LAND of ENCHANTMENT
Some people would balk at the need for a 30-inch-wide, 4-foot-deep, 215-foot-long trench to keep five kinds of bamboo from invading their lawn.
But that’s what Helene Tobias, an avid traveler and garden lover, was willing to do to have her bamboo forest. For Tobias, bamboo evokes a spirit of the exotic: Hawaiian and Japanese gardens she has seen, stories she’s heard about windblown Tibetan plains. Her landscape architect, Laura Ackard Saltzman, who has trekked three times through the Himalayas, inspired Tobias with descriptions of all the wild bamboo there: “Its flow, its energy, the sounds it makes are unbelievable,” says Saltzman, as Tobias lights up over tales of yak-haired tents and vistas devoid of human beings. “Someday I’ll get there too,” Tobias swears.
For now she’s happy to have some of the same bamboos that define the Tibetan skyline and the ginkgo trees that thrive in Katmandu. They’re a bit tamer in her Pacific Palisades backyard, but they draw their share of feral cats, threading among them like little panthers.
“In the Himalayas, you never know what you’re going to come upon,” says Saltzman, who traveled there twice while developing Tobias’ garden. “Here we were aiming for that kind of mystery, coupled with a similar peace--a place where you can put your life on hold and simply be.”
This image of a wild retreat soothed Tobias, who, a couple of years ago, found herself suddenly faced with the construction of two new homes behind her backyard. Tobias’ home, a low-slung ranch from the 1940s that she had owned for three decades, was instantly overwhelmed, its views blocked by modern roof lines. She decided to put the renovation of her backyard on a fast track, a project she had delayed while Saltzman revamped the front. In that first garden, Saltzman and her former design partner, Craig Raines, replaced asphalt with grass and concrete and added ginkgoes and other tropical-flavored plants. In the back, the bamboo grove--engineered with Roger Stover, co-owner of Tustin’s Endangered Species Nursery--provided a quick, atmospheric screen. But that was only the beginning. “It was still a garden of bits and pieces--a fig tree here, a cycad there. It lacked a unifying vision.”
Saltzman and Raines took design cues from the existing swimming pool, which had a pleasing biomorphic shape despite a tired, overbearing brick deck. With light terra-cotta-colored plaster, they toned down the water’s turquoise hue and replaced the brick with Pennsylvania blue flagstone. They also designed a bamboo-themed steel handrail, crafted by Topanga Canyon metal sculptor Norman Grochowski. From there, says Saltzman, “the pool’s curves evoked a flow that we could pick up in a series of low, broken-concrete walls and also work with in our plantings.”
The plantings, installed by contractor Jon Goldstein, were conceived as naturalistic sweeps of foliage against the bamboo and ginkgo trees. They included ornamental grasses, dwarf flax and Japanese star jasmine, with punchy accents from plants such as ‘Bush Beacon’ kangaroo paws. Variegated leaves, from moneywort, zebra grass and ‘Pink Lemonade’ lemon trees, further sparked the earth-tone palette. “We had to exercise restraint,” Saltzman concedes. “Though Helene and I share many plant passions, we did leave a few out, but massed others to show them off and used potted plants as focal points.”
Northridge artist Jane Benson created murals on several garden walls, providing further eye-catching surprises. Tobias’ favorite shows a pair of golden lion tamarins, an endangered monkey from South America. The wild cats that frequent Tobias’ neighborhood like to perch above this mural on a ledge, tails switching, before dashing off through the stipa grass. “The cats add life,” Tobias says. “Whatever damage they inflict, I forgive. After all, they’re part of the picture!”
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HOT TIPS from the HIMALAYAS
“It’s easy to get distracted in life. It can rush by so fast,” says Los Angeles landscape architect Laura Ackard Saltzman, who loves adventure travel for the same reason she loves gardens. Both offer, for however long or short a time, a world apart and an opportunity for contemplation. What’s more, Saltzman’s visits to the Himalayas gave her insights into creating gardens. “Tibet,” she says, “with its arid, subtle beauty, proved the elegance of simplicity. Flowers seemed less important to me after being there.” Too many, she adds, can distract from a landscape’s overall impact, and the drama of light sliding across it throughout a day. Nepal, where the terrain is more rugged, showed Saltzman the power of even slight variations in a garden’s grade, through paths and terracing, with plantings grouped to offer openness and enclosure. “It’s very moving to feel alone in nature but not threatened,” she explains, “to find shelter within that vastness.”
