A new aged garden

Sunset, Sept, 1993 by Peter O. Whiteley

Stacked stones add texture and tone to remodeled yard

THE REPEATED textures of slender pieces of stacked Bouquet Canyon flagstone bring continuity and an instant patina of age to this remodeled front garden in Camarillo, California.

The fractured, horizontal layers start at the street, where the stones mask a mailbox, and continue along both sides of a curving stairway, which leads to a lower-level driveway and entry. The walls arc into the hill to create raised planters that wrap around olive trees added to the regraded slope. (A curved retaining wall edges the driveway at the far end of the gently bermed yard.) Finally, a low wall of stacked rocks projects from the house to form a rectangular bench along the entry patio.

Except for the top layers, which have been grouted, the rock walls appear "dry stacked" or mortarless, a look that accentuates the cracks between the layers. In fact, the rocks' back edges have been mortared to unseen concrete building blocks in the center of the walls.

Other new surfaces also age the yard. The concrete stairs have a water-washed finish, which roughens the surface to reveal the aggregate and create a well-worn texture. Interlocking concrete pavers replace the old, cracked driveway, but the pavers stop short of the rock walls to allow for hardscape-softening pockets of plants.

The design is by Nick Williams and Associates of Tarzana, California.