Projects

October, 2022

I'm documenting the crafting of my personal mountain garden in the Appalachian mountains of western North Carolina. It's been my dream for most of my life to find some property and build a weekend home. 
The property is sited in a valley, in the midst of hundreds of native rhododendrons some upwards of 25 feet tall. The native flora is outstanding. My goal is to be sensitive to nature while making some of the space useful, and leaving the rest as I found it. 
The septic field is located in the front yard. I've created what I refer to as a stylized meadow, using plants that have shallow roots systems to stay clear of the septic lines. It's an immersive tapestry of ornamental grasses and perennials, with beloved conifers around the perimeter. This garden has recently been featured in the February 2023 issue of Fine Gardening Magazine.
The back garden is shady and much more natural. I've augmented that with primulas, ligularias, podophyllums and hundreds of trilliums.
I recently received this note from the leader of a bus tour from Tennessee. She writes: "Rhodwood was absolutely magical! Honestly, more so than I thought it would be". My mission is accomplished. 

Crafting A Mountain Garden Called Rhodwood

Jay Sifford

This was my personal garden until 2022. It was an ongoing laboratory, passion and at times, a source of frustration, for 20 years. When I moved here, the yard was a case study in poorly grown turf, mud, eroded hillsides, liriope and rotten railroad ties. I transformed it into a lush oasis in the midst of a large urban area.

Woodland Garden 1

Back garden, post installation.

This colorful, very contemporary, immersive garden was installed because the city tore up the yard to install a neighborhood storm drain. It was the perfect opportunity to do something very different in this traditional neighborhood. 
The front yard became a contemporary pollinator garden. From the spheres to the triptych of columnar junipers, his space explores the concept of rhythm and movement and their effect upon the human brain.
The back garden is built around a serpentine blue slag glass rill that terminates in a pondless water feature. A stepping stone foot path runs alongside the rill, briefly crossing over it before it leads to a small seating area at the top of the garden. The rill is cut into the new bluestone patio in a crisp, contemporary way. Curved masses of plants keep the eye low and moving around the space, creating a pattern that distracts the eye from the neighboring homes.

An Immersive Garden

Villa Heights Immersive Garden

This project was crafted for a young couple in a vibrant area of town. The house is an infill home, very contemporary, very boxy and rectilinear. For the back garden, my inspiration began with the sculptural stand of trees and the accompanying slightly sloped terrain. The gentle slope made me feel cozy and secure, rather like a child being rocked to sleep. This elicited some happy childhood memories. As a result, I developed long lines of plants that reminded me of stretched saltwater taffy. The sculptural lines of the tree trunks were emphasized by surrounding them with gravel. By doing this, they take on a look of choreographed giants. I switched my art selection to these stone spheres, as they remind me of a marble game played by giants. Because this garden sparks my imagination so strongly and elicits strong feelings of security and childhood, it is destined to remain one of my all-time favorites.

Davidson Townhome Courtyard, After Photo.

Courtyard gardens are invaluable in increasing usable square footage in townhomes, but frequently unimaginative and difficult to envision. These four examples of our work show the potential that these small spaces can hold.

Small Space Courtyard Gardens

Asian-Inspired Courtyard Garden

This very long and narrow courtyard garden is a result of a collaboration between me and a couple who recently downsized to a patio home in a 55+ community. The wife always wanted an Asian-inspired garden but never told her husband... until recently. This project is a gift to her. 

Lakeside Color Garden

This 30 year old home had been updated on the inside to create a fun space for living and entertaining, yet the garden was in serious need of a redesign that matched the quality of the home's interior. The client wanted a lot of color and texture. This was our response. 

Transitional Courtyard Garden

We redesigned this walled courtyard space to reflect an updated sense of the clients' traditional aesthetic with some contemporary lines and accents. Stone planks create rhythm, draw the eye to the focal point, the fountain, and spread the eye out to make the space feel wider. Swaths of low perennials create a colorful and textural pattern while round boxwood provide structure, height and rhythm. Shrubs soften the brick wall, while espaliered magnolias frame the fountain. Tree-form hydrangeas placed in front of the magnolias will provide seasonal color. 

Back garden in the morning light.

The homeowner asked me to redesign the planting scheme in the front and back yards, paying particularly interest to texture, form and color. We added some stone spheres in the front to give the space a lively contemporary aesthetic and added boulders in the back, cut into the edging, to create rhythm in order to pull the eye from one end to the other. The homeowner, who is a conifer and Japanese maple lover, was open to the idea of creating a conifer/zen retreat on the highest point of the property in the backyard. 

Selwyn Project

Davidson creek bed

As a result of urban infill, erosion and runoff issues are greater now than ever before. My directive is to provide a beautiful and functional solution to this ever-increasing problem, and build a garden around it.

Dry Creek Bed Installations

Problem-solving at the Lake

This was a dream project for me. The contemporary architecture lent itself so well to a cohesive, eco-friendly planting design, and the garden grounds the house into the landscape. Water mitigation was a primary concern, so the introduction of the dry creek bed worked both aesthetically, to create a focal point around which to build a garden, and functionally.

Courtyard on a rainy spring day

This project illustrates a new direction for our design/build business model. It is my own courtyard in a new townhome. When a seasoned gardener from Colorado saw this project, her comment with this:  "No designer does immersive like you, Jay. You have got this down with precision. Your pinpoint vision has no match. Your scope of work says it all,. You have the eye of an artist and the knowledge of a true plantsman. Your work is beyond compare in my eyes".
This is the power of an immersive garden experience.

Davidson Courtyard Reimagined As An Immersive Experience

Garden Entrance

Moss and Zen

Gravel seating area.

This craftsman home is part of an urban infill project in the Southend area of Charlotte, NC. The clients lived in Japan for several years; the wife wanted a Japanese garden while the husband wanted a native/pollinator-friendly garden. An existing swimming pool in the small backyard meant that every inch of space needed to be accounted for. The result is a garden that fuses Asian and prairie-style design aesthetics while providing functionality for this urban space.

Dilworth Fusion Garden

Former Hunting Lodge turned Family Home

This is a home with a history. The original log cabin portion of the home was built over 100 years ago as a hunting lodge. The cabin gained an addition in the 1940s, then again in 2018. The current owners are a wonderful family who wanted to honor the story of the home and land. The newest addition is thoughtful and sublime. Our objective was to create a garden that didn't overwhelm, but rather complemented the home and continued to tell the story. 

Pool-side Color Garden.

This project was installed for long-time clients, in 2017 and 2018. The overriding principle was to create a colorful and textural garden around the swimming pool and home, a garden that was both exciting and nurturing, one that would function as a venue for entertaining just as well as for curling up with a good book. 

Pool-side Color Garden

Contemporary London/Asian Inspiration

This project involved renovating a small urban backyard. The result is an immersive garden, with negative space that counterbalances the planted areas and creates a tranquil haven for the family. The gravel substrate, along with the boulders, provides a pet-friendly space for the family dog.

Hillside Transformation

The client wanted to expand her entertaining space. This space previously featured an eroding hill with no good way to reach the lower lawn. We installed the stone steps and dry creek bed to deal with functional issues. A major point of interest is the creek bed as it winds underneath a stone slab landing in the stairway. The client then added the lower stone patio to the scope of work. As a result, this previously unusable space became a garden in its own rite, teeming with ferns, carex and native shrubs.

Belmont Patio Home Garden

The owners of this patio home with a very small garden space contacted me with a desire to inject color, texture, shapes and personality into their outdoor living space. I recently revisited the space, 6 months after installation, and totally fell in love with their new garden. 

Front garden, 6 months after installation.

This new home is the dream 'forever' home for some wonderful clients. The garden reflects the home and the lifestyle of the clients, and pulls color and texture from the architecture to create a homogenous experience. 
The back garden is crafted to be a spiritual meditation garden that appeals to the beliefs of the clients.
We really enjoyed working on this project.

Davidson "Forever Home"

Contemporary Asian Fusion Garden

The client had been collecting her thoughts for several years, but couldn't find the right person to install her dream garden until she found us through a Southern Living magazine article. The house is massive; the garden needed to both ground the house and to stand up against it. The result is a peaceful and reflective front yard garden where the client greets visitors.

Immersive Color Garden

The client brief was to provide an extremely colorful and festive garden that would surround the swimming pool and a refurbished fire pit area. The clients have a large family, and frequently entertain. 
Masses of  colorful perennials, bright repeating colors, and punctuation create an immersive environment for those who visit.

East Blvd. Victorian Reno.

This home, located on a busy mixed-use thoroughfare in Charlotte, NC, dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century and was the first home in Charlotte to be preserved by being placed on a historic registry. In recent years, the home had gone into some degree of disrepair until previous clients of mine purchased and renovated it. I was asked to design and install a front garden that spoke to the style and history of the home with a contemporary updated vibe, and I jumped on the opportunity. The clients are cognizant of native plants and pollinators, so we incorporated as many of those as possible, and, over many discussions, added additional plants to complete the look of a contemporary cottage garden.

East Blvd. Victorian Renovation

VJ Project

 This challenging space is part of a vibrant Craftsman style infill neighborhood in south Charlotte, NC. The homeowners wanted a "Cape Cod vibe" to a totally new front garden, a garden which would invite neighbors to stop by for a glass of wine after work. My challenges included the creation of usable space, the creation of a "garden" instead of a typical front yard, rekindling pleasant childhood memories by using familiar plants in new and unique ways, and incorporating art in the garden. The homeowners are musicians and art collectors. 

Plaza Midwood Backyard

This project was special for several reasons:  it provided a blank slate with which to work and the homeowners were open to a unique and contemporary aesthetic. The scope of work involved the design and installation of a bluestone and gravel patio laid out in a zig zag pattern, with a planting bed mimicking that shape. Behind the patio, the planting bed takes more of a natural serpentine shape for contrast. Low maintenance was a priority, so a variety of shrubs and small trees were installed for a pleasing blend of texture, color and form.

Three Years After Installation

We designed this previously overgrown and neglected urban backyard in 2016, and just did a bit of an update in June, 2018. It is now a tranquil oasis in the middle of a major urban area. the textures and shades of green play well with the dappled light as it dances across the gravel pathways. the gravel creates a minimalistic negative space that balances the abundantly planted beds.

Tranquil Urban Backyard

Japanese-inspired fern garden

This ravine is part of my former personal garden. Once covered in English ivy, poison ivy and honeysuckle, I saw its potential. Over three years, I transformed it into an Asian-inspired fern garden featuring 1800+ ferns of some 40 different species. It was the lowest point on my property, bisected by a tiny stream. With towering trees overhead, it's where I went to think and create.

Japanese-inspired Fern Garden

Villa Heights Craftsman Garden

This new home was built in a revitalized area near downtown Charlotte. The homeowner thoughtfully asked the contractor to provide me a blank slate by not installing a sidewalk, foundation plantings or turf. I decided to speak to the architectural style of the home by using stone, gravel, ornamental grasses, conifers and a specimen Japanese maple to pull textures, hues and shapes from the home. Gravel replaces the predictable front lawn. We added berms to provide a third dimension, held back by boulders that became sculptural elements in their own rite. 

Selwyn Architectural Garden

This home was recently remodeled in a sublime way. The garden needed to ground the home in the landscape by pulling some of its architectural elements into the garden and providing juxtaposition. Embedded black porcelain tiles and oversized spheres perform those functions, while serpentine masses of perennials lead the eye around the space and to the front door. Contemporary elegance is achieved through the dramatic use of chartreuse, dark burgundy, white and dark green.

Focal Point On Axis With French Doors

The clients recently downsized from a much larger home with a Japanese garden to a townhouse with a small courtyard. The husband in particular missed his Japanese garden and wanted to create one here, while not attempting to recreate his previous space. In a small garden, every element counts and must bring multiple attributes to the plate to earn its space. I believe that this garden does just that.

Japanese-inspired City Garden

New front garden, 2 years after installation.

The project scope was to redesign the front yard of this historic 100+ year old mill house located in a revitalized area of Charlotte. The lawn was replaced with a matrix planting of shrubs, ornamental grasses, specimen trees and perennials. Each plant choice earns its place in the design by pulling hues from the home and hardscape or adding texture to the mix.

Noda Project #2

Animated Infill Garden

This backyard garden was crafted for a young couple in a densely populated urban infill neighborhood. The goals were to pull colors, textures and shapes from the Craftsman architecture to create a homogenous and immersive environment, to address water run-off issues by crafting a dry creek bed, and to create a cottage garden of sorts that would attract wildlife. 
I refer to it as "animated" because of the grasses and perennials that catch and react to the breeze, as well as the butterflies, bees and birds that will enjoy the space.

Room with a view

The clients had lived in this home for almost 25 years. A partial renovation of the backyard ten years ago dealt primarily with hardscape. We extended the lines of the existing hardscape into the backyard to provide garden rooms that are viewed from multiple angles and vantage points. The result is a year-round garden full of color, texture and shapes.

Myers Park Backyard Renovation

Entrance to the Light Garden.

This garden, part of my personal space, developed in my mind over a period of three years. It is a sculpture garden that sits in the forest. It is a meditation garden with its circular minimalistic seating-for-one area off axis at the end of the path. But it also is a garden that celebrates light. The shafts of sunlight that pierce the forest canopy and display ever-changing patterns on the forest floor are art in themselves. Strips and puddles of chartreuse foliage mimic and draw attention to that light. Vertical and narrow conifers act as sentries, standing guard over the garden, casting north-facing shadows that are created out of mondo. Stone walls and boulders form the structure, while round-clipped boxwood intermingle with stone spheres, transversing the axis as they appear to roll down the hill. The original idea was to create a garden that was meant to be viewed from the windows of the home rather than to be walked through. It has evolved into so much more.

A Garden That Celebrates Light

New front yard.

This new home was built in an older, upcoming neighborhood near uptown Charlotte. The homeowners, who recently relocated from CA, met with me before putting an offer on the home, as they wanted to make sure the yard had potential to become a garden. Several challenges were immediately evident:  the small front yard had drainage issues from street run-off, the backyard was transversed by an unsightly drainage ditch that ran parallel to the house, the side yard was only 5 feet wide and the homeowners wanted a path with plantings on both sides, and the soil was inferior. The clients wanted no turf except for an area in the very back of the backyard, so we set about to create an appropriate matrix planting of ornamental grasses, shrubs, perennials and specimen trees that spoke to the style of the home and grounded it into the landscape. The drainage ditch became a beautiful dry creek bed with a stone slab bridge. Wildlife-friendly plants attract beneficial insects and hummingbirds.

Noda, Charlotte, Infill Project

Madison Park Project

This project involved the redesign of the yard belonging to a 1959 ranch in Charlotte, NC. The old concrete sidewalk was removed and replaced with a zigzag bluestone and gravel sidewalk that sets the house as the destination in the newly created journey. A rusted steel sculpture was placed within the confines of the sidewalk to set the home apart from others on the street. A new berm was created and foundation plantings were pulled out into the yard to create a new semi-private woodland stroll garden between berm and home.

AKM Project by Sifford Garden Design

NJ Project, Charlotte, NC

This Craftsman style house located in south Charlotte, NC, is part of a vibrant infill Craftsman style neighborhood. The homeowners already had a beautiful back garden which was to be featured on a city-wide garden tour. They asked me to renovate the front and side yards, to turn them into usable garden spaces. Both husband and wife are color blind but can see blue, so I used a plethora of blue foliage, set off by the Cor-Ten steel knee wall and ninebark shrubs. 

header

Houzz Tours - Maja Egelund

<p>Want to learn more? Contact us about your next project.</p>

footer

Home

About

Contact

Press

Process

Speaking

Testimonials

GARDEN DESIGN

JAY SIFFORD

Project Highlight Video

Floor plan preview

Is this your business? <t1>Log In</t1> to your account on Houzz Pro to reactivate your profile.

Houzz Pro Account Suspended

We will get back to you by email as soon as possible.

We have received your inquiry!

Map for {location}

Privacy Policy for this Site

This website stores cookies on your device and handles your information in accordance with the <t1>Houzz Privacy Policy</t1> and <t2>this website privacy policy</t2>. Select your preferences below. When you click “{ACCEPT_ALL}” this website can give you the best possible user experience.

This Website Uses Cookies

Your privacy is important. You can select your cookie preferences as described below. You can modify your preferences at any time.

Read more about the <t1>Houzz Privacy Policy link</t1> and <t2>this website privacy policy</t2> for more information about how these cookies are used.

This website uses cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies are necessary for our website to function properly. If you consent to the use of other cookies, we use them to personalize your experience, serve you relevant content, and improve our products and services.

JAY SIFFORD

GARDEN DESIGN

OUR WORK

Years of Beautiful Landscapes

Get in Touch