Andrew and Natalie Tanner’s residence at 1731 Cunliff Lane — currently listed for sale by the Laughlin Tanner Group with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty — is featured in this month’s Southside Stroll magazine for its extraordinary front-yard foodscape. The property sits in the coveted McClellan Park neighborhood, one of Sarasota’s most sought-after West of Trail communities, and the recognition is well earned.
A Garden Six Years in the Making
What greets visitors at 1731 Cunliff Lane is not a typical front yard. To find the front door, you first navigate a Louis Philippe Rose trellis tunnel and a winding coral stone path imported from the Dominican Republic. This sensory arrival sequence signals something special is happening here.
The Tanners have spent six years cultivating what landscape designer Peter Blake of Living Landscapes calls a foodscape: an edible, ecologically active garden designed on the principles of Biodynamics. Natalie Tanner, who maintains this ongoing project, puts her philosophy simply: “I don’t grow plants, I grow soil that the plants can grow healthy in.”
That philosophy shows. The garden feeds the soil, the soil feeds the plants, and the plants feed everyone: from the family inside to the butterflies, birds and hummingbirds outside.
What’s Growing at 1731 Cunliff Lane
The street-side beds alone read like a winter farmers’ market: cabbage, broccoli, multiple varieties of kale, spearmint and society garlic intermingle with Cuban oregano (also known as Mexican mint), cherry tomatoes, and the native Seminole pumpkin. An olive tree (whose fruit Natalie has learned to cure herself) and a stand of bananas round out the tropical provisions. The fruit tree collection includes Sugar apple, Barbados cherry (acerola) and Ice-cream/Carrie mango.
The framed outdoor living room features an espalier of Barbados cherry alongside sandpaper vine, while the side yard offers a lush tropical tableau of farfugium, ti plants, dracaena and palms visible through the kitchen window.
A Pollinator Paradise in Sarasota
The Tanner garden is as much a wildlife habitat as it is a kitchen garden. Orange fennel draws black swallowtail caterpillars. Blue porter weed attracts the long-tailed skipper and Durante’s long-tail butterfly. Candle larkspur signals the health of the ecosystem and the presence of aluminum in the soil. Purple sage, orange jasmine, pentas and fire spike fill in around the property.
Most notably, the garden supports the rare Atala butterfly, once thought to be extinct and now making a remarkable comeback in Sarasota through native coontie plantings. Native beautyberry, with its vivid purple berries, provides birds a hearty snack and gardeners a striking visual anchor.
All of these plants thrive in sandy loam with no soil amendments, a testament to the Biodynamic approach Natalie has followed from the beginning.
The Story Behind the Gardeners
Natalie and Andrew Tanner lived in New York City for twenty years before relocating to Sarasota to raise a family and be closer to family. Their roots in this community run deep. Natalie is a past president of the McClellan Park Neighborhood Association, has been a fixture on the annual garden tour and neighborhood fete, and pioneered edible gardens for children at Southside Elementary School. Andrew, born and raised in England and educated at a British boarding school, brings a global perspective honed across London, New York, and Milan. At home, he serves cheerfully as gardener’s assistant, with a particular affection for the property’s spectacular rose arbor.
1731 Cunliff Lane: West of Trail, Listed for Sale
Beyond the garden, 1731 Cunliff Lane represents precisely the kind of property the Laughlin Tanner Group specializes in: a home West of Trail where investment value and quality of life are inseparable. Natalie, who serves as Director of Property Presentation for the Laughlin Tanner Group, understands that a home is both a financial asset and the place where families build their most lasting memories.
For buyers interested in Sarasota’s West of Trail market, in McClellan Park’s distinctive neighborhood character, or simply in a home where the front yard grows your dinner and shelters rare butterflies, this is a rare listing.
Contact the Laughlin Tanner Group at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty to schedule a private showing of 1731 Cunliff Lane.
