Bennington Hts Garden

Our clients live in a beautiful, modernist house, with floor-to-ceiling views extending across their secluded backyard from the north-facing kitchen and west-facing dining room and main bedroom. One of the owners is a passionate and knowledgeable gardener. Both she and her partner wanted their rear garden to function primarily as a private sanctuary, and also be suitable for hosting parties. They envisioned a carefully curated oasis: a handful of quietly marvelous elements, each selected to bring out the best in the others.

Introducing a pair of curved, overlapping concrete retaining walls with integrated lighting was our team’s key structural move. These forms now trace a partial ellipse that frames the new deck and steps down onto a new limestone patio and lawn, separating these open spaces from lush, new planting beds in behind them. Widening and descending as it arcs around the lawn, the longer retaining wall doubles as bench-style seating. Tinting the concrete a soft honey brown helped meld it into a harmonious composition with the pale, even-toned limestone that the clients favoured for the patio.

The planting scheme accentuates the beauty of the massive corner elm and other mature trees and shrubs, while integrating them into a cohesive whole. To complement the scale and chartreuse foliage of the existing Japanese maples, we chose a planting palette of low-growing ferns and grasses, along with plants that flower in pink and purple hues. Native-species swaths echo and amplify the curves of the retaining walls placed in front of them. The woodland-character planting mix balances a naturalized aesthetic with repeated lines of colour and leaf texture that subtly lend unity to the landscape.

We retained the existing fence along the north and east sides and designed the new ipe-slatted steel gate that connects to the garage, screening views into the garden.