Featured Gardens: City Woodland
This project was constructed in a long and narrow downtown lot that had no shade trees. The views out from the house to a featureless lawn were bleak, and the views back to the house chaotic and ugly. The client is retired, and wanted a beautiful garden in which she could spend time gardening, have quiet lunches and teas with friends, and have a place to read and do yoga.
We built a pergola the full width of the garden, close to the house, in order to provide shade and privacy for dining, to create an entrance to the garden, and to soften the view of the house (and neighbours’ houses) from the garden. An existing Virginia creeper has covered the pergola beautifully. A small water feature located at the edge of the dining area marks the beginning of a winding path into the garden.
The client wanted to re-use her existing red pre-cast concrete pavers, so we set some of them tightly together for a dining patio beneath the pergola, and transitioned others out from there in pea gravel to a stepping stone path. The pea gravel is bordered with cedar logs that also define the curved, bermed beds on either side. The curved path and planting break down the rectangular box of the property and create a sense of mystery and invitation. We changed the grade slightly along the path as well, to enhance the sense of going from one place to another. The fence lines themselves are broken up with groups of emerald cedars, willow screen panels, vines and foreground planting- a service berry (that produced enough berries for two and a half dozen muffins in the second year), three clump form birch, a japanese maple, peejee hydrangea standard, and an existing sand cherry. Underplanting includes ferns, hostas, rhododendron, sedum autumn joy, and periwinkle.
At the foot of the garden we built a cedar teahouse, accessed by a flat bridge that crosses a dry riverbed planted with a globe blue spruce, Siberian iris, zebra grass, blue fescue and hostas. Willow fencing, planting, and a carefully crafted, overhanging Japanese style roof create privacy in the teahouse, a quiet woodland retreat perfect for tea and yoga.