Tour of Arth garden
Entering James Arth’s garden from the street, you step onto a small lawn punctuated by a “chess pawn” (similar to one in my own garden’s border).
Visiting this central Austin garden right after the David-Peese garden was a big change, but its spare geometry rendered in limestone and gravel recalled certain elements of the earlier garden, and I came to appreciate the quieter beauty offered by this modernist, low-maintenance garden.
Arth’s garden relies on geometric structure and shades of green. Regular readers of Digging know that I’m a fan of what I call a “lawnette”: a small carpet of grass that provides restful openness amid the larger, busier garden. And less grass equals less watering, mowing, and fertilizing. This garden has the lawnette idea down in spades: one in the front, and two in the back.
The path to the back garden leads down a formal allee of deciduous trees. It’s a monochromatic study in green.
In the rear garden, a wide, gravel path separates two lawnettes. The right side, pictured here, looks like something in Garden Design magazine—new modernism straight out of southern California. Lovely, though I see little that says “central Texas” here. A dramatic stand of bamboo, a large pittosporum, fig ivy on the wall—the only regional evidence is the limestone-edged pond and the decomposed-granite paths.
And that’s OK. This is a small, minimalist, stylish garden that would work just as beautifully behind an urban townhome or in a front, walled courtyard as in this Clarksville back yard. I admire this garden’s bold simplicity and framing techniques. And of course, the lawnettes.
Click here for my post about the David-Peese garden. Tune in tomorrow for the Harris Boulevard garden.
All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
There seems to be a lot of luscious looking bare dirt in the side yard shot. Is that the look or was it being prepped for future planting?
It was actually a lot of fluffy, new mulch. The Open Days guide said that this garden was still evolving, though what garden isn’t? But I suspect the owner plans to plant more in that side yard. —Pam
I like geometry in gardens much more than I used to but this garden doesn’t do anything for me primarily because of the bland plant choices. I’m not a native plant purist by any means–just the opposite because I love experimenting with all sorts of unusual plants. But these plants fall in neither camp. As such the garden doesn’t reflect its locale nor does it advertise a passionate plant collector. Cold pool indeed!
Do you think this garden was included to capture a point in time during the process of making a garden? It was definitely ‘in progress’, but even with time, would it ever be a place I’d want to be? Right now, it’s all about the expensively constructed hardscape, with boring plants. One border of the garden consisted of shrubs [might have been ligustrum, but I’m not sure] still in their black plastic nursery containers, lined up as a temporary hedge. Even on that nice fall Saturday, the lawnette area was glaring and hot, but I actually did like the pool. There was a back deck-thing that seemed useless somehow. The most exciting plants were a few agaves in containers, resembling your Whale’s Tooth variety, Pam. The owner didn’t know the variety – just said they were outgrowing their containers.
I’m mildly curious as to how this garden will look as it progresses, but the second look would have to be free.
Annie
M. and Annie, I agree. I don’t think this was designed to be a “gardener’s garden.” Rather, it’s a low-maintenance, attractively designed, minimalist garden for someone who doesn’t want to spend much time puttering. Not everyone wants to garden, and yet most people do want their yard to look beautiful. Something like this is perfect for them.
I’m reluctant to criticize any of these gardens because I think the owners are extremely courageous to let throngs of curious, trampling, critical people into their private sanctuaries. I know I would be terrified of everyone’s opinion if I were to do that. And yet, as a visitor, I don’t have to love every garden I visit. After all, they aren’t made for me to enjoy but for the owner. I hope if the owner of this garden (or any other) happens to read my post, he’ll see through any critiques to the appreciation I feel for having been invited into his private space. —Pam
Very soothing. I like.
I agree with you absolutely, Pam. The people who opened their gardens to the rest of us should be applauded. I understand that there are people less enthusiastic about puttering in the garden than we four. (Sometimes I’m not all that enthusiastic.) I never take offense to the idea of “low-maintenance” gardening. I’m just happy that people devote space to green places given that the trend in Austin lately has been to build ugly houses to the lot line effectively doing away with yards at all.
But if one wants a low-maintenance and highly structural garden, Texas has a lot of great plants one could use. Why settle for pittosporum (as lovely as it can be in its native habitat). I guess I’d have to analyze the purpose of the garden tour. As a viewer I’d want to see what could be done given our climate, our water shortages, and balancing concerns for the environment (creating wildlife habitat and not poisoning the aquifer with pesticides and fertilizer run-off).
Yep, I’m hard to please. And I can’t even follow my own advice about not criticizing unless I can do better myself. Because I haven’t done better myself. I can’t imagine my garden ever being worthy of a garden tour. (Yours on the other hand…definitely worthy.)
Look for my upcoming post on the Poth-Gill garden, which features more native plants and is organically maintained and drip-irrigated. —Pam
Not sure if anyone is even still reading these comments. (I got busy this week. so I am slow in getting to post.)
I feel like I share most of the commenters’ impressions – nice hardscape, evolving (but into what?) mid area, lovely pond, not a ton of plant interest (but they had two ginkgos – which I don’t usually see – maybe I am not looking enough.) I didn’t love or hate the front yard.
I really did love the bamboo. They had nice thick culms that I thought were gorgeous. I know bamboo is gaining in popularity and growers are trying to help consumers understand the difference between the running and the clumping types. Who locally knows about bamboo that you have experience with? When we get around to working on the back yard, I have a space that would be perfect for bamboo that I loved. If I had a source who wasn’t just trying to sell it on the trendy factor, I would feel more comfortable.
Just curious.
This is a great series of posts!
Thanks, ShellyB. Oh yes, I read all my comments. Don’t ‘cha know they’re what bloggers live for?
I don’t really know much about bamboo, except to be a little afraid of it taking over the yard. I second Annie’s advice in her comment below: try the Bamboo Society. —Pam
Hi ShellyB – Just butted in on Pam’s blog to say hello to another Austin gardener, and to say I keep going back through this incredible series to look for new comments and saw you’d put some on. Did you ever look into the Austin Bamboo Society? They have meetings and I think a sale sometime during the year.
You mentioned a decomposed granite driveway on another comment – we use it 5-6 inches deep, packed hard, in areas that hold large plants in containers. Don’t the wheels make ruts?
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Hi,
I don’t know if you found out what kind of acacia species you have a picture of, but we believe it is an Acacia pravissima, also known as “Ovens Wattle”..
Gorgeous pictures. I might even get that gorgeous morning glory wall plaque made into a tattoo!
D and M..
Thanks for your comment, D and M, and the ID on the acacia in another post. —Pam