Helen Thompson is a writer who has revealed
all things beautiful interesting and tasty in her years as a journalist
in 2012 she joined Interiors Texas magazine as contributing editor and
writer
when she and husband Charles renovated her childhood home in 2008
her knowledge of archetectual and interior design
came in handy there were two things that drove
this garden design and one was the drainage which is a really
an urgent problem but the other thing was
I wanted nice views from every room
Charles editor-in-chief and publisher of Texas Highways Magazine
brings home his impressions too. One of the major considerations here was
was a practical one which was drainage but we didn't want that to be too
obvious
in this part of Austin there are
wet weather springs in seeps. The problem was the water then went under the house
in wet weather they just kinda bubble to the surface
first to deal with wood-rot and termite damage
and update the old house newborn efficiency they worked with builder
remodeler Jerry Santeany to channel seasonal overflow and heavy rains away
from the house
Patrick devised a route including french drains and pea gravel
which disperse the water on it's pathway to the back
then we started to kinda rebuild the landscape because
basically we we had to demo the whole front yard I mean all the plants all the
grass
soil everything so that we can get the water to
move away from the house. To further control water from the street
Patrick and Jerry re-graded the intense slope and devised a multi box approach
to raise up the garden. We wanted to have different levels so we'd have
a different theme sorta in each box
we wanted to differentiate the boxes not only in
in the heights of the boxes but in the size of them
Patrick improved their permeability with a gritty soil blend.
In this part of Austin the
soil is very clay like
and is either really wet or really dry
each box gets its own personality with drought-tough
low-maintenance plants in palisades with your
boxwoods unify and define their enclosures
including resiliant roses. We try to use very few plants
and kinda use masses of them so that it kinda
all came together and so the box woods are kinda all throughout the garden and
they kinda tie everything together. This grid system
that he organized makes it
seem orderly even though it's not sometimes you know the leaves do fall.
This is not quite as stark as as most modern gardens. It's it's very lush
but it's very organized and structured. each arena
aligns with a section of the house Patrick dedicated a front portion
to annual fern leaf lavender that survives mild winters.
you know the Monarchs really when they're migrating we get little clouds
of
Monarchs around the lavender and
the bees are always at work there too so that's great. One bed is for vegetables
at taping time summer crops were over and winter ones
were newly installed. Charles suddenly
burst forth and said I've always wanted a vegetable garden
You have? Alright, this is the first I've heard of it!
And of course that's a sunny spot it's an obvious
great place for the backyard is very shady we've been amazed at how
productive just a small
space can be. You know I feel like gardens like that are social. People stop by and wanna
talk about it or
we'll give them stuff. It's really great to come out and
and have a sense of different environments in the small
you know, relatively small space and then create like over here we've created a
courtyard there
in which will become more pronounced as these shrubs grow up.
Charles and Helen have their offices facing the
side of the house so we have a screen with the bamboo and then we provided
a little niche space for them to be able to look out
when they're sitting at their desks working and writing and
so they have this kind of little private space that's there's
to enjoy while they're working. He just
was so concerned that I would have something nice to look at
and Ii do now. And the
hummingbirds come out and it's just a and we watched
Cardinals grow up and learn to fly out there it's just been a really great
really really lovely thing for me to look at.
Looters Pavers connected it all with a spacious clean look
and firm footing on gravel. Against the house
Patrick didn't replant when he removed grass and overgrown shrubs.
The primary reason was to get the water away from the house and
we didn't want any sprinklers or anything up against the foundation.
Patrick did include a few low-water accents
near the entrance. Here Jerry replaced the old rickety gate with a modern look
that fits the home even better. Their ideal to give Helen and Charles a cozy
enclosure.
It's got big deep eves and the best time
to be in it is the soft rain cuz youre kinda sheltered
it's great I love that courtyard. I absolutely love that courtyard.
They widened the driveway
and replaced asphalt with gravel to absorb even more water
Looters pavers unify its front door and garden connection
in back Patrick channeled the street water into a real
to gently disperse it without damaging the neighbors
it does a lot because the the water actually gets percolate down through the
soils and into the gravel
so there's no rushing water the gravel
is a really good filter so when the water does get to the real
its its kinda sorta cleaned out the
privacy issue we dealt with with large clumping bamboos
and montezuma cypress trees mainly because
in the wet weather months
the trees and the bamboo can take advantage of it and
Montezuma Cypress are also extremely drought tolerant so
in the dryer times they can live without
the water. Jerry came up with these trellises
that he had made and they go up about
12 15 feet and then we planted evergreen
on those and star jasmine
and they kinda run the backyard
in sections where we have a lot of visibility
into the neighbors and vice versa. There's still some low water zoysia for
rescue Cosmo
when he comes outside now joined by his pal who Helen and Charles sprung from a puppy
mill.
It's been a change in more ways than one. I wasn't that excited about
moving back into my childhood home hate to admit it but I wasn't.
This garden has made it wonderful
it really has its expanded the space of the house
we spend a lot of time just standing here
or sitting here it's just been- it made me happy to be here.
I think the thing is that its just been
a very pleasant yard
to spend time. And I'll come out walk around
partly it's just to get some fresh air and make my eyes adjust to a farther
horizon. I will come out here and sit or just
walk around and
get my head clear then go back in
and write something really fabulous.