About Deer
Our Approach to Garden Design
Evening Gardens is a residential landscape design company based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. We strive to make gardens that fit their location and that are comfortable and accessible to their owners.
Today, many couples can enjoy their gardens only after returning from work at the end of the day. A good design can make a garden accessible during the evening and nighttime by including plants with more visible color or fragrance. Similarly, water can bring sound that makes a garden come alive. Paving materials and lighting can make navigating at night easier. A well-designed garden can be available to owners whenever they want to use it.
Evening Gardens designs all types of residential gardens — urban to suburban, formal to informal. A garden should meet the needs and dreams of its owners — whether as a sanctuary from the larger world, a way to reconnect with nature, a place for the family to play, a place to entertain, or a place to grow a collection of favorite plants. We design entire gardens, including terraces, plantings, pergolas and fences, lighting, and other elements. In addition, we provide subcontractors to install stone work and plantings, and often act as general contractor to oversee the complete installation of a design.
We listen to our clients to give them what they want.
Gardens in Their Settings
The British writer William Robinson wrote that "the best kind of garden should rise out of its site and conditions as happily as a primrose out of a cool bank." [The English Flower Garden (1883)] This is as true today as when he wrote more than a century ago.
A garden needs to fit its site. Most of our work is done in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area. The Middle Atlantic region is rich in plants and natural landscapes that vary with the seasons and their specific location. These elements can inspire and be reflected in the garden.
We have many outstanding native plants that are suited to our soils and climate. They can be a good foundation for the garden, integrated with plants introduced from other regions and countries.
The Mid-Atlantic is rich in wildlife, as well. One of our particular interests is designing gardens to attract birds and butterflies. They bring life to the garden and are fun to watch for adults and kids alike. To attract wildlife, a garden needs to provide water, food (in the form of nectar, seeds, fruit), shelter, and protection from cats and other predators.
Not all wildlife can co-exist in the residential garden. Where deer are a problem, plant choice and fencing can help to exclude them or make gardens less attractive to them.
Gardens and Maintenance
Garden owners should think about how much time they want to spend maintaining their garden or paying others to do it for them. Today, many owners say they want a low-maintenance garden. Yet they still want to grow vegetables, have a cutting garden for flowers for the house, or want to grow some favorite (high maintenance) plants that give them flowers all year. It's important to balance design and maintenance.
There are several factors that affect the amount of maintenance required. Our goal in garden design is sustainability — that is, selecting the right plants for the location and giving them the best conditions in which to grow.
Plants that require less water will be easier to maintain and can make an irrigation system unnecessary to less expensive to operate. Some of our most beautiful flowers evolved on the prairies, where water was sometimes scarce, so they can survive with less.
Invasive plants can make for a higher maintenance garden. English ivy, planted because it would fill vast voids in a garden, can become a perpetual maintenance item. Leyland Cypress, planted as a quick-growing screen, can become either too tall for the site as it grows to 50-60 feet or a tree requiring frequent topping and shearing to stay in scale.
Garden Lighting
We design and install low-voltage lighting for gardens. Low-voltage systems feature small-sized fixtures that can be installed with minimal disturbance to existing gardens. They have powerful lamps and sufficient wattage for most residential settings and are less expensive to operate. They can be safer around pets and young children than line voltage systems.
Lighting can illuminate paths and show where steps and other trip hazards are located. It can make a garden seem larger or can create intimate spaces. It can show off specimen plants in dramatic fashion. The best lighting is subtle and carefully placed. It should complement, rather than outstrip, the garden.
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