Euro style transforms garden in Minnesota
EDINA, MINN.— Brian Ellingson’s stately home feels like it belongs along the Mediterranean rather than in Minnesota.
Even more surprising is what hides behind it: a formal terraced garden lined with paths, hedges and a towering pavilion overlooking a lake. The grand scale and sweeping views resemble the grounds of a European estate and it was one of six chosen by judges from more than 175 submissions in last year’s Beautiful Gardens contest, sponsored by the Star Tribune.
Ellingson and his husband, Gary Domann, bought their 3/4-acre Edina property in 2003. What sold them was the backyard: a steep, barren slope descending to a small lake.
From the front, the couple’s house appears nestled in greenery. It’s protected from the street by a cotoneaster hedge with a wave-shaped top; its façade is wrapped in Boston ivy.
The esthetic was no easy feat: Rabbits munched the base of the hedge and mowed off the first 18 inches of the ivy, causing what clung to the house to wither and die.
“I came out here one morning and I had topiaries. They eat everything,” Ellingson said of the rabbits. “It’s been a real battle — an education and an expense.” Ellingson learned to modify his vision for the garden to protect it. He’s added plants — pig squeak, lantana, perennial geraniums and “lemon ball” sedum among them — that rabbits tend to avoid.
At its peak, the flower bed bursts with peonies and day lilies in a variety of hues. There are dahlias, bee balm and Joe Pye weed, phlox, black-eyed Susans, daisies and zinnias. There’s also asparagus and rhubarb.
The first step of Ellingson’s master plan for the backyard was to have three large retaining walls built into the steep slope. This established the axis for a grid of paths.
A burbling cast-stone fountain masks the sound of nearby freeway traffic. Throughout the backyard, various elements break up the symmetry of the wall-and-path grid, including large urns planted with spike, moneywort, geraniums and million bells. A central vegetable garden is fortified with a concrete foundation, sturdy fence and wood gate to keep out groundhogs.
But the grand focal point is a pavilion modelled after one pictured in Arts and Crafts Gardens, created by two steel arches left over from the home renovation.
Tucked under the pavilion’s terracotta tile roof stands a fullsize replica of one of the famous Riace bronzes discovered in the 1970s off the Italian coast. It took three men to carry it to the pavilion.
“The thing to remember is that it costs as much to get it delivered,” he warned novice statuary enthusiasts.