Modern Accord Depot: Before and After

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Garden Design Before and After

Here’s what the client had to say:

Vic,

I’m shouting in excitement:

THE GARDENS AT MAD ARE LOOKING ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!!

We just went by and the rain must have helped everything shoot up — we cannot believe how extraordinary it looks!!!

The thing we most wanted was height, color, visual interest and composition and you have absolutely delivered that in a way we’d been struggling to figure out for YEARS at MAD.

Wow wow wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Vic and team!!!!!!

This was a really fun and interesting project for Victoria Gardens in partnership with Shawn McCloskey of Aurora Landscape Design. The owners of the Modern Accord Depot, Choreographer Chase Brock and Conductor Rob Berman already had renovated this historic Train Depot into a fun, colorful, modern structure, which is an arts residency space and luxury vacation rental.

But they weren’t happy with the outside spaces!

The property was very flat and the soil was compacted because of its past life. And nothing could grow where there had been a road through the property.

The clients also had a few different requests:

  • Modern

  • Wild

  • Colorful

  • Meadow

  • Sculptural

The clients also LOVE color. The interior design of the Depot reflects the fun, playful attitude they have for color.

With the exterior of the Depot and the fence surrounding the property painted black, Victoria knew that reds, oranges, and yellows were going to be a part of the garden design.

The fenced in property means that deer did not need to be a part of the consideration when choosing plants. The fence also allowed for unique and sculptural evergreens like Skyline spruces and thread leaf cypresses to anchor the design.

Two weeping White pines will become, in the future, a living arch that guests will be able to walk under. Victoria also included Rising Sun red bud trees and Tiger’s Eye sumacs which are quite sculptural and have vivid, colorful foliage.

So, once the colors and primary plants were mostly planned, Victoria and Donna laid out the shape of the garden with marker paint directly on the grass using curved edges and kidney shaped beds. As Victoria explains, there is rarely a reason to use perfect circles or straight lines in the garden design! Rather gardens should have natural, organic shapes. Using the marker paint, you can really envision what the garden will look like before you cut out any grass. The marker paint washes away after the first good rain.

Both Victoria and Donna like to be in the space and work organically to find the right shape for the garden beds. It’s a very different process from drawing out the beds on paper ahead of time! They want the edges to flow and want to ensure it will be easy for the lawn guys to get around the beds. At the depot yard, they were also incorporating that compressed soil area where not even grass would grow previously.

Then Victoria and Shawn trucked in 18 cubic feet of quality garden soil. At Victoria Gardens we almost always bring in fresh soil. The soil will smother the old grass and provide nice drainage for your new plants. No plants will do well if you plant them directly into a flat lawn. Plants like moist, well-drained soil. And by building up a garden bed above lawn level, you ensure that perfect balance between moist and well-drained.

Next, the team brought in boulders and shaped the garden beds to give them a rolling meadow feel. 

Lastly, they brought in a lot of plants! 

Victoria explains that they then spaced the plants so they have room to grow to their mature size.  

Other plants included were Kniphofias, commonly known as Torch Lilies or Red Hot Pokers, red yarrow, purple Verbena bonariensis, Karl Foster grasses, and other striking, sculptural perennials.

Watch the before and after video or keep scrolling for more “after” pictures to see this beautiful space only months after planting!  The garden should only get more lush and dense over time.