On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Dan B
Many years ago I met a couple from Whidbey Island at a workshop at fabled Heronswood Nursery on the Kitsap Peninsula. They seemed determined to purchase every plant offered by Heronswood, more than 3,000.
They have a large property overlooking the graceful sweep of Useless Bay (lovely, shallow) and the jagged front range of the Cascades east of Everett. These peaks rise nearly vertically 7,000 feet above the terrain like stone incisors.
The gardens near the house were a riot of variegated, vividly colored foliage, dramatic textures and shapes. In a word, chaos! Fascinating but like one hundred Divas all singing at once.
The gardens around the house were cut off from the house by three quarters of a story and from the entry parking by a fence that rivaled the complexity of the plants. The weathered fence read as drab, not great in overcast weather.
I eliminated the Dutch Gable on the sunroom and designed a bold fence with extremely simple lines to act as a backdrop to the plants. The concrete walkway to the front door was widened to fit the scale of the house and garden.
Here’s a closeup of the eight foot tall fence and new walkway adjacent to the entry / carport. It’s bold enough a backdrop to the vivid plantings.
The sunroom was not sunny and looked out over a garden with a Koi pond. Houseguests never went to the pond. This was partly, perhaps primarily, because there were eight steps down to the garden. Few people will descend or ascend more than three steps unless there’s an event or clear destination.
Eliminating the Dutch gable opened up room for a broad window. French doors were added on the east side. They opened onto a new terrace made possible by a new retaining wall. The new French doors allowed for cross ventilation on warm days.
Here’s the middle of the existing steps. The garden was not attractive. These clients were extremely gregarious but at parties everyone stuck to the kitchen. The views of the Sound and mountains were enjoyed through a large Birch tree.
I told the clients that I would be doing social engineering, not landscaping.
The turf was removed and thirty inches of fill added to raise the grade closer to the floor of the house. A rectangular stone covered pond was added with a wooden bridge of IPE. A large flat stone allowed for one step down to the garden from the rectangular pond.
When the garden was ready they had a party. It was slightly misty but no one was in the kitchen. There are several ‘tricks’ I utilized to make guests feel comfortable.
A couple years later they remodeled the kitchen.
Large boulders and big containers (pots) were scattered about to define areas where groups of three to six, perfect conversational groups, could congregate. The boulders, containers, and plants provide the sense of defensible space – something at your back. It’s much the same phenomenon that has many people frequently congregating in the kitchen.
This same area looks great without people. The fence makes a fine background for Stipa gigantea. The fence’s big wash of color silhouettes the form of the Stipa.
JPL
Spectacular!
Trivia Man
I like the podcast 99% Invisible because it touches on social engineering in design. Along with the classic work The Hidden Dimension.
Beautiful work, and thanks for including the Why as well.
Another Scott
This is a great post. Beautiful pictures and thoughtful descriptions that give us a lot to think about. Well done. 10/10.
Thanks very much.
Cheers,
Scott.
satby
@Another Scott: Agree, very beautiful! You do fantastic design work Dan!
AM in NC
Thanks for showing the before and after AND explaining your reasons for the changes. What a difference you made in these people’s landcape/living spaces!!!!
Nelle
A couple of decades ago, I happened across A Pattern Language (C Alexander), which got me thinking about how space and structure affect social function. I return to it regularly. So, I read this with great pleasure. A combination of art and engineering (in the best sense of the word, engineering).
kalakal
What a great job you did it!
Being a plantaholic myself my gardens have always needed someone to turn them from a collection to a garden, sadly that doesn’t seem to be me
Eolirin
👋 Good morning
Steeplejack
@Eolirin:
Good morning! 🙏
Anyway
Beautiful work, beautifully explained — thanks Dan! Your clients are very lucky. it’s all so thoughtful.
Elizabelle
That’s fantastic, Dan. What a great way to take the gatherings outside.
And I love the big orange wall. It works well. I hope you do more OTRs on your work.
opiejeanne
Wonderful post! The results are great.
frosty
@Nelle: I took a course on the built environment and my copy of A Pattern Language is on the shelf right next to me. I haven’t opened it in years but one thing stuck with me: Light on Two Sides of Every Room. The architect who designed the addition on our foursquare followed that with a unique angled design. Every other addition on our street is basically a shed that blocks the light into the back of the house.
frosty
I love the comment that you’d be doing social engineering not landscaping. Great post!
Tenar Arha
wow, great background wall
currants
Wow. Wonderful to look at, and so much to think about!
Ken In Hogtown
Beautiful work! I lived in Montana for years, and miss the access I had to a huge variety of rock for my garden. I could find it free everywhere, just had to do the labor. Western WA has such a great climate for so many plants. Thank you for sharing
StringOnAStick
I love how you showed that landscaping is more than just arranging plants, it’s making the space work in so many different ways, and it shows how understanding how people use a space, or want to use the space, is the critical first step. I love how you think big, including changing the roof line and doors!
stinger
@Nelle: I was just going to say how the social aspect of Dan B’s gardening reminds me of A Pattern Language, as well as Community and Privacy, also by Christopher Alexander. (In college I dated a pre-architecture student who soon became a pre-ag journalism major and I inherited his architecture books.)
pieceofpeace
Stunning garden viewing to go with morning coffee! Also liked your comments about this project, now I’m off to look up some of those plants’ needs….
munira
Fascinating. And Whidbey Island is such a lovely setting.
Mike in Oly
Wonderfully thought out.
cckids
So lovely, peaceful, just a super space. And thank you for the thoughtful explanations of how and why – those help bring it to life!
Dan B
@Ken In Hogtown: We picked out wonderful boulders from a quarry on western Montana. The boulders were just lying around – no digging. The rattlers let it be known that they were not amused. The boulders went to Earth Sanctuary and a memorial on San Juan Island.
Dan B
These clients realized after a year that no one was in the kitchen at parties. Everyone drifted, or was sucked, outside. Now they are on equal standing.
Dan B
@Another Scott: Thanks. The house warming / garden warming party validated the social engineering aspect. I designed a narrow front garden for a couple who were diametrically opposite socially. At one end was a sitting area for one of her closest friends and next to it was a small terrace for four of her social circle. Next to that was a terrace for one hundred of his closest friends. They hosted several weddings. Previously it had been an eyesore that felt like no-mans land.
Dan B
@kalakal: Complex plantings do best with simple hardscaping. I often choose simple square or circle layouts. There’s another post that should show up soon about the collector’s part of the garden. Everything in the layout is rectilinear. The plants really pop.
WaterGirl
@Dan B: That’s tomorrow. Unless I screwed something up. :-)