Douglas Davis

Scientist and Master Gardener

The best my memory serves me, the Davis garden got its start about 20 years ago with my frustration of seeing a mass of wild blackberries slowly creeping across the Westhampton drive. They literally were blocking nearly half the road. Their excursion into the road-way energized me to remove this mass of vines from the road as well as from an area that is now my front perennial flower bed next to the creek. Once having cleared this large track, I had to decide what to do with it. The decision was made to plant a large patch of red presidential cannas. In subsequent years, I became bored with this limited spectrum of flowers and began to add other flowering plants and at the same time to clear out a substantial stand of privet trees. However, the terrain at this site was so convoluted I decided that it would be necessary to build at least two major walls and back fill them if I were to control the erosion problem.

A few years still later, my wife, Christine, pointed out that there was a very substantial part of our property that always appeared to be under water (now known as the bog garden) that had become quite unsightly, having filled up with downed trees, tons of leaves, and hordes of vines. Her gentle request was- why not clean it out? My agreeing twelve years ago to take on this massive clean-up job was most likely the real beginning of my effort to create a large landscaped garden with the bog as one of the center pieces. For as in the beginning of our gardening adventure, once a piece of real-estate is cleared I began to ask what am I going to do with it? In the case of the re-discovered bog, the real issue was how in the world could I ever garden there with the swampy conditions that prevailed. It was at that time that I decided that if I were to do any serious gardening there or on the steep slopes of the rest of my property, I was going to have to develop someway of effectively moving materials from one part of the property to another. The idea that emerged was that of building a series of boardwalks at different elevations all of which would be connected with well defined steps. This took nearly three years; but once these were in place, the location of the many different flower beds evolved quite naturally.

At this time 80% of the flower beds have been identified, and most are well along in their maturity. A major component of the landscape that is not completed is that involving moving water. There are at least two major waterfalls and a meandering creek down the back slope that will be undertaken in the next three to four years. There is also further development planned on the back side of the property bordering Lake Nesbit. Thus, like many gardens, it is a work in progress. •