Ups, Downs Add Flair to Garden

People seldom consider it, but changing the level of a garden, even a little bit, can make quite a difference. That’s what Richard Mosbaugh of Statice Landscape & Design has discovered. One or two steps down, or up, can add considerable drama to an otherwise plain garden.

Consider these two West Los Angeles gardens designed by Mosbaugh.

Both were small and quite ordinary, and as flat as the proverbial pancake. “Back yards this small can be very boring,” says Mosbaugh, “Levels create interest.” So he lowered one, and raised the other.

In the garden of John and Nancy Jacobs, the patio area was dramatically lowered so it sits like a stage at the base of an amphitheater of plants.

Plants like level changes as much as people. They prefer the higher ground where they get “good drainage,” that magic ingredient called for in so many garden books.

For people, lowering the garden makes it more private because, in effect, it makes the fences taller.

The 18-inch-tall wall that surrounds the sunken patio is wide and acts as additional seating in an area too small for much furniture.

A canopy of floss silk trees will further enclose the space as they grow. Their distinctive thorny trunks add a little interest at eye level that other trees don’t have. A small fountain creates a focal point, something many gardens are missing.

Rainfall doesn’t collect in the sunken area because the back yard is a little higher than the front and drains carry the water to the curb.

“We didn’t put the patio right next to the house because we wanted to lure people out into the garden, where they are surrounded by plants,” Mosbaugh added. And the patio is not in the obvious place, but floats like an island in the middle of the garden.

In the garden of Kevin and Karen Shultz, a driveway leading to the garage at the back of the property ate up much of the garden. Rather than do away with it (which the city would never allow), Mosbaugh actually enlarged the driveway (“you couldn’t open the car door,” he explained) and made it part of a new patio.

“I made the ‘driveway’ feel ‘patio,’ ” Mosbaugh said, and the entire space now feels more like a garden than it did when there was actually less paved area.

To pull it all together and make the space special, he enclosed it all with a wall and raised the level of the garden behind it.

Again, the wall is high enough to perch on and in this case the level was raised enough so the flowers are now at eye level, when one is sitting at the patio table.

“By raising the garden, we made it more important,” Mosbaugh said. “It comes right up to you.”

(There is another retaining wall along the property line, so the additional fill dirt wouldn’t spill into the neighbor’s yards. They also got permission to paint the wall near their neighbor’s garage a pale gray, so it would blend into the background.)

Driveway and patio employ the same paving, a mixture of concrete and tiles, which helps them appear even more like one.

Patio and driveway are separated by a clump of cajeput trees, which helps make the patio, set aside for outdoor dining, seem more private and enclosed--a booth against the wall in a restaurant, if you will, instead of a table in the middle.

“People feel more comfortable when there is a sense of enclosure,” Mosbaugh said.

The cajeput trees also block the uninspiring view of the garage door when viewed from inside the new french doors. The trees are only a visual barrier, however. During parties guests can easily spill out the doors onto the new patio and then out onto the disguised driveway, as if it were simply more patio.

The small arbor attached to the side of the house does its part to break up that feeling of flatness so common in small, in-town back yards. Like foothills in front of mountains, the trellis eases the transition from low garden to tall house.