From indoors, this 20’ x 70’ garden is a tilted canvas of texture and colour, seamlessly extending the indoor living space to the outside. Seen from this vantage point, the length of the garden is foreshortened. The character of the planting from this view changes with the seasons as waves of plants grow and diminish in size, and as bands of colour change with the passing of time.

A loose pea-gravel patio continuous with the interior provides an extended living room in the outdoors. The space is flanked by a glass, mosaic-lined fountain, barbeque sideboard, and storage closet. A gabion wall filled with bricks left over from the owner’s house renovation ends the planted slope of the site. This wall stands as an earthy backdrop to the symmetrical cedar dining area of the upper terrace. The dining room is cut partially into the site’s hill, with the retaining walls of the cut providing built-in perimeter seating.

From the dining terrace at the top of the slope, the space of the garden opens up. The downhill view of the garden appears longer, allowing the rear dining area to feel secluded, removed from the house by distance, height and by an industrial metal stair “bridge”. In contrast to the delicateness of the plants, the stair hovers over the foliage, reinforcing the separateness of the lower and upper spaces yet linking the outdoor living room to this secluded dining room retreat.