Helping visitors find the front door was the biggest challenge of the house in relation to the site. The front door faces away from the street. The pergola was built in order to announce the front walk and help find the front walk from the bottom of the driveway. A rock garden softens an edge of the parking court and provides an area in which to grow small alpine and drought-tolerant plants. The grapevine creates a shady pergola during the hotter months of the summer.

Another goal of the garden is to provide as much four-season interest as possible. In the Pacific Northwest, that is not difficult. This garden has abundant bones during the winter, with numerous evergreen plants, deciduous plants with good structure, hardscape and garden art.

What is important to Vanessa, as the designer, in all of the decisions and editing is: What is the common thread in the fabric of the garden? Using a common thread is what maintains a sense of continuity in a garden.

During the course of removing overgrown shrubs, diseased trees, non-native invasive plants, old hardscape, and too much lawn, existing bones of the garden were revealed: numerous native Douglas firs, mature vine maple, rhododendron, dogwoods, camellias and innumerable ferns. The simple mid-century architecture lent itself to simplicity in the design of the interior and the garden. Vanessa and Michael appreciate Asian and contemporary art. Vanessa’s work as an interior design consultant for a Motorola project in China with a previous employer provided additional Asian inspiration as have vacations to Italy and France. Vanessa’s firm belief in connecting inside with outside led to a garden design that is contemporary with an Asian theme with a “Northwest Mediterranean” twist.

After the house was repainted, garden seating and structures were painted colors of doors and trim, helping to connect the garden to the house.

As the garden evolved, site-dug drainage tiles became a terra cotta tower with the addition of a terra cotta pot, an old wire laundry cart became a mobile “moss-basket” succulent collection and a tired metal patio table was recycled into a piece of tiled mosaic art. Things done to make the garden easier to maintain and more planet friendly are:

• perennial beds are closer to the house
• de rigueur drought-tolerant shrub borders
• matching plants with site
• native plants used in combination with native-like & non-native plants
• diversity of plants to attract pollinators & wildlife
• sustainable practices (i.e. the use of newspaper, compost and corn gluten to suppress weeds and prepare new borders)
• a weed torch to clean up gravel paths & parking
• oxygenated compost tea and mycorrhizae to feed soil and plants
• continued reduction of lawn
• a large composting drum