Work From Home Garden

What are the main elements of this garden design?

When we were tasked with redesigning this backyard, we had three main areas to work with:

1. The “mini meadow” (as we came to call it)
2. The courtyard, framed on two sides by the raised garden; and
3. The shady area along the house.

To delineate these three spaces we installed a large, L-shaped raised planter, which we topped with a cedar fence.

A new, wider sidewalk was poured, and borders the freshly-laid paver patio. This links the back door with the side gate, and separates the shade garden from the sunny side.

We installed drip irrigation into all the new gardens, which protected the fresh plantings from Nanaimo’s punishing heat waves during the summer of 2021.

What inspired this landscape redesign?

To help the owner transition to working from home, the back yard studio had already been transformed into a lovely office space. Now the exterior needed a new life.

The primary layout was predetermined by the client. This provided us with some constraints to work with, and left us to work with the gardens and many of the finer details.

We wanted to bring a sense of wildness, spontaneity, and movement to this small space (traits found in many of our gardens). This landscape is also designed for the birds and the bees to forage in, with long bloom times and a variety of flower types.

The result is a beautiful and immersive experience for those seated on the patio, with colour and joy that flows into the adjacent office through an open window or door.

What is the aesthetic approach behind this garden design?

Planting on two sides of the raised concrete planter meant we could adapt a similar aesthetic to each space, switching up the plant material slightly. The dense, colourful planting is juxtaposed beautifully with the hard, clean lines of the paving stones, concrete work, and fencing.

A cedar fence visually breaks up the two sun gardens, while allowing them to remain a cohesive unit.

We combined repeating plant material, peek-a-boo views through the slats, and larger shrubs. A beautiful Acer griseum emerges above the fence line to draw the eye and entice visitors to explore the other side.

The fence also allowed us to play with an abundance of fine-textured, airy plants without having them appear washed out as they might if against a more complex backdrop. Upon maturity, the grass “hedge” at the back of the meadow area will accomplish the same task against the existing chain link.

What is the blooming schedule for this garden?

This garden blooms from early spring into the fall. Select evergreens, deciduous plants, and sturdy seed heads of perennial flowers carry us through the winter months.

The larger garden bed has a matrix planting of Deschampsia cespitosa, a self-seeder which will add to the spontaneity and wildness over time. Woven through this matrix are taller, structural grasses and upright flowering plants that offer a variety of foliar textures, bloom types and colours.

The fronts of the gardens are planted with lower, mounding, sun-loving plants including Nepeta and Penstemon. The shade garden is planted with astilbe, ferns and hostas. A beautiful deciduous azalea adds valuable early colour and incredible fragrance to the space.