Building on Success

in Noe Valley

The client envisioned a traditional English garden with a brick courtyard, featuring a fireplace and an outdoor kitchen for entertaining. Having spent years cultivating a successful plant palette, our challenge was to enhance their effort with layers of matrix plantings and create a custom hardscape to bring everything together.

At a glance, one would never suspect that Virginia’s garden – bursting with lushness of climbing vines and colorful blooms – was a plant gauntlet; a proving ground where the resilient survive, and the unfit are either literally or figuratively, weeded out.

For years Virginia has hosted a rigorous trial that she has dubbed “The Game of Thorns,” in which cultivars of the Rosa genus go head-to-head to prove themselves worthy of a space in the garden.

Through her methodical selection process, Virginia has cultivated a hardy and vibrant plant palette suited for her microclimate. It’s a labor of love, and the results speak for themselves.

Hand thrown brick was brought in from Carolina Brick Company to set a new patio and face the existing concrete walls.

Teutonic Construction (TCI) installed the overhead retractable awning which frames the space and provides maximum flexibility and climate control. TCI also renovated the rear facade of the home with two gorgeous French doors and new siding.

Now the space is one in which the whole family can gather, and they don’t have to come from far. In the early phases of the construction process, the house next door went on the market and Virginia’s mother swooped in on the sale, presenting a rare and special opportunity to remove the fences and open the two gardens to one another.

Low railings were still required to keep the dog separated, but the open style allows light and sightlines to penetrate and provides additional space for Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ to climb.

The cherry on top at the end of the project was a custom arbor and gate to connect the gardens, fabricated by Lattice Stix of beautifully joined clear cedar.

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