One Garden, Two Personalities: Formal Front, Whimsical Back

Jeff Lightbody's century-old Boise home has two distinct garden personalities. The front yard is classically formal: an entry path flanked by groundcovers, ferns, ornamental grasses, and shrubs around basalt boulders, with river birches as sentinels. The 1,250-sq-ft backyard is whimsical, with three sitting areas defined by fences, walls, and decks of wood and pea gravel. Vertical surfaces display collectibles—manhole covers pave a seating area, faucet handles embellish a wall.

Landscape Lessons

• Create a garden gallery. Turn objects into art: group pots, use manhole covers as pavers, display faucet handles on walls.
• Loosen up. Avoid straight lines; curve paths and beds. Plant in informal drifts. Add accents like a square trough of sedums.
• Harmonize colors. Match plants and paving to house colors. Buff sandstone paths pick up terra-cotta steps; tan birch trunks echo walls; white trunks repeat window trim. In back, blue and red clematis twine around art; rusted troughs and vintage washbasins blend earth tones with color splashes.