When the construction dust settled at Tatiana Maxwell’s new energy-wise home, studio, and guest house in Boulder, Colorado, in 2010, the yard was just an expanse of bare dirt. Her first thought was to build an English-style cottage garden. But after brainstorming with stonemason artist Thea Alvin of MyEarthwork and Boulder permaculturalist Marco Lam, she realized she could create something unique and much better suited to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Tatiana wanted to feel cocooned in nature, yet she also needed space to host events for causes she supports. Building a tall stone wall around her large corner lot accomplished both. She trucked in 600 tons of reddish sandstone to create enclosure, privacy, and topography. On the inside, an open lawn provides space to host a crowd, while intimate patios overlooking water features offer seating for one or two.

The walls themselves bring the nearby mountains down to neighborhood scale, creating miniature cliffs and crevices and a striking backdrop for the plants Tatiana loves to grow, including smoke tree and larkspur.

Decorative elements like a stacked-stone arch break up the expanse of stone.

But let’s start at curbside, where the bus dropped us off on Day 2 of the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling tour (June 2019). The outer garden obscures much of the wall, at least in summer, softening all that stone with a cloak of greenery.

We approached the garden not at the front entrance but along the driveway, where clematis bloomed and a tunnel beckoned.

Yes, a tunnel! How exciting to enter a garden through a plant-draped tunnel.

Here’s Kylee of Our Little Acre providing a sense of scale.

With a childlike sense of discovery you enter the tunnel, which branches in multiple directions.

I ran into Vicki of Playin’ Outside, a fellow Austin blogger, in one passage.

One tunnel exits beside a circular stone wall enclosing a pond, into which a waterfall dramatically cascades. Follow the tunnel the opposite way and you find yourself on a narrow ledge overlooking the waterfall, where the woman in the blue capris stands. Beyond is the peaked roof of Tatiana’s guest house and, next to it, her greenhouse.

The waterfall spills from the top of the tunnel wall.

Red roses sprawl romantically along the top of the wall.

As does striking black-leaved sambucus.

A tiny flagstone patio overlooks the waterfall and pond and the blue foothills of the Rockies.

Here it is from the driveway side.

The house’s back patio, sheltered beneath a grape arbor, overlooks the waterfall. On the lower roof, a green roof of succulents helps cool the house. On the upper, solar panels soak up the Colorado sunshine and convert it to electricity.

Under the arbor

The waterfall as seen from the porch. A pair of white-cushioned chairs overlooks an expansive lawn and surrounding garden.

Walking across the lawn, I found the home’s front door beneath another water-absorbing green roof.

On the front porch a creeping vine reaches for the door as if to say, Let me in.

Just off the porch, a semicircular retaining wall surrounds a sunken patio well that allows light to pour into a basement-level living space.

Following a path to the right, I discovered another small flagstone patio, where two blue-green vessels brim with water.

Those sconces!

One bowl spills water into the other, making a pleasant trickle.

The path pops out beside the garage and a freestanding studio.

A mural of Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god, adorns the garage door — a fun surprise.

The studio bears a tracery of vines as well.

Another Ganesh lounges in a garden bed.

Red hot poker glows in sunset hues alongside the stucco wall of the studio.

Tatiana’s greenhouse, in summer mode, contains only a handful of plants, but I imagine it’s stuffed during the winter.

I love that it contains a Thai-style swinging bench, making the greenhouse a place to relax during the snowy months, surrounded by greenery.

At the back of the driveway, a low stone wall elevates a vegetable garden and makes an arbor-shaded nook for bike parking.

Flowers mingle with edibles in the fenced vegetable garden.

Tatiana calls her garden TatTopia, and it is a utopia not only for herself and her family but for pollinators. As it happens, her beautiful home and garden are for sale, and I’m glad to have visited her creation before it becomes someone else’s utopia.

Up next: Mary and Larry Scripter’s meadow garden designed by Lauren Springer Ogden. For a look back at the blogger luncheon in the rose garden at Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, click here.

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Digging Deeper

Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. Season 8 kicks off in fall 2024. Stay tuned for more info!

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