When Emil Rinderspacher was planning to build his home on old farmland, he was presented with a blank canvas to design a new garden. At the time a perennial gardener, he attended a lecture at Iowa State University from a landscape architect. On a trip to Reno, Nevada, for the national bowling tournament, he sketched out his design on a dinner place mat.
This is his 30th summer in the house, which sits off Highway 1 between Iowa City and Solon. He’s remained pretty faithful to that first outline, though there is always something new coming in.
“Who made the rule that you have to know where you’re going to put a plant before you buy it?” Rinderspacher said, paraphrasing a philosophy from plantsman Tony Avent…