Four Landscape Projects That Prove We Live in Paradise

We are thankful to Sarasota Magazine for featuring our Roberts Bay residence in their April 2014 issue, showcasing four unique landscapes in Sarasota. Our portion of the article follows here.

Michael Gilkey and Gavin Cain, landscape architects, Michael A. Gilkey, Inc.

THE PROJECT: A remodeled canal-front home on Siesta Key’s Jungle Plum Road, owned by a young professional couple.

FIRST IMPRESSION: At the front entry, a colonnade of feathery Veitchia palms creates a canopy over the ipe wood deck. “The owners wanted a Balinese-inspired property, so we took up the pebblecrete driveway and created what seems like a river of mondo grass under this beautiful wood deck,” says Gilkey. “In Bali, we’d be walking over water [to reach the front door]. Here, because of the [existing] live oaks, it didn’t make sense to have a koi pond.” Instead, a blue ceramic fountain provides pleasant white noise.

REAR VIEW: In the back yard, to give the homeowners privacy but retain their long views down the canal, the landscape architects raised the grade to match the pool deck, then created a boulder revetment and garden that meanders along the seawall.

THE HUNT: “The homeowner collected palms that nobody else had—lipstick palms, lacula palms, Thai gold coconut palms—but that hard freeze three or four years ago killed every one,” says Gilkey. “We replaced them with more appropriate, yet still unusual, tropical palms: a petticoat palm, an old man palm with big scraggly hairs going down the side of it. In the back yard we planted oil palms that will eventually get to 30 or 40 feet. From the water they give scale to the house.”

THE HEAT Instead of traditional landscape lighting, a fire pit and 10 tiki torches were installed in the back yard. “The fire gives you great ambient light—a beautiful, warm glow—that you can’t do with traditional landscape lighting,” says Gilkey.

April 2, 2014
View Project
Read more

Pin It on Pinterest