Creative havens

Anyone with a good-size backyard and a good designer to landscape it can probably come up with a bit of outdoor paradise. This book shows what can be done when there’s very little usable outdoor space, when neighbors are too close for privacy or comfort, or when a house is built near a main street and there’s little hope of outdoor solitude.

An Oakland house on a four-lane thoroughfare, with neighbors close on both sides, had only a few feet of outdoor space. The owner hired a landscape designer “to create a haven amid the commotion.” What emerged is a charming, private, flagstone-paved outdoor room, enclosed on all sides with an insulated redwood fence to muffle the noise, and a totally private outdoor shower.

A tiny urban backyard behind a small Washington, D.C., townhouse became a nature oasis with window modifications that allowed the outdoors to come in, and the creation of a clever outdoor room enclosed by tall cedar fences that double as “green walls.” These walls host a “vertical garden” -- a combination of hanging flower boxes that climb the fence, and a row of planters on top of the fence -- all of which gives the sensation of being immersed in nature.

A small backyard behind a Southern California house became a haven with the construction of a redwood canopy that cantilevers over the yard to form a backyard “room” with a comfortable built-in couch.

Large and small projects are included in the book, any of which may spur ideas for those who know something wonderful can be done with that outdoor space behind the house -- but have no idea what it might be.

-- Bettijane Levine