West meets Zen

St. John's client wanted to redesign his mid-century ranch home into the modern, simple, understated elegance that he experienced growing up in China. He wanted a garden to match the interior aesthetic, and a garden where he could entertain 10 to 20 people at a time. With a budget of $15,000, he also wanted to reuse as many materials as possible from the existing garden (shown at left).

The interior designer installed a 14-ft. folding glass door/window to easily access the back yard from the dining room/living room. The client's south-facing and flat backyard lot features a creek flowing beyond a back fence, so St. John's intent was to seamlessly connect the garden with the home, paying special attention to the access and views from the home..

"The client wanted a modern, clean-line aesthetic consistent with the remodeled home," St. John says. "In keeping with simplicity and clean lines, simple plantings were appropriate: grasses!" The reuse of materials from the existing garden was a priority, notes St. John, along with keeping the cost of new materials low. The client owned the land to the middle of the creek, so opening up the view of the creek was important to expand the visual impact of the back yard. The secondarily important area, to the west, just had lawn replaced with a gravel Zen garden. She and the team kept the existing back fence, but cut out pairs of 3x3-ft. "windows," framed them and set in 3x3 wire for security (pictured).

To be environmentally responsible, St. John and her team reused the deck and arbor materials, used the existing concrete, poured a little new concrete, and used drought-tolerant plantings, except for bamboo. She used drip irrigation throughout. The deck lighting is LED outdoor lighting. She kept existing perimeter fences and enhanced the view through them. The Zen garden replaced the water-thirsty lawn with stone in this drought-prone climate.

St. John and her team kept the posts from the old arbor, built new beams and strung 5-ft.-wide nylon sails, spanning a 25-ft. expanse. They are retractable when more light needed, or when the portable fire pit is placed on the deck for evening entertaining. They also reused rafters from the old arbor to build steps, creating access from the deck to the yard. St. John kept the plantings simple: clumping bamboo used as a screen along side fence, Carex divulsa in strips along concrete, Chondropetalum tectorum in random spaces, and Lomandra longifolia, an evergreen, drought-tolerant grass, along the back fence to relate to grasses beyond the fence. She also placed various ceramic balls in the garden, and pots on the deck to add punches of color.