Design Considered Garden’s Multiple uses

When artist Barbara Crawford was invited to design a garden at the back of Lee House at Washington and Lee University, she had to keep in mind the dual personality of the location.

Planning outdoor space requires the same considerations as designing space inside the home.

The Lee House serves as the residence of the W&L president. A side public garden on its grounds had been designed by the Garden Club of Virginia. The area Crawford was to consider was private, but sometimes open to the public. It often was a spillover for university events held on the front lawn, which opens onto the campus.

In addition, the back area isn’t really all that private considering that a several story dormitory overlooks it.
“I wanted it to be for the family, but I expected it to be opened at times,” Crawford said.

Crawford teaches painting and art at Southern Virginia University and has been there since 1979. She has had 30 shows of her works and is co-author of “Rockbridge County Artists and Artisans.” She also takes her gardening seriously, she said.
The gardens at the home Crawford shares with her husband, Mario Pellicciaro, who taught classics at W&L, have been on the annual garden tours several times. Crawford describes her gardens as “organic,” featuring lots of curves and pathways. She was asked to come up with a plan for the Lee House after W&L president John Elrod, now deceased, saw her gardens. Elrod and his wife, Mimi Elrod, now associate director of Washington and Lee University’s Office of Special Programs and director of the Summer Scholar’s Program, lived at the house.

There was no historic precedent for a garden design since the president before Elrod had fenced in the area as a place for his dogs. In Lee’s days, the spot probably was home to chickens, Crawford said.

Lee House needed something more formal than her gardens, she said.

When her final plan was adopted, it featured edged and curved planting areas and relied upon a formal terrace with a path connecting the back door to the gate at the back of the yard. Granite cobblestone edges the gardens.

President Elrod always left for his offices at W&L through the back door of his home and through that gate, Crawford said. Along that path, Crawford placed marble funerary statues “to bless the president as he came and went,” she said.

Plantings were chosen to create blooms throughout the season. A space near the back door was left unplanted so that the home’s residents could personalize what would go there.

The gardens project also produced a keepsake for the Elrods to take with them when they left, a memory jar of items found during the excavation to create the gardens.

“The work was done by buildings and grounds staff and I had them save everything they dug up, dog bones, beer cans, oyster shells - and glued those to a memory jar the Elrods could take with them.

Although the back garden is not usually open to the public, groups can ask special permission for a viewing, said Pamela Burish, whose husband, Thomas Burish, has been president of W&L since 2002.

In addition, a side garden at the home is open to the public. It was designed by the Garden Club of Virginia.

Other garden opportunities in area

Buffalo Springs Herb Farm
This 18th century farmstead in the northern end of Rockbridge County offers garden tours with a variety of themes, the plant house stocked with herb plants and garden accessories and the Big Red Barn where herbal products, dried flowers and designs and garden books may be purchased. It is on Virginia 606 west (Raphine Road), reached from exit 205 of I-81.
Admission is free, but some scheduled herbal programs, workshops and luncheons carry fees. Buffalo Springs is open April 6 to mid-December: Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; April & May: Sunday 1-5 p.m.; September-mid-December: Sunday 1-5 p.m.
The following events are scheduled at Buffalo, according to the Lexington Tourist Bureau:
April 6: Herb Farm Open House, 10a.m. - 4p.m.; April 10: Wildflower Walk, 2p.m.; April 17 and April 21: “There’s an Herb Garden for You” program and lunch, 11a.m.; May 8: Herbs Everyone Should Grow, 1:30 & 2:30p.m. For information, contact (540) 348-1083 or visit www.buffaloherbs.com.

Boxerwood Gardens
The gardens are less than a mile from Lexington and feature a private collection of mature rare and unusual trees and shrubs on its 15 acres. It can be reached from I-81 via exit 188B. Admission is free, but a contribution of $4 is suggested. Self-guided tours are allowed March-November, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
On May 2, the Boxerwood Crab Party is scheduled 3-7 p.m. For information, contact webmaster@boxerwood.com, 540-463-2697 or 963 Ross Road, Lexington, VA 24450.

Historic Garden Week
On April 24, Historic Garden Tour Day will be held in Lexington. See www.vagardenweek.org/schedule.htm for information on that event and for other Historic Garden Week in Virginia events. Garden Week is April 17-25.