Gardens Illustrated
Working with nature to create a low-input rocky garden in Maine
October, 2020
Words Kendra Wilson, photographs Claire Takacs
« Whatever you call the dominant European planting style of the past 20 years – New Perennial, prairie or low-input, high-impact – there is no getting away from the fact that many of the key plants in this approach are American. In high summer, a northern-hemisphere bed may well feature a mix of grasses and hard workers, such as rudbeckia and sanguisorba, and with good reason. But to an American observer there is almost always something vital missing from this kind of landscape: big rocks. In New England, there are boulders galore, and low walls of smooth, irregular fieldstone criss-crossing the countryside, giving a tangible sense of a region steeped, waist high, in its agrarian past. With American wildflowers self-seeding along white picket fences, hopes of finding adventurous native planting are too often dashed. It is encouraging therefore to find a landscape gardener such as Caleb Davis, whose considered approach to plants and stones is inseparable from the demands of his very particular locality. »
Decor Maine
Taming the Wild Plants of Mount Desert Island
Words Penny Guisinger, photographs Caleb Fuller Davis
« Landscape designer Caleb Fuller Davis doesn’t want you to see his work. “Landscape serves as the transition from a building to the natural world,” he explains. “It should be an intentional experience, but the hand of the designer should be almost invisible.” Through Songscape, Davis’ Bar Harbor landscape and design studio, he brings his hand to shaping environments that create dialogs between buildings and nature, between people and the land, and between the present and the future.
Born and raised in Maine, Davis has been designing gardens on Mount Desert Island for over two decades. Acadia National Park is a central feature of his community, and he believes that it informs a local commitment to conservation and respect for nature that he can translate into his work. He is careful about how he frames his work within the context and concept of sustainability, noting that it’s “an aspirational term.” Davis prefers to talk about design choices that support responsible living and allow his clients to minimize the resources required to install and maintain their outdoor spaces. »
Gardenista
A Sense of Place: The Work of Garden Designer Caleb Davis in Maine
Words Kendra Wilson
« Creating a sense of place is the opposite of applying conventional wisdom; it has to do with immersion and a willingness to look and think. Caleb Davis of Songscape Gardens in Bar Harbor, Maine, works closely within his very particular location, drawing on a background in agro-ecology and stonework for his horticultural design focus. “This part of Maine has its unique attributes, which have a big role in how I’ve learned to use plants,” he explains. “The combination of the ecology and culture of the region is so central to how I approach my work that it would be challenging to take it and superimpose it somewhere else.” »