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This iconic garden was conceived in 1982 and successfully completed during a time of extreme drought in Southern California. The starkly modern house, located on a steep south-facing slope, became the backdrop for its voluptuous and most unlikely garden.

 

This garden, intentionally thwarting western garden conventions, takes inspiration from the patterns of aerial views of rice paddies in Indonesia and from the farmland patterns of middle America. Rules are continuously broken – groupings of “twos” abound, and oddly shaped specimens are displayed in careful symmetry, while color relationships between plantings play off into infinity. A plant collector’s garden, the site’s powerful organization allows a plethora of plant materials to spill out like paint on an ever-changing canvas.

 

The garden has been hailed world-wide as the epitome of contemporary innovation; it resonates with the spirit of the seventeen-year collaborative process between the client, who offered many of the ideas, and the landscape architect who embodied them into the art piece that it is today.

 

1 acre: 4-year project, completed 1984

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