Garfield “tranquil”
It’s a vibe. This project was about subtle tweaks taken to attain a serene garden for reading in the morning light, bathing under trees, and hosting family dinners al fresco.
Subtlety in hardscape. To achieve a “soft” hardscape feel, we used a cobble stone with gravel joints and gave the cobbles a feathered edge to give the practicality of hardscape without the strong lines and contrasts.
Subtlety in privacy. Previously, an open flat lawn, the clients wanted to give their property a sense of enclosure while still keeping the space open and not closed off to the neighborhood. Plantings and a low permeable fence were used to establish a barrier between the home and the street.
Experiments in the garden. There were two areas in the garden where play and experiment were a part of the design. The first was the outdoor shower. The tiny new steps from the spa emerge from between two existing trees down to the shower with a custom screen with slats of different lengths dictated by where they meet along the length of the giant palm that encloses the bathing corner.
The second area of experimentation is the side garden, where the clients take their morning coffee on their new Angel City Lumber bench. This is a narrow garden where the clients wanted privacy while preserving the orange-flowered vine that covers the wall between their property and the neighbor’s property. We decided to go bold here and plant two gingko trees that we knew could be trained to grow thin and tall. Giving the once driveway a whole new feel.
Photos by SLH Photography
