The owners of this brand new house are busy professionals and the parents of a young daughter. Although they have little time for gardening, they dreamed of a place they could really get involved with and use very actively for entertaining, play, and relaxation at the end of a long day. They also had concerns about privacy because the new development consisted of small lots with two-story houses built close together. They wanted to grow food. And they were interested in doing their part to protect the adjacent native wetland.

When we design, we first get to know the client, and then we spend some time getting to know the site. We sit in various places on the property, at different times of the day, and notice as many things as we can - sounds, wind movement, soil type, drainage, borrowed views both pleasant and otherwise, patterns of sun and shade, wildlife and much more. In this case, we realized that a 5-foot tall wooden fence blocked a very nice view of the wetlands. So our design began with a solution to this problem. We envisioned a raised sitting platform of some kind, located towards the back of the garden. We explored a very modern, high-tech approach to the design, and an alternative, more natural one. The natural version was the most appealing to the clients and to us, but we all wanted something that showed the human side of the garden, something that could potentially rise to the level of art.

We decided to build a pair of stratified hand-poured concrete walls that would resemble the mountains visible in the distance. Using three different colors of concrete, we placed many layers into the forms, not really knowing exactly how the job would look when we stripped the forms away. We created gaps and veins using old newspaper that we would later burn out with a torch. To our great relief, the walls looked great when we finally unveiled them.

Behind the walls we constructed a small seating platform using colored concrete and large boulders. The platform backed up to the angled top of one of the walls. This made it difficult to use a conventional bench because the back would stick up above the wall. So we salvaged a redwood bridge timber and designed a custom bench made from it that would be a great companion to the wall and still be comfortable to sit on.

The "headwaters" of a dry streambed run down between the two parallel walls, and the stream then turns and flows across the yard to a low point where excess water can drain to the wetland. The stream, in addition to looking attractive, helps to soak up rain and irrigation water and to biofilter runoff that flows into the wetland. Over the stream we placed a bridge made from the rest of the salvaged timber, and in the stream we placed a couple of red ceramic "boulders" designed and made by Melanie Yanke of County Landscape & Design, who is a sculptor as well as a landscape designer. The faux boulders, playfully placed amongst natural sandstone boulders, are an homage to one of our favorite environmental artists, Andy Goldsworthy.

While she was making red ceramics, Melanie decided to create some custom tiles for a small fountain located next to the viewing platform. She also crafted a boulder fountain placed in another part of the garden.

A hand-textured colored concrete patio is located at the center of the garden, and matching stepping stones float randomly down a nearby path. There's woodwork, too - a redwood arbor to shade and shelter the east face of the house, and a handsome toolshed and arbor near the garage. Not far away is a raised vegetable bed made with large rounded boulders. A tousled meadow of native sedges (Carex spp.) serves play needs without demanding a lot of upkeep, and looks great with the hardscape features.

Around the other side of the garden is an alleé of olive trees that leads to a pair of teak chairs at the remote terminus of the space. The olives, along with perimeter plantings of Italian buckthorn and native coast live oak trees, solved the privacy problem.

Handmade ceramic light fixtures by a local craftsman provide safety and amenity lighting. A drip system irrigates most of the garden; the meadow is watered by an overhead sprinkler system.

Plantings include:

Acer palmatum var. (Japanese maple), Alcea rosea (hollyhock), Anemone japonica 'Honorine Jobert' (Japanese anemone), Apricot 'Royal' Aquilegia chrysantha (golden columbine), Arctostaphylos 'Dr. Hurd' (Dr. Hurd manzanita), Arctostaphylos 'Howard McMinn' (McMinn manzanita), Artemisia 'Powis Castle' (ncn) Asarum caudatum (wild ginger), Buddleia sp. (butterfly bush), Calylophus hartwegii (ncn), Camellia 'Yuletide' (camellia), Campanula poscharskyana blue (Serbian bellflower), Carex glauca (blue sedge), Carex pansa (California sedge), Carex tumulicola (Berkeley sedge), Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (dwarf plumbago), Cercis occidentalis (western redbud), Chrysanthemum maximum (shasta daisy), Coleonema pulchrum (pink breath of heaven), Dalechampia dioscoreifolia (purple wings), Dietes bicolor (fortnight lily), Feijoa sellowiana (pineapple guava), Gaura lindheimeri (gaura), Grewia occidentalis (lavender starflower), Hardenbergia violacea 'Happy Wanderer' (ncn), Helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass), Heuchera 'Palace Purple' (coral bells), Hunnemannia fumariifolia (Mexican tulip poppy), Hymenosporum flavum (sweetshade), Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra' (Japanese blood grass), Iris japonica (Japanese iris), Jasminum leratii (shinyleaf jasmine), Juncus patens (wiregrass), Lavandula dentata (French lavender), Lavandula stoechas (Spanish lavender), Lilium var. (lily), Linum grandiflorum 'Rubrum' (scarlet flax), Liriope 'Silver Dragon' (lily turf), Muhlenbergia capillaris (hairy awn muhly), Muhlenbergia dumosa (bamboo muhly), Myrtus communis (true myrtle), Myrtus communis compacta (dwarf myrtle), Neomerica caerulea (apostle plant), Olea europaea, fruitless variety (olive), Osmanthus fragrans (sweet olive), Penstemon species (penstemon), Plum 'Santa Rosa' Podocarpus henkelii (long-leafed yellow-wood), Polystichum munitum (sword fern), Quercus agrifolia (coast live oak), Rhamnus alaternus (Italian buckthorn), Ribes viburnifolium (evergreen currant), Rosa 'Ballerina' (rose), Rosmarinus officinalis 'Tuscan Blue' (rosemary), Ruscus hypoglossum (butcher's broom), Salvia confertiflora (sage), Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara' (Mexican bush sage), Salvia 'Limelight' (sage), Scirpus sp. (bulrush), Solidago californica (goldenrod), Stachys byzantina 'Silver Carpet' (lamb's ears), Teucrium fruticans 'Azureum' (bush germander), Thunbergia grandiflora (skyflower), Thymus var. (creeping thyme), Tibouchina semidecandra (princess flower), Verbascum 'Arctic Summer' (mullein), and Vitis 'Roger's Red' (Roger's red grape).

This garden was a winner in the Sunset Western Garden Awards for 2005. The garden was designed and constructed in 2001.