STYLE / GARDENS : Terrace for Two

Living a stone’s throw from the ocean has its benefits, but garden space isn’t one of them. So green thumbs use every inch they’ve got--from sandy earth to weathered fences.

For Abby Sher, founder of the Santa Monica Museum of Art and developer of the Edgemar shopping complex, creation of a tiny plein-air salon behind her bungalow began with a bougainvillea, which, when coaxed along a wire frame, became a blazing wall of blooms. A driftwood sculpture provided the centerpiece for a simple lily pond. And a flagstone dining terrace--ringed by roses, geraniums, Mexican primrose and a wisteria vine--completed the picture of secluded comfort.

When Sher bought her cottage 17 years ago, her initial vision, as she faced the concrete jungle of her lot, was to forge a kind of “wild haven” from the pressures of city life. Her inspirations came from natural rather than formal landscapes: Here in Los Angeles, she believes, “we tend to fool ourselves into thinking we’re outside the forces of nature. A garden receives our sense of the life cycle--and our faith in renewal.”