Prospect and Refuge - J's garden

Looking back toward our house, our garage wall in the distance.

The neighbors behind us have a lovely garden, beautifully laid out, well tended, and serenely welcoming. 

It feels so different from ours and I want to figure out why, and perhaps adopt some of their features.

One key difference: we have a sunny, southern exposed back yard. I can see the sky and watch the contrails and view the clouds. 

They have an enclosed, east facing shaded space, with little sky view. It's always a balance between openness -- prospect -- and envelopment -- refuge.

I want both, and struggle to find the balance.

Of course I compare my undeveloped gardens to their 15+ years mature plantings. Even so. . .

Flow

They have a narrow strip of a back yard, like we do. But instead of the separate areas on different levels that we have -- wood deck, enclave under the vigas, step down to gravel, birdbath circle garden and further step down below rr ties -- they have a simpler layout with a single focus.

They have one seating area, a wide one in shade that has a patio umbrella table. Two metal chairs tucked in the corner behind that, a few small containers scattered about, but the table is the focus, out in the open, but surrounded by pergolas, paths, trees and gardens. Not so many levels or separate areas and no upholstered cushions. (They do put loose seat cushions on the metal chairs when dining, and usually add an oilcloth tablecloth too. How easy to bring those in when it rains.)

It's simple. It has flow, as paths and lines of sight lead to and from the patio table. And the table is right near the slider door, making it flow into the house. It's not copped up into separate areas on different levels.

The substantial roof structure over the slider brings the house out to the table. The gorgeous wisteria vines frame the door and table, making it all one area. It ties together, and they use the table, accessible and easy to reach -- an extension of the house really, for all their meals. 

We never did use ours, and I finally eliminated our patio table and chairs.

Framing

They have no shrubs. All the big plantings in their yard are trees, or tall wisterias growing up pergola posts. Everything else is a low perennial garden, some taller roses, but nothing round and bulky. That gives shade, of course, but also brings the eye up and provides a sheltered feeling we don't have.

Our entire back yard is dominated by large shrubs (privet and Rose of Sharon and still too small trees) that are the height of the long expanse of vine-clad fence. The worst, the Spanish broom is gone, but it's very horizontal and mirrors the horizontal line of their house that we view. 

We have shady height from the aspens in the corner, but the rest of our yard is all one horizontal height. I've struggled wanting to change that. The new crabapple and the little redbud will eventually (!) add some height. The bulky Spanish broom was removed and that helped.

They don't have particularly nice specimen trees, just a small peach tree, aspens, pines and a fir, which are all mature, and they have limbed up the pines and tucked a fir into the corner to give height, open structure and shade. 

Even beyond the horizontal frame of their back fence, they have a rising landscape of the hill and houses and trees beyond. Where we have a sightline of horizontal fenceline and flat roofline, they have an elevated view in the short distance.

(The one disadvantage of their location is that there is a walking trail just outside their fence between their courtyard and the hill beyond. It's distracting to partially spot and hear people close by the fence as they walk by. We can see walkers on the trail from inside our windows, no fence between us, but they are further away and never noticed from our back yard.)

Vertical framing is something I really need to work on here. It adds so much.

Destinations

They have narrow gravel paths, and wide garden beds. We have the reverse -- a wide gravel area and narrow beds.

When we moved here it took me a while to let go of the idea of an open expanse -- a true yard -- in back, even a small one and even one without any grass. I get it now. Their inversion of the formula, using only small paths to navigate but filling all the space with gardens, is beautifully executed.

This is what makes you feel you are IN their garden, not just looking out at it.

The paths are defined with rocks, and they lead around corners. No tree or planting sits out in the gravel, the stones are only on the pathways.

Even a simple walk from the kitchen door around the corner is down a path that curves and leads you to somewhere unseen. 

The usual advice to make walkways wide enough for two people to walk side by side doesn't apply here. These are footpaths, very narrow, leading to hidden destinations. All very effective in such a small area.

Built Structures

They have solid looking porticos over every slider and door. They add greatly to the overall sense of shelter.

We could do something similar over our kitchen window or master bedroom slider, which face southwest. The sun beats in. It also just looks flat on that face of the house. The built portico with full pillars not only would shade, but add that sense of enclosure visually, even if it doesn't actually cover much.

Wisteria vines are carefully trimmed, wound and tended at the posts. They grow on a beam just under the roof, not over the portico roof, which keeps these big vines from overwhelming the structure.

The roof is metal standing seam and the look is rustic. These are very attractive porticos.

But I also like the spare, simple flat stucco look of the back of our house. We have vigas for visual enclosure over the patio, if not for shade. Adding porticos or pergolas would complicate the look -- so well done in their shady, complex, sheltered-looking garden, but I fear they would look like add-ons stuck on the back of our house.

Takeaways:

What I like about their garden: enclosure

I want some elements of their design in my back garden. I would like:

• Shade -- I need more
• Visual height with tall trees
• Pathways leading somewhere, destinations, reduce open gravel
• Expand the bed under the aspens, incorporate the trees into the bed, not in the gravel
• Create a bed around the crabapple + big shrubs to tie them together
• Focus; too many seating areas now on too many levels. We never use the patio table for dining.

What I like about my garden now: its space 

I like the location of our house, not bounded so close by other driveways and houses, and with common area next to us. We have much more space. Elements I want to preserve:

• A view of the open sky
• Simple stucco facade in back, I wouldn't do porticos over doors
• Cushioned seating area off the living room. I like the look of teak chairs & glider

Theirs v. Ours - what I want to achieve

The view down the length of each of our back courtyards shows how ours is open and bounded by big clumpy shrubs. Theirs is intimate and bounded by height and shade.

Their blue birdbath sits overtopped in a quiet shady nook under the limbed up pine, with open ground below it. Outs sits out in the sun in a developing circle path garden that will be exuberant with flowers and bench. I like ours, even though it is less serene.

Eventually my redbud and the crabapple will overtop our birdbath too.

The porticos over their doors add so much to the intimate feel. We could replicate that over the kitchen window -- there is open soil between the wall and the walkway to sink posts.

But even though the afternoon sun is overly bright on the back wall of our house, this is one area where I want prospect, not refuge. I don't want to hide the view of sky from inside at the kitchen sink. I like the spare stucco lines of the house. And I like my view down the walkway from the deck, with blue door and sunny grasses and rosemary under the window. 

And yet. It would tie the house to the stonework outside . . .

Our stone edging between gravel and gardens is fine, but a little more evenly and rigidly installed. Their edging is more loosely laid, more natural and organic.

The View of Our House From Theirs

It is surprising how private our yard is from theirs. They only see the tops of the structure of our house (and those godawful pigeon spikes glinting in the sun, ugh.) The fence hides all especially when the vine is in full leaf. They are also slightly downslope from us, so the fence is even higher from their side.

Our back vigas seen from their side yard and from their bathroom / den windows

They come and go to tend planters and pass by, but don't sit here. 

Their side yard is downslope from ours, making the
fence seem higher on their side.

Their utility area (trash cans) are in a corner just where our deck is.
The vine provides privacy thank goodness.

They are frequently back and forth to this corner by their garage.
We chat over the fence, but are totally unseen from each other.

Their garage is to the left, front door to the right so they see this view of 
our house constantly as they enter and leave their house.

Slightly elevated standing on their front portal, looking at our back yard.

Jupiter's beard under the aspen, mahonia and wisteria in the photo above.