2000-2001 Western Garden Design Awards

Sunset, Feb, 2001 by Lauren Bonar Swezey

Twenty winners are among the most innovative home landscapes in the West

Sunset's Western Garden Design Awards program is back! Out of several hundred entries submitted by landscape architects and designers, seven jurors (see page 86) selected winning gardens based on their excellence in one of six categories--Colorful Beds and Borders, Garden Details, Garden Renovation, Outdoor Living, Regional, and Small Space. Each garden in this distinguished group contains a wealth of new ideas you can use in your own garden.

And the winners are ...

GARDEN DETAILS: PORTLAND

Perfectly crafted

Visiting Joyce and Bill Furman's forested hillside garden in Portland is a calming experience. As you wander beneath the cool, lush tree canopy, you can hear the soothing sound of water running through creeks and cascading in waterfalls. Trees give the garden a sense of enclosure. * Remaking a bramble-covered, 3 1/2-acre plot was a major undertaking. Because its steep slopes made it inaccessible to heavy equipment, designer John Pruden and his team cleared the site, planted the garden, and built its structures by hand. * Creating paths and water features took 1,000 tons of boulders, rock, and gravel. An intricate, Asian-inspired teahouse was meticulously constructed of cedar and copper shingles. Hand-hewn stairs and bridges connect pathways throughout the garden. Everywhere you turn there's something new to see--a bronze sculpture, a shapely specimen plant. "Stunning details," raved the jurors. "Beautifully crafted!"

DESIGNER: John Pruden, Portland International Garden & Design, St. Helens, OR (503/780-3687)

OUTDOOR LIVING: MALIBU, CALIFORNIA

* All that jazz

Vibrant colors and paving in bold, irregular patterns are the first clues that something's spectacularly different about Lee and Carmen Ritenours' coastal garden, designed by Mia Lehrer. Further investigation reveals a rhythmic row of Mexican fan palms contrasted by an irregular grouping of Queen palms, a series of turf circles skipping across a field of black Mexican pebbles, and fluid lines of turf waving in and around a blue pool. "Stunning!" agreed the jurors. "The garden has a beat of its own," said one. * That this garden is all about rhythm is no surprise--the owners are a jazz guitarist and a Brazilian native. Taking a cue from the owners' backgrounds, Lehrer used musical improvisation awash with vivid tropical colors to inspire her design. She describes the terrace paving--inspired by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx--as a "geometric pattern of colored concrete." With the dancing palms, the grass "notes," and the spicy orange, purple, and red foliage, the elements form an exceptionall y lyrical landscape.

DESIGNER: Mia Lehrer, Mia Lehrer Associates, Los Angeles (213/384-3844)

REGIONAL: TUCSON

* In the heart of the desert

Nestled between two washes in the core of the Southwest desert, this natural garden, surrounded by saguaros, palo verdes, and thick native vegetation, takes full advantage of its impressive surroundings. * Using a minimalist approach, designer Jeffrey Trent developed a series of garden spaces that gently blend the house's architecture with the environment. To preserve and enhance the landscape required insight and careful planning, despite its deceptively casual appearance. "It's a simple, perfectly executed solution with some unexpected surprises," noted a juror. * Looking out from the back porch, an angular flagstone patio edged with a low wall for seating directs attention to the distant mountains. Broad steps lead visitors into the garden. Like archaeological ruins, fragments of rock walls built from stones excavated during house construction frame the patio and echo colors and forms in the adjacent hills.

* In keeping with the desert landscape, Trent used primarily native plants to enhance areas outside the patio. Closer to the house, he chose salvias, fairy dusters, and other more colorful desert-adapted varieties. Potted cactus accent the patio.

DESIGNER: Jeffrey Trent, Natural Order, Tucson (520/792-9274)

SMALL SPACE: SCOTTS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

* South of the border

It's 90[degrees] outside, the sun is blazing, and the sounds of splashing water fill the air. Against a rustic stucco wall, water trickles out of scalloped bowls into a colorful blue fountain bedecked with blazing bougainvillea. Although it seems like a scene from a remote Mexican village, this 430-square-foot townhouse garden is actually located at the base of the mountains west of Silicon Valley. Enchanting!" exclaimed a juror. "The garden is a great achievement for such a small space."

* The remarkable transformation was no easy task. When owner Londa Patch moved into the townhouse, the 13- by 33-foot-long backyard was weed-infested and dilapidated. Since there was no access to the garden from the back, landscape designer Kathleen Shaeffer had to transfer every piece of concrete and slate and every bag of dirt through the house.

* A new, weathered-looking stucco wall accented with an aged wood-and-iron gate hides the old fence. Although the gate leads nowhere, it gives the impression that the garden continues and helps reduce the feeling of confinement. The colorful fountain, a focal point from most rooms in the house, immediately draws attention to the outdoor space. "During the day, it's a bright, sunny jewel," says Shaeffer. "At night, there's a magical quality to the light, shadows, and scent."