Sept. 16 Column: Anne Moore Knapp

I have been really excited about today’s column. That’s because it is a profile of my sister, Anne Moore Knapp, and her beautiful garden in Gig Harbor, Wash. Here is a link to it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Artist’s colorful landscape designed to age gracefully. (you can also read it lower in this post)

To be honest, this was an unexpected column. Bill and I drove to Gig Harbor in early August so we could attend the wedding of their older daughter. I knew their garden was quite new but I wasn’t sure what to expect. It turns out, Anne’s garden bowled me over from the first moment. I just knew I had to profile it!

Why I wanted to write about the garden of Anne Moore Knapp

As I explain in my column, Anne and her husband, Bob, built their new house just two years ago. You can imagine all of the things they needed to attend to first. But Anne had been drawing up landscape plans for months and thinking through everything she wanted to accomplish with it. So once there was time to work on it for real, she and Bob hit the ground running. (notice the cool gate that heads into her studio garden, to the right)

I should explain is that Anne is an artist so she understands the concepts of color and composition very well. She’s also been an avid gardener for most of her life. Anne knows which plants do best in her region, and what she wanted this new garden to look like. I was so impressed with what I saw.

There were a few things I didn’t have room to include in my column. First, Anne and Bob’s new home is designed to be very energy-efficient. For example, they installed solar panels on the back side of their roof to cut down on electric costs. They had to abide by fairly new rules about water usage. Anne explained, “Every drop of water has to drain ON our lot. We don’t have any concrete sidewalks except in one spot” (so that the water can percolate down into the soil). They also had to follow earthquake protection requirements. And they water everything in their garden using drip irrigation.

The day after he wedding, I was already pelting her with questions. I took photos of just about every angle of their garden, knowing that you’d want to hear about it! I hope that you will really enjoy reading my column.

In addition to reading, you also get to watch this week’s video, which is primarily a slideshow of Anne’s garden. So you’ll get the complete picture. I hope you’re able to take away some helpful concepts for approaching the design of a garden. But as Anne told me, above all else, do what speaks to you. Here’s the video:

Garden column: Profile of Anne Moore Knapp

By Susan Mulvihill

When passersby slow down time and again to look at a garden, you know it’s special. But what makes this one extra special is that it’s an artist’s garden.

That artist is Anne Moore Knapp. She lives in Gig Harbor, Wash., and she just happens to be my sister.

Meet Anne Moore Knapp

Anne and her husband, Bob Knapp, built their new home just two years ago. The transformation of their formerly blank lot in that short time frame is remarkable.

As an artist who works primarily in pastels and oils, Anne has a good eye for color and composition. She took her time mulling over the garden’s design.

“On winter evenings while the house was being built, I drew out multiple landscape plans,” she said. “It was good to think it through. But that doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes. It hasn’t been perfect but it’s 98 percent good.”

Even though their garden is on an irregularly-shaped city lot, Anne has created appealing vignettes with several different plantings.

Take a peek into the garden of Anne Moore Knapp

“For my hot garden in front, I knew the color of the house would be rust and blue,” she explained. “I wanted bold, rusty colors which I balanced with complementary colors of blues and blue-violets. Then I added enough hot colors like yellows, oranges and reds.”

Her choices include are fabulous. Red coneflowers, orange Crocosmia, Black and Blue salvia, black-eyed Susans, May Night salvia, orange torch lilies and Salmon Star Oriental lilies. Anne chose plants with eye-catching foliage. Examples include Purple smokebush, Purple Fountains beech, Orange Rocket barberry, a Japanese maple, and bronze-colored Shiraz flax.

At the back edge of the hot garden, a tall retaining wall is painted in a rust color. Nearby blue pots to provide continuity to the color scheme.

On the other side of the driveway, there are tall galvanized stock tanks. They’ve been converted to planters and painted to match the house and retaining wall. They are filled with a mix of vegetables and flowers.

Garden with age-in-place strategies

“This house is an age-in-place house, so I wanted the garden to be the same. The containers are easier to tend, require less bending and look very cool,” Anne told me. “Gardening in them is more controlled and the containers have kept the bunnies from nibbling my plants.”

The eye-catching gate that leads into her studio garden has been created from a panel of garden tools. They have been welded together and the gate provides a peek at what’s to come.

The centerpiece is a pond that has been edged with an 18-inch-tall retaining wall to make it easier to maintain. Colorful fish, water lilies, a prehistoric-looking Gunnera with huge leaves, and a container of carnivorous plants provide plenty of interest.

Along the edges of the studio garden are plantings of ferns, astilbes, hellebores, Indian Summer coleus with its bronzy leaves, a passionflower vine and four pots of golden-stemmed bamboo.

A  pathway on the side of the house leads to more vegetables growing in galvanized water troughs. There are blue containers filled with Oriental lilies, Alstroemeria, Lily of the Nile, and gold dahlias. Three tiered foundation planters are edged with landscape blocks. Again, they’re tall enough for sitting while tending. Anne planted them with lavender Liatris, bright pink coneflowers, lilies and edible crops.

This area flows into the backyard where berries, fruit trees and ornamental plants are growing. Anne has been making cast concrete leaves and painting them in red-orange, purple or turquoise to accent the plantings.

Anne Moore Knapp shares her garden design principles

As I explored the garden, it became clear that every part of it had been carefully considered. When asked if she had suggestions for others wanting to design an eye-appealing garden, Anne shared three great tips:

• Take time to observe the space so you know how many hours of sun you’ll get. That way you can plant appropriately.
• Don’t forget the color of the foliage on your plants. It took me until age 50 before I understood that foliage is more important than colors. That’s because you see it the whole time. My hot garden is full of greens, blue-violet and red-orange.
• If you want the cottage garden look (with many different colors), that is okay. But by limiting your palette, you can have a more striking landscape. If you’re a non-artist, go to an art supply store and buy a color wheel. Think of your favorite plants and the colors you like. Plant three or four of them, which will set the tone for your garden. Then look at the color wheel. Find that color. Then either go with complementary colors (directly opposite on the wheel). Or choose analogous colors which are next to the main color on the wheel. But if your favorite color is pink, then embrace the pinks!