Geometry lesson: how to use shape and color to link house and landscape

Sunset, Feb, 2008 by Julie Chai

SQUARES, CIRCLES, AND HITS OF COLOR bring order and structure to this front garden. It's a combination that works perfectly with the home, a midcentury design in Palo Alto by noted developer Joseph Eichler. To integrate the yard with the home's prominent lines and angles, landscape architect Rosemary Wells chose to repeat the angular geometry throughout the property.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Pavers and other hardscape materials repeat the steel gray hues of the house, furthering the sense of continuity. Concrete patios have a dark gray integral color, and Connecticut bluestone pavers, slightly darker than the patio, are set in charcoal-colored Mexican beach cobbles. Small doses of vibrant hues--such as the crimson pot and atrium door--enliven the overall palette.

Large windows around the house look out onto the garden, so to keep the views clear, Wells avoided using traditional foundation plants against the home's perimeter; she planted next to the house only where windows are higher up. The plants--mostly structured ones such as papyrus and bamboo and low-mounding fescues and ferns--are arranged in clusters and rectangular beds for impact and to create a contemplative mood.

DESIGN Rosemary Wells, Viridian Landscape Architecture, Monterey (vlastudio.com or 831/648-1920)

Three great ideas from this garden

Use color sparingly The less color you use, the more impact it has when you use it. This nearly all-green garden includes carefully planned color accents that truly stand out, such as a strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) near the fountain that echoes the color of the atrium door with red fruit in fall and winter.

Emphasize leaves rather than flowers Wells chose foliage plants that have interesting shapes and textures, massing them by type in garden beds for impact. Mounds of common blue fescue fill one bed, for example, while ferns fringe a path beneath the windows. "The plants are about the structure just like an Eichler is about the beams and exposed elements," Wells says.

Repeat shapes A cube-shaped planter filled with horsetail at the entry is one of several low cubes that Wells placed throughout the landscape; the fountain is another.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROB D. BRODMAN