. She has studied art and design for years, taking the time to paint and buy inventory for her booths while she was working as a nurse. Now that both are retired, they have time to do more traveling and to indulge in special accessories for the house and for the garden. The decorative fireplace was a bargain, found on one such trip after Susie had seen it advertised through another source at “a ridiculously expensive price.”

Each of the garden accessories has a story to tell — two French metal garden chairs, with a verdi gris finish and sensuously curved, as only the French would do, caught Richard’s eye on one of their shopping trips through Georgia’s antique alley.

The fountain, the focal point fof the garden, is a large clay planter, bordered with a relief design that looks as if it might have been saved from the ashes of ancient Pompeii. The herb garden, in a rolling cart, was the alternative solution when the growth of some shrubbery created too much shade for a permanent bed.

“We can pull it to follow the sun,” Susie says, about the necessary ingredients for Richard’s culinary creations, if he can lure Susie out of the garden.

This story was originally published August 10, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "At home in their Ingleside garden."