Behind The Scenes - Minimalist, Stone Garden

I've been planning a garden over the last couple of months that has made me quite excited. The house itself is quite contemporary, and in a great setting. Its flanked on one side by 2 magnificent, verdant green fig trees, and on the other side by amazing views over Beechwood Golf Course and out to sea. Its quite close to the existing house next door, which makes for an interesting challenge in trying to soften the views from both sides whilst not creating too much shade.

The owner and the architect had some great ideas, which gave quite strong direction as to what the garden should eventually look like. They wanted to create an almost minimalist, oriental feel with rock and grasses. After several concepts, we settled on a simple approach to the design, which would would require some very large rocks, which would in turn compliment the natural stone that has been used as a strong design element in the house.

Our first step was to remove the alien vegetation on site, which would also open up the views from the house. This would also create more space for the main rock garden area.

The almost blank canvas...

Using the initial concept sketches, I finalised the design, and worked out the position and rough size of the rocks that we would need for the space.

To get a better feel for the size of the rocks, I drew the site on Sketchup, and moved the rocks around to find the best position, shape and size. I wanted to also plan the position of the rocks around the possibility of adding some decking into the design at a later stage.

Sketchup drawing of the area showing the volume of the rocks

The drawings and sketches are more of a guideline to use when the choosing the rocks, because its quite easy to be overwhelmed by the size of the rocks when you're looking at them by themselves in a quarry.

Shorty stands in front of Rock No.9

The tendency is to choose smaller rocks when you're looking at the rocks by themselves. I went into the quarry armed with my sketches showing the shapes and measurements of the rocks that I wanted. I took photographs, and numbered each rock according to the position it was going to fill.

Even with all the preparation there are always a few slight hiccups. Unfortunately this job was no exception. The crane company I had hired to move the rocks got cold feet the day before the rocks were due to arrive. They were nervous because there was no way that we could know (and plan for) the weight of the rocks until they had been weighed on the weigh-bridge and were on their way to site. I had been given figures of anything from 1-7 tonnes per rock. Fortunately, after several anxious hours of phone calls, I managed to get a rigging company - Lovemore Brothers, to step in at the last minute (for a considerably higher fee), to handle the process of moving the rocks from the truck into position.

True to their word, the 55 tonne crane arrived at 7h30 the next morning. After several days of rain I knew that we had a window period of a few hours of good weather, so I began to grow quite anxious when I was told that the rocks were delayed by a broken down truck.

Eventually, at 14h30 the first load arrived, just as the clouds began to roll in. We worked quickly knowing that a storm was approaching, and that we had only a few more hours of light to get the remaining 16 tonnes of stone onto site. We finished the first load as the lightning began to strike around us. (An especially worrying thing when you have a 30-40m lightning-conductor sticking out above everything around it.) The very cold rain began soon after, which was just the precursor to the large hailstones that followed. It seemed like everything that could make our work harder, was going to happen. Fortunately, as is the norm with storms like that in Durban, it didn't last long.

3 long hours later, the second load arrived - just 25 minutes before the cut-off time that Devan (the very capable rigger in charge) had put in place.
With the light fading, and the dangerous prospect of positioning 3 tonne rocks in place in the dark, looming quickly, we tried to work fast. But before we knew it, the light was gone, and we were literally positioning rocks by lamplight.

That's the last rock being lit up with a light in the top left corner

 Next week, I'll do a follow up, showing the completed garden, with the rocks and plants all in place.

Behind The Scenes - Coastal Dune Garden

Creating gardens on the coast is always a challenge. There are all kinds of things to consider, like salt air, strong winds and sandy soil. Added to these natural limits, is the fact that the garden is often just the foreground to the real view - the ocean. So it needs to compliment rather than try to steal the show.

This garden is actually the second garden I've done for these particular clients - they moved from their previous home in Morningside when they found this odd 1970's house in the La Lucia area of Durban with potentially amazing views of the ocean.
They kept the general layout of the house and completely gutted it, but essentially started again. The garden itself was a neglected, overgrown mix of plants that sloped down to the neighbour's house below.

This was a really great project for a number of reasons. I have the benefits of having a good relationship with both the client and the architect, and that, coupled with being involved right from the start, I was able to add my 2 cents worth to the project as it evolved. Also, having the advantage of being part of the project from the start - almost 3 years in total, it gave me the time to really digest the site and the design. These are definitely key ingredients in making a successful garden.

Too often in landscape design, everybody involved is in a rush. We designers, are usually brought in at the last minute, and are usually the last on site, and so we often bear the brunt of the clients lack of patience because of the usual contractors delays. Being last in the chain also has other disadvantages. In most cases, projects run over budget, and the easiest place to save money is by cutting back on the 'luxury' areas like landscaping. But its not all frustration. You also get the best look at the finished product, and share in some of the excitement that the client is beginning to feel as they see the project nearing completion. This really makes for great job satisfaction.

My clients previous garden, with roses and lavender

My clients were wanting the garden to be quite different to their previous garden, which was full of roses, and quite formal. I was relieved to hear this, because the property was quite exposed on the top of a dune, which meant we would be using a fairly limited range of plants. Roses or similar exotic plants would need an inordinate amount of attention to keep them alive - let alone looking good. The words Aloe and stone were mentioned during our preliminary discussion about the garden, and I could feel my excitement levels rising...
Although they did have one request, coming from a relatively small garden they would want it to be as open as possible, with as big a lawn area as possible.

The "Blank Slate" - you can see the unusable lawn, and the house below, that needs screening.

We removed almost all of the plants while the builder began the demolition of the existing house. The only plant that had any real value to the garden was a huge milkwood in the driveway. The driveway and boundary wall was laid out to make sure that it was kept safe.

One of the first steps, as in most landscape designs, was to sort out levels. As I've mentioned before, creating level areas makes the garden much more user-friendly. Keeping the garden on the same level as the house means that people are more likely to spill out into the lawn.
The retaining wall below the garden had a height restriction which was well below the homes ground floor level - this would mean I would have to do some lateral thinking to try to find a way of getting the lawn level right.

Due to height restrictions, the top of the retaining wall was still well below the level we needed it to be

The second challenge in the design of the garden, was the proximity of the house in front. From the ground level of the house it not only partially blocks the view of the ocean, but is the last thing you want to be looking at when you're sitting in your lounge or dining area.
The solution would be to raise the garden to the groundfloor level. This meant that we would be able to keep the planting relatively low, and still screen the neighbour's house.

Making use of the attractive vistas, and hiding the less attractive can be one of the hardest balancing acts in a garden design. It needs to be done subtly, but effectively.
This garden was one of the trickiest I've worked on, because of the multiple levels and views in the house. Also, having the beautiful sea views and the big house both dominating the front view, made it particularly difficult.

Oehme & Van Sweden - Chicago Botanic Gardens

I began the design of the garden with a picture in my mind of flowing grasses, and mass planting along the lines of an Oehme and Van Sweden garden. They use a more naturalistic style, which would suit the site, and the use of indigenous plants. The challenge would be to create this feel in the narrow space available for the planting.

I also had a picture of the way sand forms ripples on the beach, and thought I'd like to capture something of that feel in the design. This would translate into building up berms of sand, which would make a great platform on which to plant. Slowly, the design was beginning to take shape.

I took some photos of the garden, and used these to trace and sketch the picture that was beginning to form in my head.

After all the planning comes the hard slog. To begin with, we had to move about 80m3 of soil into the garden, and shape and level, and re-shape and re-level, and then do it all over again. Finally, the structure was all there just waiting to be dressed up with plants. We're almost there now, but I'll post a follow-up on the planting once we've completed it.

Almost Successful Minimalist Front Garden

I'd been waiting in anticipation when I saw the bones of this landscape being formed. I was looking forward to how it would turn out, because it looked like it would be something different to the usual front verge on Essenwood road.

As it turned out, it was different. But to tell you the truth, I was disappointed. Where it had great potential was in its basic structure, but it was let down from that point on.

Everybody has their own opinion on what makes a beautiful design, but there are some basic fundamental things that make a good concept into a good design. And only a good design can be beautiful.

To play with an old saying by St Augustine - In all things sensible compulsory, in all things aesthetic freedom, but in all things passion.

I appreciate the minimalist simplicity of the design, and it probably looked good on paper. Breaking the bank up using terraces was a good practical idea, and the curve gave it something fresh. The huge rocks emboldened the design. The use of Aloes gives a different feel, they're low maintenance, and when they flower, will look amazing.

But the positives can only carry it so far. The first and biggest flaw, is using grass that has to be constantly cut, more than a metre off the ground. Why not use a simple ground-cover, even something as over-used in South African gardens as Mondo grass would have been better from a maintenance point of view. Who wants to lug a lawnmower up onto a terrace?

Why do people over-use white pebbles? Gardeners that use them remind me of magpies that are just attracted to shiny and sparkly things, thinking that the garden will somehow be improved by them. As a general rule, use white pebbles sparingly. They seldom stay white anyway.

You should always be careful using contrast in a garden. There is a very fine line between contrast and kitsch. I believe the design would have been better if the pebbles used had picked up on another colour in the design - whether the rock that they are spread around, the plants used or even the colour of the walls.

In a situation like this, where the rocks themselves are the focus of the design, they should be chosen and positioned deliberately. Japanese garden design has very precise ancient guidelines for using rocks, and while this is not an oriental garden - those guidelines are built around good aesthetics, and should be followed more often than not if you want rock to work well in a design. But that's probably a post for another day. In this case, the third rock looked completely out of place - it was flat and didn't have the presence that the other rocks had.

Another basic mistake made, was not hiding the water valve (it was at least hidden in the standard municipal cover). The design could have been easily adjusted to obscure the box, while still giving access to the meter. It was painted the same colour as the wall, which helps to make it less noticeable.

The choice of Pachpodium as the main feature plant (although it is small it will get a nice size in a few years) for the back of the planting looks slightly out of place - but that's probably just my personal preference rather than any design flaw.

Some of these mistakes are basic, and some might seem nit-picky, but I think this little garden could have been very successful had the person who designed it paid that extra attention to detail, instead I think its been left a little short-changed.

Stone Designs For The Home - John T Morris

I found this book on Saturday that I couldn't put down until I had absorbed every detail in every photograph. It shows seven commissions that Stonemason John Morris has worked on during his career.

His work takes your breath away. I literally had goosebumps as I paged through the book and looked at the way he managed to fit every rock and every stone together so perfectly. From garden walls and steps, to stone cladded interiors. What makes his work even better is that it is all done by hammer and chisel.

I also appreciated his honesty as he explains how he came to be a stonemason. He says that people often assume that he has always aimed to be where he is today, when in actuality he happened on stonemasonry almost by chance.

He describes it as his calling, and it's easy to agree with him! If you enjoy stonework, then this is definitely a book worth buying.

Beautifully Clad Pillars

I must admit, I'm a sucker for using any kind of natural rock in a landscape, or anywhere for that matter. I think its because stone seems to add a certain amount of maturity to its surroundings.

These pillars were the first things to go up on this site that I've been driving past over the last few days. Everything about these pillars appeal to me. From the proportions, to the colours - the browns and oranges and reds of the slate look amazing, and contrast nicely with the white concrete capstone.

To me, its a good sign that the rest of the development is going to be just as beautiful?