BUXTON, Maine — What plants should I use? Should I build a rock wall? These are all questions that landscape designer Ted Carter of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes can answer. With more than 40 years of experience, he has the knowledge to bring the scenery around your home to life.
When beginning a project, Carter looks for the negatives first.
"The things that are impacting the landscape: telephone poles, driveways, cars," the landscape designer explained. "They need to start with good site work. Rise and run. The front entrance way."
Carter stressed the front entryway walkway is the spine, and everything is built around it and to be sincere to the architecture.
"Elevation is huge for me. I love elevation. I love rise and run. Deep, deep treads and shallow rise," Carter said. "It extends it. You glide up to the front entranceway."
Carter gave a tour to Gardening with Gutner of the grounds surrounding his home. One part of his entrance is an alley, pronounced "a-lay," which connects to the main walkway that leads up to his lion-protected front door.
"We've got actually another spine. It's designed in such a way that it's very gracious. The two of us very comfortably can walk and have a conversation. And you can sort of see the fortification on both sides. We have the stone walls, and we have the plantings. So you feel very protected. You feel very enclosed. It's sort of an enclosed space," Carter described.
Wildlife is important to the garden, but so is the is the spiritual energy.
"The birds bring life and movement to the landscape. Movement and life in the landscape is very important. It's not a static art. It's a malleable, soft feminine energy. So when I work with the landscape, the walkways are the male aspect in the hard unforgiving surfaces and then the soft supple surfaces of the plant material. You know you have to be mindful of the directions of the house because of the light requirements of the plants and also the energetics of those areas. The north is all about the head energy. It's the linear, logical, local world. The south is all about innocence, trust, play, and love. The east is about bringing new things into our lives and the west is moving into the great unknown," the landscape designer philosophized. "There's a very spiritual aspect to landscaping."
Hardscapes are masculine energy. While soft, supple surfaces of the plant material are the feminine energy.
The use of evergreens and deciduous plant material comprises the different layers of the garden to create interest as the seasons change.
"This vision will change completely in December," Carter said as he referred to his garden. "All the foliage will drop, and the evergreens will come forth. All the stone walls come forward. They become a central feature. So, the evergreens and the stonework become a second feature in the summer months. Things fade in and fade out."
Evergreens
Deciduous trees
Art in the garden is very important to Carter. A statue of a Greek god, as well as Saint Francis of Assisi, are just two pieces that decorate his estate.
"The art's always there to greet you," Carter stated. "Something magical happens when you put art in the landscape. There's a presence. The presence of that art is so powerful if it's done properly."
Plants, animals, and art are all pieces of a design puzzle that landscape designer Ted Carter fits together to create that standout front entryway or a peaceful sanctuary.
Watch for more conversations with Ted Carter. We go to Cape Elizabeth to see how one tree controlled the outcome of a design.
And we will get the full story on this sphere that is a centerpiece in Ted's garden.