April Project of the Month

The design idea for the back yard in the foothills of Arizona was the classic Moroccan “paradise garden” with a central water source running into shallow rills. This idea was given a contemporary twist — the rills are unequal, and instead of a marble bowl the water source is a sandstone boulder.

The space had originally been a lawn, and Turner describes the garden’s shape as “two teardrops pasted together. There were curves and points and no symmetry and a surprising degree of slope.” In addition,the construction access meant making an 8-ft. gap in the patio wall and the metal fence, backing trucks up to a basketball court and then marching uphill over rocks — or as Turner puts it, “Tricky.”

Turner added two new hardscape elements: big poured-in-place colored concrete squares, on a scale to match the scored concrete of the original patio; and pavers in a heathered color that tied old and new concrete colors together. Space between squares was filled with artificial turf. Open ground was mulched with gravel of a neutral color and texture.

Turner planted a bottle-brush tree, Callistemon citrinus, that the client himself had nursed for years in a container. She also added three large irrigated pots. One was planted with a miniature date palm to echo the palmy distances, the others held annuals for color. Asiatic jasmine, Trachelospermum asiaticum, was used as ground cover to soften edges. She planted tangerine beauty vines, Bignonia capreolata, against the metal fence for more softening and color there. Though all of the plants are on drip irrigation, the drip valves (one for pots, one for trees, and another for shrubs) are carefully calibrated for the plants’ needs.

The water in the fountain is invisible until it is running, which saves evaporative loss and keeps the anti-mosquito and -algae maintenance to a minimum. When the water is “turned on,” it bubbles out of the sandstone boulder and emerges in the rills that run through the landscape. Once dusk falls, low-voltage lighting adds magic and habitability to the little plaza.