Dallas Open Days Tour 2012: Middleton Farm Garden
My second stop on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour last weekend was the Middleton Farm Garden, a contemporary home with homesteading flair in suburban north Dallas. Here’s the official description:
A suburban oasis loosely composed as three distinct aspects. A casual, manicured space of green lawn, bamboo enclosure, and trickling water that emanates from a small koi pond comprise the first garden. A lush and rampant garden of flowering trees and enclosing evergreens gives privacy and a natural expression to the pool and outside dining patios and a respite from the unrelenting summer sun. The third garden is business, comprised of irrigated raised beds filled with vegetables and culinary herbs with a backdrop of peach trees.
I didn’t start with the lawn, bamboo, and koi pond mentioned above. Instead I headed around back, through this parking court with a modernist assortment of concrete walls…
…past this perforated wall festooned with ivy…
…and into the back garden, where a patio shaded by a grape arbor offers protection from the summer sun.
A built-in pizza oven promises tasty meals on the patio.
Just off the patio, a swimming pool beckons. I like the narrow decking lined with herbs and other plants, and the way the rest of the yard is screened from view, creating an intimate pool area and making you want to explore the rest of the garden.
New growth on a hedge of nandina echoes the orange-cushioned chaises.
Behind the pool area and a shed was this surprising sight: chickens! Is Dallas turning into Austin?
Stroll past that nandina hedge by the pool, with another grape arbor espaliered above it…
…and you enter a sunny, welcoming vegetable garden with etched-concrete raised beds.
Dill
Partitioned from the vegetable garden by a perennial bed, this shady oasis opens up on the other side of the garden.
Looks like a peaceful place to relax with a good book.
A stand of black bamboo screens the side yard and part of the front yard from the view of neighbors, sheltering a small koi pond and seating area.
Koi
A rock sculpture complements a bamboo, elephant ear, and liriope combo perfectly.
Homemade sculpture: cow skull and deer antlers
I really enjoyed the division of space in this garden, creating various garden rooms for entertaining, growing food (and munching on it?), and relaxing.
Coming up next: The native-plant Passmore Garden. For a look back at the palm collector’s garden of Matthew Nichols, click here.
All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Wow I could stare at your photo of the black Colocasia all day! Add the cement walls, the accents of orange…I could be very at home here.
You would feel at home in this garden, Loree. If only they had a few agaves though… —Pam
I like this garden…all those separate areas, one luring you into the next. It looks like a large space, but manageable.
Checking the map on this one, I have to say I am very surprised they have chickens there. Maybe Dallas is loosening up a bit. Way to go Big D!
I was surprised too, Linda, especially in what looked to be a fairly traditional neighborhood. But someone in the know posts more about Dallas’ rules about chickens in a comment below. —Pam
Pam – great write up on the Middleton Farm. The owners are very good friends and Ive been lucky enough to enjoy dinner at their home WITH product from their garden! In fact, I was munching on the Nasturtiums during the tour!
The owners (the husband is renowned Texas Architect, Mark Domiteaux, of Domiteaux-Bagget Architects) have worked on this property for a number of years – when they first bought it, the house was a mere 900 sqft (they’ve since added another 600sqft, plus a studio) and the backyard was nothing but a forest of Privet – in fact they found hidden in it a VW Van, with a Hackberry growing through it!
As to the Chickens, in reference to the comments about Dallas, we’ve always been able to grow small livestock, but Roosters are officially banned (but I do hear them in my predominately Hispanic neighborhood in Oak Cliff, as we’re a bit more relaxed on things, lol) Cows, Horses, and other large livestock are allowed on properties of over 2 acres.
This garden is a perfect example of dividing an outdoor space into rooms and does make the relatively average urban lot seem far larger.
I could easily sell my place and move right into Middleton Farm!
Thanks again for the support on the Open Days Dallas Tour!
Thanks for the info about chickens in Dallas, Patrick. I’m afraid we Austinites often succumb to the idea that Dallas is very buttoned up, but this garden and others on the tour prove otherwise. —Pam
Very nice for a modern vibe.
Yes, I agree. I really liked this garden. —Pam
Loved this! Best of all worlds! Edible landscaping and the hammock area was nice too! Thanks for the tour!
It’s my pleasure, Kelsey. This garden does seem to have it all. —Pam
Pam, I wondered if you would drive up to Big D for this year’s tour. Of the five gardens, I found this one to be the most interesting. It has several elements that I would like to incorporate into my own garden. While some of the other gardens were nice, they did not do much for me. In fact, there were a couple of gardens that I left without taking a single photograph. I always enjoy taking garden tours through your camera lens.
The Dallas Water-Wise Landscape Tour is coming up on June 2. This year there are 19 private gardens and 7 demonstration gardens on tour. http://savedallaswater.com/wwlt/ If I ever finish my garden, I may try to get on this tour just to show my neighbors that I am not completely crazy and that there are other people in the world that are interested in landscapes that are not focused on a lawn.
Hi, Michael. This was my favorite on the tour too. The modernist house with the disturbing cat-lady sculpture did nothing for me (hardly any garden to it, really, just groundcovering landscaping), and I skipped the butterfly farm because I was short on time and the idea of that on a garden tour didn’t entice me. But I did enjoy the three gardens I profiled here at Digging. One of these days I’d like to see the Dallas Water-Wise tour. Your garden would be perfect for it, but they should have it in the fall for you! —Pam
I could never pull off this disciplined modernism, but sure do find it appealing. Nice tour!
I didn’t find this garden overly disciplined, Ricki. Plantings were pretty loose and interesting, and each garden room had a different vibe. But it’s true that this garden is more structured than many plant-lovers’ gardens. I thought they did a great job with it and, like you, found it very appealing. —Pam
Pam, I love being able to do this tour vicariously through you – I had hoped to make it myself this year, then had to move my plans to a bit later to go to the Chihuly exhibit in a couple of weeks. This house is very interesting and very creatively spaced. What plants do you frequently see in the native landscaped gardens of Dallas that you don’t see here? Their climate is a bit different than hours, and the soil a little sandier in some places. It’s interesting to see how many of the same plants work well throughout the hot states.
Hi, Robin. I didn’t think of this garden as the native-plant one on the tour. That would be the Passmore Garden. And sadly, my native-plant recognition skills extend only to plants from my own area, so I don’t know that I’d be able to pick out another region’s natives, if they differed from ours. At the Passmore garden I did see a lot of the same natives that we use in Austin, especially if that includes a broad definition of “native,” like Arizona cypress, bamboo muhly, etc.—i.e., more-western plants than you’d naturally find in central Texas. —Pam