Project Spotlight - sharing a garden design project in process

Do you ever wonder what a garden designer does? Where does a garden design start? The answers are vast and quite different depending on the project at hand. Last spring I began working with a new client whom I've known through horticulture circles. This is how we began... she presented me with a list of priorities for her new garden - number one - a design for a new deck, as hers is failing, information about her and what is most important to her - plants, being outdoors and creating several more usable and beautiful spaces around her home. She described her aesthetics verbally as well as visually and that she intended to have her garden installed in phases over several years. We conquered the deck design and a garden plan for the entire space. Further design details and on-site design work will be tackled at appropriate intervals during the project. The following, as excerpted from a recent Lilyvilla Gardens newsletter,  illustrate our steps, thus far, toward her new garden.


PROJECT SPOTLIGHT - IN PROCESS

Project Goals: create a design for a new deck that would minimize the visual impact of the deck while also increasing the overall size by 50%. Create a naturalistic garden for an avid gardener/plant lover that can be built in phases. I reconfigured the deck’s footprint which added more usable space and designed planters to surround the deck which act to ‘seat’ the tall deck into the garden. The planters will be home to small deciduous trees which will provide a tree canopy to look down upon. Stairs from the deck turn and move gradually through the space. The planters bring the architecture of the house into the garden and make the deck an integral component of the house, thus, reducing the visual impact of the deck. The garden design includes an upper gravel terrace, a sinuous pathway through a tree grove that terminates with a lower seating area.

existing deck

conceptual rendering of new deck and planters

projection sketch illustrating the view from about deck and planters

garden concept drawing

Lan Su Chinese Garden - architectural details

On a recent trip to the Chinese garden, I limited my focus to the architectural details that I felt most compelling (in the moment!)...here's what I saw.

Lake Tai rocks 'planted' in front of a Trochodendron arailiodes.

 A carved railing with symmetrical profiles beneath the cap and above the post - a similar pattern is repeated in the panel between the posts. The contrast between the smooth medium gray railing, the darker gray floor tiles and pale gray (granite?) threshold.

This complex intersection of roofing styles is an attention grabber, rather than a forgotten corner.

The perfect balance of symmetry and asymmetry.

 The special view through cuts in the white walls allow me to imagine I'm allowed inside of this little world!

 Throughout the garden, pebble mosaic meets with stone edging.

 I'm surprised that this irregular stone step passed our codes and regulations in a public garden. Visually, I love the mix of textures and the attention with which I must move down this step.

The up-turn of the roof line in contrast to the downward habit of the weeping willow - simply perfect!

A Gardener's Generosity...

When I entered the Horticultural community in Portland, I was shy, quiet and didn't know a soul. Now, 10 years later, I have worked along side of many of Portland's truest plant geeks....this is a compliment, if you were wondering! I have learned that the hort. community is voraciously generous with their time, knowledge, love, and spirit. Who would have thought that our love of plants would bring so many, seemingly different, people together in work and play? Plants are the platform on which we stand which is above (and beyond) political, socio-economic and experiential differences that could otherwise keep us separate from one another. Instead, our love of plants opens the gates to each other's gardens and homes and lives. Our love of plants takes us out of town on garden tours, out of state on horticultural internships, out of the country to work in English gardens and has created a community in which I now feel a part.  I am exposed to brilliant, sensitive, talented people who I absolutely love and feel kinship towards. Being a part of the hort. community 'rounds out' my life, it gives me a place to express myself and to explore the world (both literally and through plant stories) and the people in it. With gratitude, I thank you hort. friends!

...oh yeah, my point in this blog post is to show you 2 of the 4 gifts from my friend, Paul...

The happy, little v-shaped tree form is 

Hamamelis 'Aphrodite' which has very fragrant flowers and large foliage.

and Schefflera delavayi which I have coveted since learning that S. delavayi is hardy for us. I'm crossing my fingers that it also transplants well and doesn't die in the winter 

(whatever 'sort' of winter we experience)!

THANK YOU, PAUL!