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Evergreen Haven

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Tucked into a narrow lot along Tradd Street, the entrance garden to a one-time kitchen house mixes formal elements with unfussy comfort
Photographs by
Brie Williams
The entrance to Leslie and Dan Avants’ garden is a familiar sight along Tradd Street, with its bright green carpet of English ivy and petite, arched passage.
Leslie (pictured) and landscape designer Donna Cox organized the walled space for year-round use, incorporating comfortable seating areas like this one with a three-tiered fountain and Confederate jasmine-covered ironwork.
A series of formal beds planted with ‘Kingsville Dwarf’ boxwood, impatiens, Indian hawthorne, and a groundcover of ajuga headlines the well-defined greenspace, while an aged outbuilding lined with a podocarpus hedge enhances the view from the porch.
An old iron chair with latticework seat that Leslie found at Terrace Oaks Antiques in James Island
A brick path extends from the entry gate to the porch for a seamless transition between indoors and out.
This phalaenopsis orchid is potted in a shaded spot under cover of the porch. “Left alone in the shade, these orchids will just keep growing,” says Donna.
Evergreen Haven
Steps away from the house, Donna (shown with Leslie at one of the two fountains in the space) created a checkered groundcover using bluestone and dwarf mondo grass.