Maclay Tour of Gardens Highlight: Jeff & Deborah

Maclay Tour of Gardens Highlight: Jeff & Deborah

Why attend the annual Maclay Tour of Gardens?

Once a year, Tallahassee’s most impressive home gardeners open their yards to the public for the Maclay Tour of Gardens. Participants are free to visit any or all of the featured homes throughout the day, enjoying the self-guided tour at their leisure. Each year reveals a new set of hidden backyard oases, resplendent with totally unique combinations of plants, outdoor living spaces, art, water features, and creative garden solutions that will inspire you to take your own garden to the next level. Since all tour proceeds support the Historic Gardens at Maclay Gardens State Park, each ticket holder does their part to preserve one of Tallahassee’s most beloved and iconic landscapes.

To learn more about The Friends of Maclay Tour of Gardens, you can visit their website HERE

The Garden of Deborah Lawson & Jeff Blair

The 2024 Tour of Gardens was sadly abbreviated. Two of the gardens had to be removed from the tour at the last minute as a result of the devastating tornados that moved through the area on May 10th. Despite the chaos, Deborah Lawson and Jeff Blair kindly welcomed Tallahassee Nurseries to their cozy garden so we could share it with you now. The line between garden and home is blurred at Deborah & Jeff’s. Large windows open to the front yard, letting the rich green spill into the house, the view blocked only by the flowering orchids that fill the open space. Lush houseplants dot the living room wherever sunlight allows, & the view out each window has been carefully curated to highlight a different aspect of the garden.

Situated at the bottom of the sloped backyard, off to one side, you can view most of the garden from the comfort of the sunken, covered, screened patio. This peaceful, sheltered space has an in-ground planting bed along one wall, filled with tender tropical plants that can survive the winter thanks to their protected site.

The yard extends out like an amphitheater from this vantage point, blanketed by a thick layer of mondo grass that covers most of the garden. This sea of dark green protects the soil from runoff and provides a gorgeous backdrop from which the other plants emerge. Through winding footpaths, you encounter reliable plants like azalea, citrus, gardenia, bottlebrush, hydrangea, boxwood, butterfly bush, tea olive, & leatherleaf fern. These Tallahassee garden staples thrive in our region, creating a healthy, lush garden full of relatively low-maintenance plants. Far from predictable, the garden feels fresh, alive, and unique. The combination of plants, artwork, paths, seating areas, and water features is truly one of a kind. You’ll even find horticultural surprises such as peace lilies growing in the ground, behaving like perennials.

Every part of the garden is laid out to encourage wildlife. The shrubs have been allowed to grow large, creating a dense thicket of branches and leaves that provide habitat. The small pond provides a water source and home for aquatic plants as well as a fresh brood of tadpoles. Fallen leaves from the overstory trees are allowed to stay on the ground, enriching and protecting the soil. Dense growth, diverse plants, bird feeders, bird houses, & water sources all attract regular visitors like squirrels, birds, frogs, raccoons, snakes, and many other wild friends. Jeff and Deborah are able to listen to and watch it all from their comfy, cozy patio at the bottom of the yard.

While some of their large trees were lost in the storms, Deborah and Jeff’s garden was a joy to visit. The reduced canopy will let more sun into the backyard in the coming years, no doubt leading to changes in the plantings, but gardens are resilient, they grow and they change. We’re hopeful everyone will be able to see, in person, how the garden changes if Jeff and Deborah are able to rejoin the Maclay Tour of Gardens in 2025.

This article was written by Jonathan Burns (Tallahassee Nurseries Outdoor Manager, FNGLA Florida Certified Horticulture Professional) using information published by the University of Florida combined with years of personal observations growing in the Tallahassee area.

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