STYLE : GARDENS : Here and There
With its green and gray foliage, neat rows of cypress, pergola with classical columns and terrace with a view, this garden is a distinctly Mediterranean vision. Is it in Catalonia? Provence? Tuscany? Guess again.
Over the past three years, Torrance-based landscape designer Julie Heinsheimer has borrowed elements from Spanish, French and Italian gardens to transform this Palos Verdes Peninsula property into a lesson in design, Mediterranean-style. The move was more sensible than trying to duplicate an English garden in Southern California’s summer-dry climate. And it was appropriate for the brightly painted house, designed 20 years ago by the architectural firm of Edward Carson Beall, where Heinsheimer is a consultant.
A stroll through the grounds will reveal many Mediterranean garden devices at work. Statues are set into hedges; wall fountains spurt forth; huge urns, pots and baskets hang everywhere, some in the old olive trees; and beds of ‘Superstition’ bearded iris flower deep purple.
In true Mediterranean fashion, the plan mixes the formal and the rustic. Ficus hedges along the tennis court, which were laid out by the original landscape designer, James Yoch, are kept clipped. And the path between the front door and an iron obelisk is tidily lined with Italian cypress, planted in pots to control their size.
Other paths and retaining walls made of Palos Verdes stone are casually laid out, mortarless and country-style. One path bears a clever edging of rosemary, the low, prostrate kind on the uphill side and the taller, upright variety on the downhill side. Sapling handrails lend support on the steps descending to the vegetable garden.
Heinsheimer made lavish use of non-thirsty plants, many of which are listed in Hugo Latymer’s “The Mediterranean Gardener” (Barron’s) or the Vicomte de Noailles’ “Mediterranean Plants and Gardens” (Floraprint), two of the few gardening books from the region printed in English. Vines grow everywhere: There are orange ‘Rosenka’ bougainvillea in pots on the terrace and sweet-smelling white stephanotis on the shaded back balcony. Even the spaces between paving stones are planted, with fragrant Corsican mint that freshens the air whenever it is stepped on. Every detail says this is a Mediterranean garden in a Mediterranean climate--that just happens to be in California.
