In the back corner of the yard, three weathering steel raised beds surrounded by crushed gravel offer a convenient growing space for vegetables, culinary herbs and berries, depending on the season. The raised beds, custom-made by local artisan Justin Holt, who also made the panels along the driveway, will continue to patinate with age.
“These planters can be mounted in 20 minutes without tools by fastening a piece of geotextile fabric to a metal frame. The owner’s children mounted them. In this picture, we see the irrigation system at the bottom of the planter box. Simply fill it with clay balls, cover it with the geotextile fabric, fill the planter with compost, and it is ready for planting,” Barcat says. “There is no need to water every day in summer; just add water every 15 days to fill the tank. Thanks to the clay balls, your plants get the exact amount of water they need through capillary action. Nevertheless, you still have to water every day in the first week after planting, while the water pathways fall into place.”
An area resembling a planter box on the north side of the balcony is filled with white pebbles. Barcat suggested placing three round pots there. “I wanted to break up the linearity of the existing planter boxes and the balcony,” she says. Barcat purposely selected pots in different sizes, and she filled them with plants that have subdued colors: Japanese maple (Acer japonicum) on the left, a fragrant white rose in the middle and lavender on the right. Herbs grow in compost in a permeable-fabric bag suspended from the railing.
Allow trailing plants to cascade off the roof. Place potted plants on flat-roofed sheds and outbuildings, allowing vines to trail down the sides of the building for a creative, unexpected look. Place roof pots on saucers to catch excess water or make sure the roof is sloped enough for quick drainage.
Here’s another example of a metal screen mixed with planting. This time the plants emerge from a built-in planter at the base of the screen, helping to anchor it more in the overall design.
Terra-cotta saucers in the beds cover the tops of buried water jugs, or ollas. The jugs, made of porous unglazed terra cotta, have been buried beneath the soil to provide a slow seepage of water directly to plant roots. The water can be topped up when needed by lifting the lid and pouring it in.
In the evening, subtle uplighting highlights the trunks of the ficus trees and ribbed stems of the ‘Slender Weaver’ bamboo. All plants shown in this garden thrive in full sun and with moderate water.
The design team used large concrete pavers with an acid-wash finish for the paving. Synthetic grass strips break up the expanse of concrete and add some green to the ground. The pavers “were shaped and sized to try to accommodate each of the seating areas and walkways and provide an underlying geometry and pattern that reads better from the upper window views,” Dickinson says.
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