Beach/House, Fall 2024

At a Truro property, Keith LeBlanc left a pine that had died long before he started the project standing on a slope. It functions as piece of driftwood sculpture and haven for birds and
wildlife. (Photo by Neil Landino)
Blurring the Edges
A landscape architect’s advice on how to help your garden — no matter how big or small —
fit an Outer Cape setting
By Stephen Orr
Keith LeBlanc has focused for
years on designing landscapes
and gardens that eschew suburban
ideals of clipped lawns and
formal flower beds while seamlessly
blending into our Outer Cape
ecosystem. We asked the longtime
Truro resident, who is principal
of LeBlanc Jones Landscape Architects,
to talk about the ways in
which a property he designed for
a local client makes a useful case
study for helping any gardenmaker
be successful in working
with our rich palette of plants and
geology instead of against it. His
concepts are transferable enough to
give any size project, from a small
village back yard to a property in
the woods, a stronger relationship
to the wildness that surrounds us.
Boundaries
“We think about edges from the
get- go,” says LeBlanc. “You’ve
heard the expression, ‘Good fences
make good neighbors.’ But isn’t it
more interesting for people not to
know exactly where the edges are?
I love to blur the boundaries so it’s
not immediately apparent where
things end or begin. On the other
hand, sometimes it adds to the design
to say this is an edge. Maybe it’s
a very tight situation. That restriction
might give us a design opportunity
to do an interesting fence,
or a hedge, or a looser hedgerow of
mixed plants.
“We’re always trying to be less
invasive in our projects, especially
for larger properties like this one in
Truro, which started out as an antique
Cape with several additions
and outbuildings. We want as little
disturbance in the landscape as
possible. Whether it’s an addition or
putting up a new house, we’re very
cognizant of how much disruption
is required. Usually, a contractor
will tell us their big trucks need 100
feet, 360 degrees around the house.
But we counter that by identifying
trees that we want to keep, or we
ask if the cleared area has to be all
the way around the house. In terms
of the edges, anything we can save
will preserve some of the valuable
existing conditions and natural
setting.
“Editing the edges is important
while taking advantage of what’s
right beyond your property. If
you’re in a small back yard and the
neighbors have a cloud of bayberry,
why don’t you add one on your
side that fits in with your design
and borrows a bit of their yard? It
makes both seem bigger. Let’s say
there’s a fence — if they have a rose
of Sharon on their side, put a rose of
Sharon on your side. Your eye will
connect them when you look out.”
Plants and Lawn
“When we were brought in on the
project,” says LeBlanc, “the owners
had a garden near the house
with various perennials: artemisia,
lavender, heather, and sedum next
to an existing deck. But they told
us they didn’t want to add more
gardens that needed a lot of maintenance.
Moving outward from
the house to the views, there was
a large lawn. We reduced its size
and brought the edge of it closer
to the house. Because we are in a
conservation setback, we planted
those areas with native grasses
and shrubs. Closer to the house, we
started to mix lavender with some
of the ornamental grasses to tie the
natural with the garden areas.
“Our firm has always been
native happy,” says LeBlanc.
“Twenty- five years ago, it wasn’t
so, but now people are embracing
ecological reasons as they’re making
decisions.
“When it comes to lawn, we
always ask our clients why they
A mix of grasses and perennials frames views of Pame