Lina grew up far away from the rolling plains of Colorado. Back in Melbourne, Australia, her garden was home to plants like ferns and azaleas, camellias, and Birds of Paradise. In Colorado, her vision shifted dramatically with a new home that was surrounded by nothing but gentle hills and dry prairie grasses.
She and her husband, David, embraced it all. After more than 35 years, they’ve tamed part of that prairieโbut only just so much. Now, her grassy hillside gently eases its way into a free-flowing dryland garden.
Lina has been a fixture in Tagawa’s Perennial Department for years and is well known for having a remarkable sense of design. She’s paired that artistic sense with ready access to new and different plants that come into Tagawa’s to create what she describes as “a true Colorado garden, relaxed but tidy.”
It’s a Garden That Looks Right at Home
The natural feel of Lina’s gardenโthe sense that it’s just as it should beโhides the amount of work that’s gone into making it such a perfect fit. There are rocks, lots and lots of rocks, both big and small. They’re not naturally part of this prairie hillside but seem to belong here.
She’s chosen pea gravel to mulch around the rocks, partly to complete the look, but more specifically because the dryland plants she loves don’t want to be surrounded by organic mulch like bark that can hold too much moisture around the base of the plants.
The low-water flowers here serve a double purpose. They bring pops of color and also attract pollinators, which are a priority for Lina. Different plants emerge over the course of each growing season, bringing color all summer long. When we visited, coneflowers, penstemon, and Mexican Hat were the stars of the show.
The flowers don’t crowd each other. They pop up here and there, in a very natural, no-fuss kind of way.
Grasses also play a leading role in Lina’s garden. She says she loves them for their height and gentle movement. They also reflect the shorter native grasses of the surrounding hillside.
There Are Container Gardens Here, Too
Lina is part of a team of designers who create hundreds of custom container gardens for Tagawa clients every spring, so of course, she has some containers of annuals in her own landscape.
She asked us not to tell her husband David how many containers she actually has all around her home. (There are about 70.) Many of them soften the seating areas next to her house and bring instant and inviting color. The containers also give her a chance to experiment with designs and plant combinations that might work well for Tagawa’s Custom Container program.
Always Ready to Transplant
Lina’s routinely “reading” her plants, ready to move them if they’re not happy where they are. Even in the heat of summer, she doesn’t hesitate to move a plant from one part of her garden to another. She says the heat isn’t a problem, as long as she watches the watering. And she welcomes plants that show up uninvited, if they’re a good fit.
Moving Forward
Lina and David have created a winding dry streambed that runs the length of her prairie garden. She says the big project for next summer is filling in the streambed with different sizes of river rock that will create a sense of movement and flow. It’s a little trick that implies water where there is none.
A Time to Work & a Time to Rest
Lina says that without fail, she’s drawn into her garden every day during the growing seasonโwatching the pollinators, admiring new blossoms, or finding a spot that could use one more plant. But as much as she loves working this patch of ground, she makes sure to stop, sit nearby and just enjoy what she’s created.
A quiet evening, a comfortable swing, and a glass of lemonade near the garden she calls her “happy place” are her reward, all of it very well earned.
