Urban arboretum in Riverside
Our client’s beautiful Riverside property had a unique backyard that included a cute rental cottage. As with many 100 year old properties the space needed a refresh. The client needed a low maintenance yet inspiring space that would fit both her and her tenants lifestyle.
This space is an urban arboretum. We wanted to fill the space with lots of shade producing plants that would help cool this space down while still allowing us to build layers of understory plantings to create a lush space that would be hospitable in all seasons. We built a grid of connecting pathways using original hexagonal pavers taken from the property’s original sidewalk. This broke the area into 4 separate blocks to give us different unique garden spaces. The main center block was anchored with 4 trees, one in each corner. We used a variety of evergreen and deciduous flowering trees to create an ever changing space. Under this canopy we planted simple groupings of lomandra, Carex and standard mondo and also displayed groupings of several decorative boulders collected by the client’s late husband. Along the existing fence line we built a lush hedge of podocarpus and layered loropetalum and gardenia radicans to pay homage to our clients English garden heritage. This block was anchored by a beautiful Flowering nectarine to add more cerise red foliage. The garden was finished off by adding a newly reclaimed space for our client’s existing custom painted park bench set under an ancient pittosporum patio tree.
The idea behind this project was to create a lush planting of long lived trees and shrubs that will have very little maintenance after established. Ideally the mix of deciduous and evergreen trees and appropriately planted understory plants will create a fairly self sustainable environment. The client will have some minor pruning and weeding to keep her busy when she has the gardening itch.
We used most of our favorite trees in this project and we are excited to see how they interact as the canopy space develops. We were also able to recapture several square feet by removing a thick layer of rhizomes from an existing Alphonse Karr bamboo. This allowed this beautiful variety to shine in its space while opening valuable real estate for our client’s tenant. This is one of our most drastic one day garden transformations and we are so excited to see how it transforms this quaint garden space.
