Joan, a special needs therapist, needed a get away escape space for unwinding and redirecting her thoughts at the end of her day. She asked me to design and install her "Zen" garden alongside the old tennis court and out of view from the house. Having a teacher's budget, she needed the garden to be well planned and quickly executed.
The concept was to blend Japanese garden elements with the natural wild landscape. The client wanted a small pond, a place for turtles and frogs, something to tend to. My thought was to miniaturize a large bog-like landscape, design the land around a dune, cranberry bog and pond and have a path connect the elements . The "events" draw you in, amuse and interest and immediately transport you to a place outside the mundane.
To augment the purchased materials, we also harvested native materials from an adjacent wetlands location.
I'm very proud of this garden space and it was a fun budget project for a friend.