Modern Kensington

A modern take on a beautiful Kensington garden

Installed June 2017

A family with small children were having difficulty utilizing their small patio space and bi-level garden.

The small lawn offers a wonderful play space surrounded by screening trees for added privacy.  The low water grasses, pin cushion shrubs, kangaroo paws, & hydrangea 'limelight', add a soft yellow, green & sage color palatte to this gorgeous modern backyard.

AFTER








BEFORE

Written by B.B. Garibaldi

Hillside Retreat

This recently designed and installed Kensington garden has finally realized its potential!  From the top tier patio, the homeowners can overlook the garden and spy a view of the Bay. 

This No-Mow sod from Delta Blue Grass is a low water alternative to traditional sod.  The small lawn will provide a play space for young ones.  The blueberry hedge on the west side of the lawn offers instant refueling when energy runs low. 

Below the lawn is a veggie bed planted with espaliered fruit trees and stepping stones for easy access.

 The patio situated just off the kitchen offers a large area for entertaining.  To soften the wall of the house, decorative pots run along the opposite side of the veggie bed.

Stone steps with decomposed granite treads lead from the patio area up to the lawn.

Before Photos

A mix of brick, concrete and ivy was holding the hillside up.

DC hauling took care of the demo courtesy of the EXCAVATOR.

Post excavation.  The crew spent one entire day moving stone from the street to the back garden.

Dry stack walls being constructed.

Step it up!

This lovely Kensington garden got a face lift with some new hardscape, lighting and bird friendly plantings.

 

The above 'after photos' show the new Bitterroot stone step and Connecticut Full Range flagstone patio.  The plantings surrounding the patio reflect the low light woodland nature of the property.  Also visible are the drip irrigation lines waiting for their mulch covering as well as 'Contempo' path lights from Hinkley Lighting.

 

These 'before photos' show the concrete patio that isn't visible in the 'after' shots.  The view and access to the lower garden is much more inviting to people and birds alike.

Kensington Cottage Charm

We designed and installed this garden on The Arlington in Kensington about a year ago. The homeowner is a real estate agent and wanted his house and garden to have some major drama and curb appeal. The home is kind of a storybook/Tudor style, painted a sage green with brick front porch and entryway. We added some large flagstone slabs for the path in a pink color to match the brick, and put in a raised bed along the inside of the fence out of dry-stacked moss rock to give the planting height so it would be more visible. The house style and size of the garden really called for planting that was informal, small-scale and cozy and also really colorful. This "cottage-style" usually implies lots of maintenance-heavy flowering annuals and perennials planted closely together. But the resident neighborhood deer had to be considered when selecting our plants because the fence around the front garden was so low they could jump right over. So we opted for yucky-tasting but showy Mediterranean flowering perennials such as salvias, agastache, thymes, in addition to some Austalian/New Zealand aromatic or furry-textured plants that deer leave alone, like kangaroo paws and leucodendron. The low-growing silver plant with orange/red flowers is arctosis. The mass of silver foliage is artemesia. The dark purple foliage we added in for color and contrast without having the maintenance of dead-heading flowers. The street trees are crepe myrtles.