While other homeowners might be discouraged by a yard with poor drainage and a steep, 10-foot bank, Rudell and Jay Hegnes were undaunted by such challenges. Located in Gig Harbor, Wash., near Tacoma, their one-third-acre site’s pluses included a quiet neighborhood and sunny exposure. As for the hillside, Rudell says: “We knew it could be an asset, a place to display our trees.”

Since moving there in 2004, the Hegneses have treated their slope as a “stage” for cherished specimens. They have thoughtfully arranged shrubs and trees, both evergreen and deciduous, to showcase diverse needle and leaf textures — from blue spruces and silvery-green pines to golden Japanese cryptomerias. Deciduous Japanese maples produce leaves ranging from lime to burgundy, while barberries provide wine-red accents to this anything-but-green plant palette.

“Our garden has a mixture of dark green, blue, yellow and red foliage,” Rudell explains. “To us, if you mix — and repeat — forms and textures, it gives the garden a yummy feeling. And we wanted a garden that was as much about how it feels as how it looks.” She credits Jay’s passion for photography for inspiring some of their most successful plant groupings, because, “when you observe your garden in a photograph, you can suddenly see what needs to be added.”

A small section of lawn serves as a grassy walking path at the base of the hillside, connecting numerous perennial borders and providing play space for two pups: Bailey, a Cairn Terrier, and Rose, a miniature Schnauzer.

To correct the drainage problems, Jay and Rudell elevated the planting beds with stone edging. Crushed gravel, French drains, berms and a dry creek bed (over which passes a sweet footbridge) also help to draw excess moisture away from the garden.

This exquisite landscape has evolved along with its owners’ gardening style. Each season brings new changes, as Jay and Rudell observe how plants respond to weather patterns, temperatures and cultural conditions. For example, they’ve removed turf to enlarge planting spaces, designing perennial beds and borders to complement the house, patio and fencing.

“We wanted these areas to be wide enough for layering all our favorite colors and textures,” Rudell says. “And it has been fun finding each plant that fits in just the right spot.”

At the heart of the garden stands a 20-by-30 foot aggregate patio that is as spacious as any interior room could be. To enhance its proportions, the couple added two L-shaped corner arbors, constructed by Jay and Rudell’s brother using 4-by-4 inch, rough-cut cedar. “We wanted this space to feel enclosed,” Rudell explains.

The twin arbors frame views out to the garden and create a vertical backdrop for the surrounding perennial beds. On the patio itself, large containers of trees and shrubs are clustered at the base of the beefy posts, while the arbor’s overhead beams support six lavish hanging baskets. “Most people don’t have enough space on their patio, but these dimensions allow us to layer lots of pots,” Rudell says.

When they are seated here, sharing morning coffee or hosting a dinner for friends on a warm summer’s evening, Jay and Rudell enjoy the garden’s many vistas and vignettes. “I get a lot of joy from looking at our plants,” Rudell confides. While this is admittedly not a low-maintenance garden, its plant-obsessed owner chooses perennials for their easy-care features.

“I like plants that I don’t have to stake, that bloom for a long time, and that will reliably return each year,” she says. Some of the tender succulents and tropical plants of this Zone 8b landscape thrive during the summer months because they have spent the winter protected inside an attractive 6-by-6 foot greenhouse.

Adding to the garden’s sensory experience are several water features – fountains and bowls that are both ornamental and attractive to bird life. “We love the sound of water when we’re outside,” Jay explains.

For this husband-and-wife team of 37 years, it’s hard to imagine moving away from the garden that reflects their personal lifestyle, not to mention including plant collections and artwork. “This is our seventh house,” Rudell explains. “We love working on our gardens, one section at a time. At each area means something special to us.” 

In 1909, when the original owners of a Craftsman bungalow in San Diego’s Mission Hills neighborhood moved in, they probably didn’t grill chicken on the barbecue or gather under an umbrella to have cocktails and enjoy views of the distant canyon.

But the activities of today’s families inevitably spill outdoors, especially in a region known for its beneficent year-round climate. Kelle and Robert Wright, who have lived in the historic home since 1993 (and have been restoring it ever since), wanted to capture as much bonus space from the outdoors as possible. While working with builder Fritz Madlé of FTM Construction to enlarge the interior living space, it made sense to extend outward. They replaced a small redwood balcony with a new, 500-square-foot deck that wraps around two sides of the house and connects with the garden below.

Because the backyard slopes away from the house, the new deck is level with the upper canopy of a mature Jacaranda mimosifolia tree. Keeping the specimen was a must-have design issue, Kelle says. “We really built the deck around the tree,” she says. The months of May and June, when the Jacaranda explodes in lavish, lavender-blue flowers, are her favorite times to entertain. “When people come through our house and enter the deck, they always refer to it as a tree house because of all the vegetation in the back.”

Thanks to smart design decisions, the deck addition is an important connecting element that links the residence with the rest of the landscape.

A “baby deck,” as Kelle calls it, serves as a landing pad that contains the outdoor grill and leads to a broad staircase that descend to a lower brick patio.

Many of the project’s finishing touches were borrowed directly from the home’s turn-of-the-century architecture, including the white accent trim and other detailed woodwork. Eight upright posts line the deck’s perimeter, supporting corbels and a long pergola, as well as beautiful Craftsman-inspired lighting. Two pendant lights hang from each post, illuminating the deck and the garden after dusk. “When the lights are on at night we don’t need any extra garden lighting,” Kelle says. “The same fixtures are also mounted to the exterior of the house.”

The Wrights and their contractor knew that a sustainable hardwood like Malaysian Ipé was a suitable decking choice. While it may have been easier to use a composite wood product for modern comfort, “we wanted the deck to reflect the character of this historic home,” Kelle explains. The Wrights treat the wood deck two or three times a year to maintain its rich, warm hue.

Dramatic, oversized containers planted with succulents and seasonal annuals are displayed on wheeled stands, protecting the deck from dripping water and allowing Kelle to move the large pots when there’s a party.

A patterned area rug and comfortable teak and all-weather wicker furniture complement the wood and give the deck a cozy, family-friendly feeling. “We sit out here all the time,” she says. “If we hadn’t done this remodel, we probably would have moved to a larger home.”

Wood or Composite?

Considerations for your deck

The Wright family completed their home renovation and deck addition in the early 2000s, when admittedly, the selection of composite decking material was limited. “There were not so many choices then and we knew that Ipé was a renewable resource,” Fritz Madlé explains. “Now there are many colors and styles to choose from.” Madlé recommends using natural hardwood when adding a deck to a historic home, in order to reflect its architectural heritage.

Here are some of the pros and cons of today’s decking choices:

Cost: Expect to pay about twice as much for cedar and redwood decking ($2 to $3 per square foot uninstalled) than you will for pressure-treated lumber ($1.20-$2 per square foot uninstalled). Wood-and-plastic composite decking varies in cost ($1.75-$4.75 per square foot uninstalled).

Durability: Cedar, cypress and redwood are classic decking choices that are also naturally rot-resistant. Pressure-treated lumber such as pine or fir has been chemically treated to make it rot-resistant. With proper care, pressure treated wood may last up to 30 years; redwood and cedar decking should last 20 to 30 years; and composite wood or plastic decking will have a manufacturer’s warrantee ranging from 10 years or more. Exotic hardwood like Ipé is highly durable, but still the most expensive option.

Installation: Exotic hardwoods are not for the DIY builder and you should consult with a licensed contractor to do the installation. Special tools and skills are needed to work with composite decking and may also require professional installation.

Maintenance: Untreated wood decking weathers to brown, then gray, over time. Expect to treat your wood deck with regular applications of a clear sealer every year; older decks may require a tinted stain to bring back their luster. Synthetic composite, plastic and vinyl decking is designed to look like wood and requires little maintenance other than an occasional power washing.

Environmental issues: Synthetic wood does not require stains or paint, but it is plastic-based. Pressure-treated lumber manufactured after 2004 does not contain arsenic and considered non-hazardous. Natural wood requires ongoing application of sealers or stains. Some natural wood is sustainably harvested.

For more details, follow these links:

• Wood versus Composite
• Choosing the Right Decking    

Start with one ordinary backyard, a concrete patio, a patch of lawn and a swing set. Include one mom and one dad, both with busy medical careers, plus three active kids. Add one rambunctious dog named Mackie and an undemanding cat named Ginger.

For Gigi Kroll McConnaughey, an OB-GYN physician in private practice, and Doug McConnaughey, an internist, this equation didn’t add up. Three years ago, the couple realized that their Newport Beach, Calif., property wasn’t reaching its potential.

“We’d been toying with a big garden project, but the idea of tackling it was overwhelming for two working parents,” Gigi says of their average-sized suburban lot.

Gigi and Doug had admired a friend’s high-functioning backyard and learned that it was designed and built by Newport Beach-based Chris Fenmore of Garden Studio Design. “We loved what we saw,” Gigi says.

Soon thereafter, she bid on a landscape design from Chris Fenmore at a school auction (and won). In 2011, the McConnaughey family — adults, kids and pets included — gained their dream backyard. The design utilizes every inch of the sun-loving, suburban property in USDA Zone 10b.

Chris Fenmore’s space-planning approach, similar to that of an interior designer, divided the outdoor areas into function-specific rooms with clean architectural lines and simple planting schemes. The existing covered patio was too small and was weakened by dry rot, so it was rebuilt and enlarged to accommodate an al fresco dining area and a compact outdoor kitchen, plus a lounging-TV zone in front of a gas fireplace.

The new structure integrates nicely with the McConnaugheys’ Cape Cod-style residence, complete with a cottage-inspired, board-and-batten ceiling, four recessed electric heaters, recessed lighting, speakers and a fan. It is substantial enough to accommodate the master bedroom’s second-level balcony overhead, Gigi and Doug’s private spot that overlooks the new landscape.

There’s a comfy, great-room vibe to the space, which Gigi attributes to the many thoughtful design details, such as flagstone flooring with cobblestone accents, “that makes it feel like an area rug,” she says. Bench seating on both sides of the fireplace is topped with taupe, pale blue and sand-patterned cushions and pillows, a textile palette repeated on furniture throughout the garden.

Water is the centerpiece of two main gathering spaces. First, the pool is aligned with the property’s perimeter wall, which encloses a generous patio for chaises and an umbrella-covered table. Second, an in-ground spa is defined by an L-shaped bench and a casual grouping of furniture. Constructed surfaces around the pool and spa are knit together with soft vegetation, including Dymondia margaretae used as a lush groundcover and a tapestry of succulents and creeping plants at the base of the benches. 

While their residence and garden are tucked into a development with other homes close by, the McConnaughey family enjoys quite a bit of privacy, thanks to screening from the neighbors’ mature trees.

There’s another bonus: a community park and ball field that backs onto their property. To maximize her clients’ use of all this green space, the designer added a secret path and steps (located behind the spa), which lead to an access gate. The kids love to climb the steps and enter the park, Gigi says. “It gives them space to roam and play catch with the dog. It’s the coolest bonus yard.”

” . . . I know when I look back on this time, I’ll say that having this garden was the best thing we ever did.”

 

But more often than not, Gigi, Doug, James (12), Jenna (10) and Kyle (7) gather in their own backyard for “Five Time.” That’s what the family calls their ritual of hanging out together at the end of the day. “We spend quality time as a result of this yard,” says mom. “As a family, we love to eat outside and hop in the pool or Jacuzzi afterwards. It’s where the best conversations take place. And I know when I look back on this time, I’ll say that having this garden was the best thing we ever did.”

Low Water and Lush: The mostly green plant palette relies on drought-tolerant varieties that add lots of luxe to the landscape. Plantings include alternating clusters of dead nettle (Lamium maculatum) and baby’s tears (Soleirolia soleirolii); a stunning stand of yellow kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos sp.); glossy purple-green carpet bugle (Ajuga reptans); and dinner-plate-sized Aeonium.

 

Click here to see the Los Angeles Times @ Home gallery, photographed by Jay L. Clendenin

They didn’t intend to become do-it-yourselfers, but after consulting with a landscape architect who told them, “my gardens start at $50,000,” Michael Moore and Chad Rothman had a change of plans.

“We had been thinking it would cost $10,000 to $15,000, so it was time to figure out how to do a lot of the work ourselves,” Moore said.

Moore, a senior legal executive, and Rothman, a creative director in marketing, both work in the entertainment industry. Seven years ago, they moved into a 1920s-Spanish-style home in the Brookside neighborhood, just south of Hancock Park. Since the house itself is only 1,500-square-feet in size, they were grateful for an attached deck, accessible from the living room.

Still, whenever they used the deck, the men found themselves staring at the vast and uninspiring backyard.

“We really liked the garden when we moved in, but over time we discovered we weren’t using it,” Rothman said of the existing “English country” plantings that eventually became overgrown and messy.

A garage occupied one-quarter of the yard, its stucco facade looming and blank. A raised circular fire pit, capped with brick and centered on a kidney-shaped brick patio, was surrounded by three uncomfortable stone benches. A second brick patio was shadowed by two Australian gum trees next to the north fence. “It didn’t look awful,” Moore said. “It just wasn’t us.”

Earlier this year, a windstorm knocked down one large section of fencing and the decision to replace the entire fence became the genesis of the entire backyard makeover.

Moore and Rothman met Creole Walker of Creative Design Works through the person flipping the house next door. “His estimate was one-third of the original one we got from a fence company, and he came highly recommended, so it was a no-brainer,” Rothman said.

Walker replaced the old vertical-slat fence with a new cedar fence using a running horizontal pattern, finished with a rich, dark-brown stain. “Suddenly, we had an amazing fence and everything else looked awful against it,” Moore said.

After hiring Walker to do the fine carpentry work, Rothman sketched a design with clean, linear geometry, eliminating all the curves. That meant all the brick had to go.

He and Moore spent hours breaking up the brick with sledgehammers. One of the areas covered in brick was a small flat pad between the two trees. The initial plan was to remove the brick and create a gravel-covered sitting area. But when one of the trees had to be removed, it allowed for a much larger area. The men decided to install a raised cedar deck instead of spending almost the same amount on brick removal.

“That one decision created what is the centerpiece of the new yard – and also gave us 130 square feet of outdoor living area,” said Moore. The 9-by-14-foot deck is only slightly elevated above the new lawn, making it feel well integrated with the garden. Two steps ascend to a cozy seating area that has the perfect proportions of an indoor living room. Rather than invest in Ipe to match the home’s larger deck, they asked Walker to use redwood. Rothman chose a driftwood-gray stain similar to the color used on the railings of their upper deck.

That light-colored decking plays nicely with the gravel in the backyard’s other main entertaining area. Rothman and Moore worked with Bourget Bros. Building Materials in Santa Monica to find just the right color gravel. “It turns out there was only one quarry near Palm Springs that had the dark gray rock we wanted,” Moore said. Using buckets, they transferred 6,000 pounds of the crushed rock from a pile in their garage to its ultimate destination around the fire pit.

 

The fire pit wasn’t exactly located where they would have liked it to be, but it was already piped for gas, making it costly to rebuild. Another too-high bid, this time $4,000 to resurface the original brick, led Rothman and Moore to try a product they had seen advertised on HGTV. The surface bonding cement was easy to apply (once Moore had used a chisel and a disk grinder to cut and sand the existing stucco and brick surface). “We refinished the entire fire pit for $200 – plus a ton of our labor,” he said.

Daily checks on Craigslist helped them furnish the two entertaining areas. Moore first snagged a set of Restoration Hardware all-weather wicker just minutes after a Hollywood producer’s assistant posted it for sale. He found the powder-coated cast aluminum seating from another seller, paying one-third of the retail price. 

When friends come to visit, the party starts with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails on the deck, where there’s plenty of seating even if a few people perch on the steps. After dark, the entourage moves to the fire pit area. The chairs are pivoted to face that once ugly garage wall. Now there’s a new storage cabinet-counter, which Walker built to match the fencing. It’s perfect for an outside bar and hides the gas and irrigation systems from view. And above it, the wall now doubles as a large outdoor screen for movie-watching.

Yes, they saved money (a fraction of that original landscape architect’s estimate). And yes, they spent most of their weekends since last spring working on the project. But the backyard makeover also taught Moore and Rothman how to get creative, source materials and use unfamiliar tools. “For someone like me who likes instant gratification, the long process definitely delayed my enjoyment of the final project,” Rothman said. “But it was worth every swing of the sledgehammer.”

And don’t forget togetherness, Moore adds. “Six months of work was well worth the years of enjoyment we’ll have hanging out with each other – and our dog Jackson – in the new backyard.”

Full story as it appeared in the Los Angeles Times’ Home Section

HERE IS MY ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE ARTICLE

 

The drama queens of late summer, dahlias have an eye-popping palette, amazing forms and architectural stature. They’re a striking alternative to the season’s more common flowers like mums or asters. Although it’s too late to plant tubers at this time of year, you can still find potted dahlias at garden centers – ready to plant immediately. Your dahlias will continue to bloom until the first frost, as late as Thanksgiving in some regions of the country.

“Dahlias come in so many colors, they flower profusely for months, are relatively easy to care for and are stunning – both in the garden and in arrangements,” says Kelly Sullivan of Botanique, a Seattle-based floral and landscape designer who specializes in cutting gardens.

Dahlias have a long history in the American backyard, having migrated here in the early 1800s, by way of the Aztecs, Spain and the rest of Europe. According to Scott Kunst of Old House Gardens, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based mail order and Internet source for heirloom bulbs, the parentage of today’s hybrid varieties can be traced to three original wild dahlias, including Dahlia atropurpurea, which dates to 1789 and features a dark maroon flower, single petals and lacy foliage. Other popular old-timers include ‘Jersey’s Beauty’ (1923); ‘Sellwood Glory’ (1951); ‘Andries’ Orange’ (1936); ‘Clair de Lune’ (1946) and ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ (1927), a dark-foliage variety.

“The past is a great place to find fabulous dahlias,” Kunst says. “The ones that have survived the test of time are typically strong, adaptable growers.”

Hardy in frost-free regions, the dahlia is a member of the daisy family (Asteraceae). Dahlia tubers, those sweet potato-looking clumps with an “eye” at one end, are actually modified stems that store nutrients and water underground while producing stunning blooms on tall, leafy stems. Flowers are formed by many petal-like ‘ray florets’ arranged around a center of ‘disk florets.’

Dahlia breeding has resulted in varieties with diverse petal shapes and sizes, ranging from miniature ball to frilly cactus to blooms the size of dinner plates. The American Dahlia Society (ADS) has organized modern-day dahlias into 19 flower forms, with added categories for color and size. Descriptions often borrow from other familiar flower shapes: water lily, peony, anemone and orchid.

According to Kevin Larkin, ADS president and owner of Corralitos Dahlias near Santa Cruz, California, there are many modern introductions that home gardeners should try growing. He singles out cultivars that have won recent awards of merit from the society, including ‘Eden Talos’, a bronze, semi-cactus form; ‘Leslie Renee’, a purple-lavender miniature-formal-decorative form; ‘Buster P’, a showy orange flower measuring up to 8-inches; and the U-2 micro series of miniature dahlias from legendary breeder Bill McClaren.

Dahlias prefer full or slightly filtered sunlight (ideally eight hours daily); they will grow lanky and produce fewer blooms in deep shade. Grow them en-masse for impact or integrate them with other sun-loving perennials to create a pleasing composition in beds and borders. They pair beautifully with other large-sized bloomers, plants that peak from late summer through fall, including sunflowers, zinnias, lilies, cosmos, helenium, rudbeckia, purple coneflower and ornamental grasses. The large-headed and taller varieties may require staking, especially in areas that receive summer rainfall (experts recommend staking plants 3-feet-tall or higher). Low-growing varieties (12- to 24-inches)  are good choices for borders and containers because they do not require staking.

“If you are looking for drama in the garden, giant dahlia blooms will certainly deliver, but if you are looking for lots of dahlias to cut for bouquets, I suggest you select from the smaller blooming varieties,” Larkin says. He prefers dahlias in the pom, ball and informal or formal decorative categories, all of which are long-lasting in arrangements.

Dahlias are easy to grow, especially if you know a few basics. Tubers are sold through mail-order outlets or retail nurseries and are typically planted in late spring or early summer, about the same time you plant tomatoes. They can be started indoors in one-gallon nursery pots (about 4-6 weeks before the last frost), then transplanted. Dahlias can also be planted from rooted cuttings, which generally bloom earlier than tuber-grown varieties and produce a new tuber for the following season.

Plant dahlias in light, fertile, well-drained soil. For gardens with heavy or clay-like soil, add organic compost or grow dahlias in raised beds. Amend soil prior to planting. Space tubers 18 to 24 inches apart in holes one foot deep and wide. Some experts say you do not need to fertilize dahlias until plants are one month old (after all, there’s a lot of energy stored in that tuber to jump-start initial growth); others recommend using a balanced fertilizer when planting. The overall health of your soil may determine which practice you adopt.

Rest the tuber horizontally with its eye, if visible, pointing up. If you are planting from a container, place the root cluster with the stem facing up – about 6 inches below ground level. More dahlias suffer from over-watering and over-feeding than anything else. If your soil is wet, do not water until the first shoots emerge. If your soil is dry, water once; then wait until growth appears. Feed dahlias with a water-soluble, low-nitrogen fertilizer until one month prior to the first frost. Products with excessive nitrogen will produce weak stems and small blooms (Dr. Earth carries a number of organic fertilizers suitable for blooming and flowering plants, www.drearth.com).

To improve flower production, try this tip from Hans Langeveld, co-founder of Longfield Gardens in Lakewood, N.J., a mail order bulb company: “Pinch the first flower bud on the center shoot. That will stimulate your plant to grow a lot more flowers.” The technique can also keep your plant from getting leggy or floppy.

Dahlias are cut-and-come-again perennials. As you harvest them for arrangements, they continue to produce more blooms, says Diane Szukovathy, a Mt. Vernon, Washington-based cut flower farmer. “I love to mix and match a number of different dahlia styles rather than combine them with similar ‘focal flowers.'” If you don’t wish to cut your dahlias for bouquets, you will need to remove (“dead-head”) spent flowers to encourage repeat blooms.

Slug damage may be your biggest pest concern, but only when the first tender shoots emerge. The best line of offense is hand removal and keeping the area around the base of your dahlia clean and tidy. “By May or June, your plants are large enough to outpace the slugs,” Szukovathy advises. She dismisses the myth that dahlias should be planted near edibles to keep slugs away. “The best pest-control approach for a home gardener is to add diversity of plants to encourage a

balance of beneficial insects to keep your garden healthy.”

Old House Gardens has shipped heirloom dahlia tubers to customers in all 50 states. You may not think that’s possible, since dahlia plants are winter hardy to Zones 9-11 (minimum temperatures of 25 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit). But many people are treating dahlias as annuals, planting new ones each year, say Kunst and fellow dahlia experts. If you want to save your tubers to replant next spring, try the tips outlined in the sidebar.

With their pleasing floral spectrum of intense hues and beautiful forms, it’s easy to see why America’s dahlia obsession has flourished over the years. Whether you add a shrub variety to a patio container or integrate your mixed border with larger dahlia varieties, this beloved flower is guaranteed to satisfy late-summer cravings for vivid, long-lasting blooms. 

Overwintering your dahlias

If you live in a region subject to freezing temperatures, you will need to take special care of dahlia tubers during the cold months. As fall arrives and dahlias begin dormancy, follow these steps from Swan Island Dahlias in Canby, Oregon (www.dahlias.com).

• It is safe to dig tubers about 2 weeks after a killing frost or by mid-November at latest
• First cut the stalk off, with about 6 inches of stem remaining
• Gently lift tubers with a spade or pitchfork so as not to break the neck of the tuber
• Rinse dirt from the roots and allow to air dry, protected from the elements, for about 24 hours
• Divide clumps of tubers into individual pieces using a sharp, clean knife. Make sure each piece has at least one “eye,” found near the stem or neck. If eyes are difficult to see, divide the clump in half or quarters
• Use a storage medium such as slightly-dampened peat moss, sand or sawdust/shavings.
• Tubers should be stored in crates or cardboard boxes lined with 10-12 sheets of newspaper.
• Place packing medium in the bottom of container; layer tubers, alternating with more medium until the container is full. Do not use sealed plastic bags or sealed containers.
• Store in a cool, dry area (40-50 degrees). If your storage area is too warm, the tubers will wrinkle or shrivel. If it is too cold, the tubers will freeze or rot. Check tubers once a month and adjust accordingly.

In the spring, you can replant the tubers after the last frost. Share or trade extras with other gardeners. For more details, visit the American Dahlia Society at www.dahlia.org.

 

You’d think that a lot of containers could clutter up a place, but that’s not the case in Susann and Gale Schwiesow’s Pacific Northwest garden, where no fewer than 175 pots of mostly gold and green foliage plants, including clipped boxwood balls, connects four distinct outdoor rooms and draw the eye through the landscape.

Susann, partner in Schwiesow Drilias, a residential landscape firm in Bellingham, Wash., uses mostly terra cotta pottery and many shades of green foliage to give her garden a common design language.

The relationship between one area of the garden and each adjacent outdoor space relies on Susann’s artistry and use of color, especially evident in her selection of apricot and coral flowers and foliage plants to echo the clay pots.

Terra cotta containers populate the home’s front steps, line the patio’s edge and are grouped informally on several terraces. Widely varied, the pots are planted with dwarf evergreens, succulents, tropicals and other lush, heat-loving varieties.

“I like repetition,” Susann says. “It carries your eye around the garden. Each space has a focal point, which leads you from one garden room to the next.” 

Container style

The intimate look and feel of Susann’s patio relies on the successful way she places her many pots. Follow her design tips to create your own potted landscape:

• Select a pottery color, finish or glaze and use it consistently. It’s okay to mix styles and sizes, but stick to a single palette. Susann uses high-quality terra cotta, which means the clay endure winter frosts.
• Create groupings of pots for impact. Susann starts with a symmetrical layout, then she adds accent pots on one side to lessen the design’s formality.
• Vary the height of pots in a group. Elevate short pots on a stack of concrete pavers or an upturned saucer.
• Create an informal edge to a patio by arranging similar pots in a straight or staggered row. Susann uses medium and large-sized terra cotta pots, planted with common boxwood balls, to give a sense of enclosure to her back terrace. 

Connecting spaces

Each of Susann and Gale’s garden rooms is a special destination where they gather to observe the garden and enjoy a little R&R. Susann uses several easy techniques to tie one to the next.

• Choose a theme color and an accent color, then repeat throughout the garden. For example, the foliage plants are mostly dark green, but Susann uses trees, shrubs and perennials with chartreuse-foliage as accents.
• Give each space a focal point to lead you from one room to the next. The focal point is an eye-catching moment of drama, such as a singular pot, a specimen plant or a furniture grouping.
• Define transitions. “Show where the garden room lets you in and lets you out,” Susann says. For example, she places pots to emphasize pathways, steps and transition points.

In 1999, Cheryl Bode and Robin Colman discovered the house and garden they soon came to call Casa dos Mujeres (House of Two Women).

Prompted by the desire for more space as they combined their individual households, the two were drawn to Altadena, a village in unincorporated Los Angeles County wedged between Pasadena and the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

“Cheryl went there on a lark with our real estate agent,” Robin recalls. “This house was in terrible shape, but part of it really captivated her.”

Later, when Cheryl returned with Robin in tow, she jumped up and down with joy when Robin pronounced: “I could live here.”

Motivated to  save the aging 1925 Spanish Colonial Revival-style home and tame its landscape, Robin and Cheryl spent more than a decade on restorations. They reclaimed the property’s gracious character, so it is reminiscent of its origins . In doing so, they, too, have become rooted in the community. “It feels like you’re taking a step out of the hustle and bustle of city life,” says Robin.

The 4,000-square-foot, stucco-and-red-tile-roofed residence required extensive interior and exterior renovations. While much of the land once attached to the house had been subdivided and sold over time, three-quarters of an acre remained.

Cheryl and Robin didn’t consider themselves gardeners, but they knew the overgrown and debris-strewn yard needed to be cleaned up and redesigned. They turned to Pasadena-based garden designer Thomas Batcheller Cox for help.

“We had no idea what we were taking on,” says Robin. “We love it now, but we didn’t come in with our eyes wide open.” 

Cox’s expertise has had a profound effect on the couple, who have relied on his design direction for more than a decade, Cheryl says. “We could not have done any of this garden without him. We continue to work with him today, which means this property is evolving into a mature garden.”
Renovated in phases over many years, the once unruly property  is now a series of nine garden rooms – from the front garden where  ginkgos flank the front door to the shade garden where clusters of more than twenty Daphne odora shrubs perfume the air. According to Cox, the landscape is defined by distinct, room-like features. “The floor, of course, is the lawn, terrace or patio, the path or walkway. The adjacent areas where plants grow form the shape of each particular room.”

Overhanging trees evoke the idea of a ceiling, while tall plants form “walls” that frame the sky view above, he explains, adding:

“I love spaces that are softly enclosed so you can only barely see them.”

Focusing so much energy on her garden  turned Cheryl, who retired from a career in health care administration, into a plant-lover and collector. “I came to learn that I had a passion for gardening,” Cheryl says. ” I ask: Is it rare? Is it unusual? I want that special geranium or uncommon blue ginger — varieties I’ve never seen growing in a private garden.”

In consultation with Cox, Cheryl scours small specialty nurseries for just the right flowering azalea or rose cultivar. She is equally comfortable rattling off botanical names like a horticulturist or tending tomatoes, strawberries, and beans in the sunny kitchen garden.

The restored residence has a deep, covered veranda that overlooks a strolling lawn, several outdoor dining areas and a formal pond. The new garden needed to be worthy of the home’s grand scale.  “We wanted it to look as if everything belonged here and was built by craftspeople from the 1920s,” Cheryl explains.

The spirit of that ethos begins in the walled rose garden, established along the home’s east perimeter in an area once covered in asphalt. A gate built from turned spindles (echoing the home’s original window trim) provides entry. Sand-colored Santa Rosa gravel crunches underfoot as you walk along the path, sidestep a small bubbling fountain at its center, and inhale the perfume of 32 rose shrubs (“I only grow roses that have fragrance,” Cheryl says.)

Upright stone ledges form the risers in a gravel path and staircase that descends from one level of the garden to the next. “The path goes down two little steps to an arch, which leads to the first terrace and connects with the upper lawn,” Cheryl explains. “Then it continues down five more steps to the lower garden.” From this main walkway, several narrower, undulating paths follow the topography of the land, leading to nearly-hidden seating areas. “You have to explore each and every aspect of this garden,” Cheryl says. “It’s not like you can stand in one place and have a panoramic view.”

Rather than considering the property’s gentle slope as a design challenge, the owners, designer and their contractor Tim Foster of Chaparral Landscaping all felt it was a strength. “We didn’t change the  topography of the land when we created this garden,” Cheryl points out. “So that laid a foundation for Tom and Tim to enhance and build upon.”

Before it turns at the southeast corner of the property, the path loops around an octagonal bed, an important focal point where Cheryl and Tom have established a medallion-like tapestry of succulents, planted bands of bearded irises and added the unusual Strelitzia junacea, a type of bird of paradise. “That’s now our sunniest corner,” she says.  

The journey continues to an oval strolling lawn, often used as a dance floor for summer soirees. Enclosed by bold-leafed rice- paper plants (Tetrapanax papyrifer), graceful swaths of Mexican weeping bamboo and other subtropical specimens, the enclosure “feels like a garden cathedral – now that’s the real meaning of a ‘room’,” Cox points out. “Containment makes it feel much larger.”

Though this side of the landscape borders a well-traveled street, it is quiet and feels private, thanks to a “living fence” of evergreen pyracantha shrubs, their espaliered branches supported by cables strung between metal fence posts.

Cheryl and Robin preserved as many old trees as possible, including several deodar cedars and sycamores. They nursed a vintage orchard back to health, although it took five years of

proper irrigation and feeding for many of the citrus trees to resume fruit production. Trees in the southern-facing area, enjoyed from the kitchen window, include a Meyer lemon, Satsuma and navel oranges, low-chill plum, apricot and apple trees, as well as two persimmon trees.

A diverse plant palette now enhances the gently sloping property: Princess and King palms, Camellia sasanqua shrubs, an African cabbage tree (Cussonia paniculata) and a pair of Sansevieria cylindrica “Skyline” in pots.

“It does look like a jungle,” Cheryl laughs, looking out across the upper lawn (she once overheard a garden tour docent describe the garden as “controlled chaos.”). But it’s an almost-tamed one that provides fragrance, fruit and flowers to those who enter — and look up to view the sky.

Vibrant stands of tropical Heliconias come into view, their leaves creating a green hedge. Cheryl and Robin never tire of observing this scene. “First, I see the Texas redbud, then the princess palm and then giant bird-of-paradise. Even when we’re sitting still, there’s exploration, Cheryl explains.”  

This botanical collection thrives in what Cheryl describes as Altadena’s unique microclimate. “Our summers are very hot; our winters are cold. The topography is such that we’re often encased in clouds in the winter.” Temperate-climate plants that won’t grow in nearby Pasadena seem to perform better in the foothills, she contends.

Beyond the oval lawn, stepping stones lead towards the deep shade of an old California sycamore, mature Pittosporum undulatum, Magnolia denudata  trees. Here, a restored pond is landscaped with ferns, hellebores, mondo grass and a trio of golden ginkgos (Gingko biloba), which Tom suggested adding to commemorate Cheryl’s late mother. The colors of spring appear: overhead in the blood-red foliage of several Japanese maples (including Acer palmatum ‘Red Blood’ and several dwarf, cut-leaf varieties that survive in dry Southern California only with some shade) and at one’s feet, in the salmon-pink flowering azaleas that line the path. Dappled sunlight animates the scene and it’s hard to imagine anyplace more peaceful.

“I don’t even really want to take vacations anymore, because it’s so beautiful here,” says Robin, a vice president at eBay Inc., who for the past five years has commuted from Southern California to Silicon Valley each week. “I come back on the weekends and I love just being home.”

Because the women feel they are stewards and caretakers of this special place, they frequently share it with friends and host benefit dinners for favorite charities. “We’ve been given the opportunity to return this ‘Grand Dame’ to how it was in 1925,” Cheryl adds. “It’s amazing to see what one garden can do. We want other people to enjoy it.”

 

Architect John Frane saw plenty of promise in the Venice Beach shoe box, a 1930s bungalow Spanish-ized with interior doorway arches, a tiled parapet and swirled metalwork on the windows and fence.

“Ugly duckling is a good way to describe it,” Frane said of the house, painted beige with maroon trim when he bought it in 2011 and, more important, hemmed in by apartments on all four sides.

“The house has an urban side, and the big backyard had been paved over, but I saw it as potentially being a great private space.”

The stucco box has since become the architect’s experiment in creating seclusion where none seems possible, invoking design devices that trick the eye into thinking the space is larger and that minimize the presence of neighboring buildings. The recently completed transformation will be among 30 projects open May 4 for the annual Venice Garden & Home Tour.

Frane, co-founder of Predock Frane Architects, had been house-hunting for a few years and was familiar with the inventory around Rose and 4th avenues. “I had drawn up lots of scenarios for other parcels, so I knew how I could work with this one,” he said of the 5,200-square-foot lot. Another bonus: The house was about twice the size of the 575-square-foot Santa Monica apartment where he and his two black Labs had lived for 14 years.

Today, step through the house’s entry gate along 4th Avenue, ascend a few steps to the elevated patio and you’ll see two giant pop-out windows. Inside, one window ledge serves as a full-size daybed in the library, allowing Frane to use the room for guests. The other window ledge is a seat looking out to a mirror mounted on the front garden wall.

“When you’re in the living room, the reflection doubles the size of the space you’re seeing, and it blocks the view of the 40-unit building across the street,” Frane said.

So it doesn’t turn a cold shoulder to the sidewalk, the garden mirror is backed with rustic fence slats, the edges of which are painted in colors that echo a totem pole across the street.

Inside, what had been a dark interior is now luminous white. All the chopped-up rooms have disappeared. Two 8-by-8-foot skylights are aligned above the central through-way, topped with the kind of clear acrylic domes typically used in industrial projects. The height of the domes — they rise about 10 feet above the flat roof — captures morning light while preventing neighboring apartment-dwellers from peering into Frane’s domestic environment. The effect is transformative, Frane said, creating twin spots in the center of the house where the ceiling soars to 16 feet.

Reed Kroloff, director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and former editor of Architecture magazine, recently visited Frane for a few days, settling into that library daybed.

“John has condensed so many layers of information and ideas into one package that feels open and generous and casual and cleverly formal all at once,” Kroloff said. “He’s managed to get this amazing evocation of a perfect beach house, using a masterful control of light. There’s nothing about being in that house that feels small.”

Among Frane’s smart space-planning solutions: A free-standing wet bar is hidden beneath a hinged lid, so it opens and screens the kitchen from view when he entertains. Extra-large doors connect the dining area with a raised patio, allowing Frane to double party seating — half indoors, half outdoors.

Once paved-over and occupied by cars and a clothesline, the courtyard is now an important living space for Frane, his pets and his friends. A raised platform contains a soaking tub, a fountain and a fire pit, sheltered by a triangular sunshade overhead. Because the platform is elevated, it serves as a promontory that orients views away from the tall apartment building just to the south.

On the opposite side of the garden, a boccie ball court runs the length of the yard and provides a serene scene through bedroom windows. The central gravel area accommodates a collection of textural agaves, aloes and other succulents, grown from cuttings that Frane collected over 15 years. He added eight olive trees, placing them as screening in front of windows.

“I’m kind of a closet landscape designer,” he said. “It’s my favorite thing to do if I’m not being an architect.”

Looking from the house into the backyard, you see one last trick of the eye: your image reflected in another mirror, this one mounted on the garage, creating the illusion that the pleasant transformation never ends.

Venice Garden & Home Tour 

What: The 20th installment of the Venice Garden & Home Tour, a self-guided walking tour with 30 stops, this year all near Abbot Kinney Boulevard

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 4

Tickets: $60 in advance, $70 day of tour (advance purchase recommended to avoid lines on tour day). Proceeds benefit the Neighborhood Youth Assn.

Where: Starting point is the Neighborhood Youth Assn., 1016 Pleasant View Ave., Venice

Information: (310) 821-1857, www.venicegardentour.org

 

 

Imagine a garden-themed playground where the most important rule is: go have fun.

That place exists at the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden, where helping boys and girls engage with the outdoor world, especially its flora and fauna, is what really matters.

If one youngster spends her summer morning endlessly making mud pies while another chooses to pick (and eat) blueberries to his heart’s content, that’s okay with Liz Bullard, a speech and language pathologist who in 2002 founded the PlayGarden and serves as its executive director.

Those activities build strength and coordination, stimulate sensory properties and allow youngsters to lose themselves in something creative — irresistible facets of this botanical wonderland’s mission.

Located on a verdant acre in a densely-populated Seattle neighborhood, the nonprofit’s goals are to “improve the lives of children with physical or mental disabilities by providing them with full access to a safe indoor-outdoor recreation space and offering inclusive programs that encourage their potential.” More than one thousand children participate annually in the PlayGarden’s preschool, field trips, afterschool programs and popular summer camps, where play is an equalizer for all children ages four to 12.

Bullard developed her play-centric therapeutic approach for children with physical and developmental disabilities who often have little unstructured “kid time.” She also wanted to serve siblings of special-needs kids, a frequently overlooked population.

“We want the PlayGarden to be just as fun and stimulating for typical kids as for kids with challenges,” Bullard explains. This is a place for kids on two feet, kids with walkers, kids in wheelchairs, kids who communicate differently – a welcoming place where children with special needs can play alongside their typically developing siblings and friends.

Popular features include a soft-and-safe play mound, complete with a hidden spring from which water erupts before flowing through a sinuous runnel, and a state-of-the-art basketball court that is also used by neighborhood residents.

The site is planted with equal parts ornamental and edible gardens, including  an abundant butterfly border; a wheelchair-accessible raised bed; a “wild play zone”; and yes, the popular mud pond. A “planted” pickup truck provides nonstop fun for youngsters who both climb aboard to turn the steering wheel or harvest the edible berries and herbs planted where the engine once was.

The playground equipment is encircled by an edible blueberry hedge and chain link fencing (a safety feature) supports golden hops, Dutchman’s pipe, Chilean glory vine and other nectar sources for hummingbirds.

The PlayGarden is home to two ducks, seven chickens and three rabbits; several aquariums house insects, including a gross-looking, but popular Madagascan cockroach. Other animals appear in topiary form: life-sized evergreen bears and dinosaurs dot the landscape wearing jaunty straw hats.

According to Wendy Welch, the PlayGarden’s lead garden designer and creative director, “all of our planting choices are provocative for kids in some way — from the ‘magic purple beads’ of the Callicarpa shrubs to the 150 ornamental alliums that are used as wands.”

Every sense is stimulated, with an emphasis on smell, taste and touch. Durable perennials and groundcovers withstand an errant basketball or a short-cut made by tiny feet, Welch adds. “Plus, we’ve planted huge quantities of edibles so everybody can pick and eat to their heart’s content.”

Beds and borders provides ample arts-and-crafts supplies. The children love to pick flower bouquets and baskets of veggies to ‘sell’ at their farm stand. They use flower petals as play-dough pigment, gather and build with red-twig dogwood branches and press rhubarb and Gunnera leaves into wet concrete.

On any given day, in every season, the PlayGarden fulfills its founder’s dream.

It is a community hub for children and their families, a safe place that nurtures curiosity and encourages discovery of the natural world.

Young lives are being transformed in this semi-wild place where the word “no” is rarely heard and the magic of play is celebrated as a necessary and life-affirming practice.

How to Create a PlayGarden

Liz Bullard dreamed of a place “where outdoor space is used to challenge kids’ development and stimulate their growth.” No one who heard of her idea thought she was crazy. In fact, parents, teachers, therapists and health care professionals all asked: “What can I do to help?”

The $4.2 million project took six years to complete, drawing on contributions from public sources, individuals, corporations and foundations. Here are some of the key steps that have helped the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden succeed:

Understand the need: “The lives of families of children with special needs are consumed with therapy, trips to the doctor, tutoring and school,” Bullard explains. “When they have a break to play, their neighborhood parks-and-rec centers are often unaccommodating.” She searched for outdoor play spaces that could nurture children with special needs, but discovered a lack of safe and accessible options in her community.

Gather like-minded supporters: In 2003, Bullard and a core group supporters formed the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden , a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit.

Seek partnerships: Bullard credits Dr. Abraham Bergman, a prominent Seattle pediatrician, educator and foster care advocate, for instigating the garden’s partnership with the city’s parks department. Ken Bounds, Seattle’s former Parks and Recreation Department superintendent, agreed that children with special needs were underserved. “He told us that if we gained neighborhood support and raised the funds, then he would help us find the land,” Bullard says.

Identify key features: The PlayGarden is housed at Coleman Playfield, once a tired baseball diamond with an aging basketball court. The site met Bullard’s wish list: a mostly-level place located close to public transportation lines in an underserved area of the community.

Make it mutually beneficial for everyone involved: Planning meetings revealed the one thing missing in the neighborhood: a decent basketball court. In 2004, the PlayGarden’s first phase of construction added a fabulous new court with multiple hoops at various heights and wheelchair accessibility. The court has forged a bond between young people in the neighborhood and the PlayGarden staff and children. “It’s an awesome feature,” Bullard acknowledges. “Our kids learn use the surface to learn to ride their bikes and wheelchairs.”

Bring experts together: The PlayGarden was designed by a team of professionals in physical therapy, special education, art and architecture, led by Daniel Winterbottom, a University of Washington landscape architecture professor and expert in therapeutic gardens.

Plan for accessibility and the environment: The PlayGarden is home to a renovated Field House, a new Garden House, a Family Play Plaza and a Shade Structure. Fruit and shade trees have been planted, the soil has been improved and irrigation installed. The orchard, kitchen garden, butterfly garden, a bio-swale and wild play zone are in place. This beautiful, accessible space invites children to interact with nature, to learn, to explore and create.

Details: Seattle Children’s PlayGarden, www.seattlechildrensplaygarden.org.