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| American boxwoods line the front steps. The three-tiered boxwood by the porch is actually three shrubs grouped and tied together with twine
to create a living sculpture with more girth. above: Instead of the typical cottage picket fence, Cleveland used his signature shrubs lumped together to create a
boundary. |
In a small yard buried deep within the sprawling concrete of Atlanta, Dan Cleveland stands with his sharpened pruners quietly snipping away at the waves of
boxwood hedges surrounding him. His chocolate Lab plays with the bunny on the front porch. The chickens scratch and peck around the boxwood parterres out
back. Dan, who goes by his last name, Cleveland, laughs softly at the spectacle. "I grew up on a farm where we grew everything we ate," he says. "I guess I
tried to create something that made sense to me here." What makes sense to Cleveland is obviously creating things of beauty.
Bones of Boxwoods
"I started out eight years ago with a typical yard--some grass, a few trees, and a drainage problem," Cleveland explains as we wander along the flagstone
path, lined by undulating hedges of Japanese boxwoods. "I tore out the grass and put in stone terraces. I have no use for grass. I'd rather water plants than
cut grass."
With a stone terrace built along the front of the yard and another against the house to keep the water away, Cleveland brought in loads of horse manure. "The
soil was poor, so I just kept bringing in composted manure and working it in," he recalls. "Now it's really good, and the plants love it."
Next he was ready for foundation plants. "I do landscape design for a company called Boxwoods, so it sort of makes sense that I filled up my yard with that
plant, doesn't it?" Cleveland asks. But he didn't just drop in some boxwoods against the house and call it good. Instead he sculpted a botanical maze using
tiny green leaves.
