Trading Places

When the heat hits, a clever late-spring swap keeps this Georgia garden feeling light and refreshing.

- ELIZABETH JARDINA

An elegant garden shed and brick beds set the traditional tone for the garden. In each bed, boxwoods encircle the foxgloves that bloom in spring (homeowner James Farmer plants the flowers from starts in fall).

Real estate agents often tout a home's "good bones," but it's a quality that's equally valuable in James Farmer's Georgia garden. There, a quartet of raised beds, evergreen boxwood, and antique ornaments provides formal yet adaptable structure year-round.

Against that backdrop, James gives his garden a makeover as crisp spring turns to sultry summer, replacing the colorful foxgloves that bloom in beds and containers with large white-veined caladiums. "I love color," says James, an interior designer and author of Celebrating Home (Gibbs Smith). "But when it's hot, I don't want to look at red; I don't want to see orange. Green and white is visually cooling." The switch-out takes some work, but, as James points out, "it's only twice a year, and it gives me nearly year-round interest."