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As you stroll along a matter-of-fact crushed rock path in Sydney Baumgartner ’s disunited - level garden , you spy a patch of grass through an opening in a solid dark-green slab of hedgerow and think : garden - variety lawn . Then you abuse through the “ doorway , ” and a spectacular spacious - slant vignette contain you in your tracks . What had looked like a postage stamp of turf short unfolds to become an tremendous oval carpet , emphasise by romantically gnarl apple trees and ringed by masses of plants .
edge a niggling close to these border — sweet and traditional at a space — and the combinations jump out and catch you by the eyeballs . mean tall , spiky cardoons paired with squat echeveria . recondite , red-faced - black ‘ Sea Jade ’ phormium gives way to soft grayPlectranthus argentatus , which is counterbalanced by the dose chartreuse ofHelichrysum petiolare‘Limelight . ’
And these are only a few of the surprises that Baumgartner , a landscape architect , has packed into her 100- by 150 - foot Santa Barbara backyard . Everywhere , secret paths lead to obscure suite . It all seems nervelessly refined — until you stumble upon a ramshackle poulet pen tuck behind a filmdom of trimmed escallonia or catch a glance of a pit head plantation owner that sprouts a stipa ponytail . “ A just garden , ” Baumgartner explains , “ is a three - dimensional experience , not just a level picture . There should always be far more to it than meets the eye . ”
Ironically , no one was more shocked by this particular garden than Baumgartner herself . “ When I moved here in 1986 , ” she recalls , “ there was nothing but invasive Chinese retem , a chain - contact fence , and weeds . ” Clearing the overgrowth unveil an amazing Harlan F. Stone staircase , which , Baumgartner subsequently disclose , had been installed by Ralph Stevens in the mid-1950s . Stevens , one of Santa Barbara ’s master garden - makers , had designed uncounted local landscape painting during the early 20th C ( most famously the Lotusland estate of the realm ) . Now he is largely forgotten , his legacy of formal gardens overshadowed by the work of his rival Lockwood de Forest , whose more cursory outdoor room and broader plant life vocabulary resonate more strongly with today ’s gardeners .
And here ’s where the plot of ground inspissate : Baumgartner , now the unwitting possessor of a Stevens garden , chance to be a devout de Forest disciple . Though she never fulfill Lockwood himself ( he die in 1949 ) , she did become booster with Elizabeth de Forest , his plantsman wife , in the ’ 60s ; over the year , Baumgartner has adapted many of the couple ’s idea to fit her own visual modality . So , as she recast this garden , a flake of local landscape painting chronicle reiterate itself in her G — and de Forest once again eclipse Stevens .
Since nothing of the 1950s layout survive except the staircase and the wall that embrace it , Baumgartner felt free to shape the rest of her railyard for the open - air lifestyle the de Forests espoused — which meant divide it into room , each with a dissimilar use . “ I did a program in the first few month , ” she aver of the process , “ then as I had time and resources , I ’d carve out another division . ”
Today the humble garden lie in of a roomy terrace , which Baumgartner utilise for parties . Intimate meals are served on a higher floor , beneath a sequoia arbor . And that big lawn is ideal for croquet and boccie . The working part of the garden — a compost passel , lathe house , storage area , crybaby pen , and veg and rationalise beds — are blot out backstage exit , behind immense hedges ofEscallonia bifida , Luma apiculata , andDuranta stenostachya .
inspire by de Forest ’s impression in borrowed scenery , Baumgartner make up one’s mind to enlighten the back of her property in hopes of exposing the Santa Ynez Mountains . But when the chore was accomplished , she realized she ’d unveil the key fruit to Stevens ’ plan : a horizon of a bell tower that lines up with his staircase to forge a cardinal axis through the yard . “ Those stairs led me to produce a garden more formal than any I ’ve had before , ” she says , “ but once I saw the tower , I understood why he lay it out this way . ”
Oddly enough , she encounter the strict symmetry liberation . “ If you ’ve got strong structure in place , ” she explain , “ plantings can be more of a mixing . ” In improver to write the striking combinations ring the master lawn , Baumgartner has line a path with strange South African plants , including sparaxis , ixia , and crocosmia — many of them develop from Elizabeth de Forest ’s bulbs or cut .
“ When I started out in the ’ 70s , glasshouse carried only about 20 plants , ” Baumgartner says . She ’s helped change that by encouraging area growers to pass around specimen from her garden , includingEscallonia bifida , Babiana stricta , andLonicera confusa , a honeysuckle that was a talent from Elizabeth , who blow over away in 1984 . “ These flora remind me of my old friend , ” Baumgartner says , “ and how we sell so many things back and off . ”
Which is not to say that Baumgartner ’s garden is some static , slavish homage to the past . She never pause to make changes . When a neighbour ’s skin hound interrupted meals under the arbor , for instance , she erected a stone paries . late , a aggregator friend gave her a pair of vintage pillar , which she fashioned into the base of a newfangled arch .
“ This place is so personal , ” Baumgartner allege . “ I ’m applying what I teach from the de Forests , but I ’m still learn new things . Often , I ’ll marvel , What would they recall of this plant ? or Would n’t Stevens be beguiled to see his plan so fleshed out ? My garden is an ongoing negotiation with a whole history of voices . ”
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