 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| This is a project that has the potential
to generate a lot of controversy, although as of yet we haven’t heard
a great deal about it. Of course, we may be the last to know. Originally
designed by landscape Architectural icon Thomas Church, the garden
was about to turn 50 when we were called in to interview for this
project, and it was not aging terribly well. The plantings in the
regional border were supposed to follow a progression in feeling from
Sonoran type dessert to Pacific Northwest forest, but instead had
become a generic mush of nandina, camellia, azalea. flowering cherry,
holly, etc. There was little of that regional identity left, except
for the redwoods in the Monterey section, which are now immense, the
cactus garden at the beginning of the regional walk, and the rhododendrons
at the final terminus. There were multiple political challenges to be met as well. Church is considered a modern master, and yet all gardens change with the times, and there were no original planting plans to replicate. The Sunset administrators were also interested in cutting back on the intensive cultivation of annual flowering plants that had become, in effect, the current theme of the garden walk. As an environmentally tuned design firm, we felt that the garden was weighted far too heavily toward that artificial and chemically dependent style of gardening that is, we hope, on its way out the door. We set about to emphasize the generous sweeping curves that are so characteristic of Church’s modernist work by using large swathes of relatively simple simple plants. (This might quite fairly be called a synthesis of the bold romantic gardens of the design firm of Oehme van Sweden, combined with the hardscape of Thomas Church.) Church himself used plants in a similar manner in much of his work, although often the plantings were of such now overused staples as Juniper and agapanthus, which we would be hesitant to recreate. Although we were not able to achieve all of our original goals, the staff at Sunset and the installation crew from Gachina Landscape Maintenance were such a fun and pleasant group to work with, it really seemed like the perfect commission. This garden can be visited at Sunset Headquarters at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park any weekday from 9 to 5. |
 |
|
Planting design |
| Special thanks to
Green Jeans garden center in Mill Valley for all the last minute help in locating hard to find plants. |
 |
