Year: 2021

Location: Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Scope: design, project management, masonry, metalwork, planters, planting, irrigation, maintenance

Three Schizophragma hydrangenoides (Climbing Hydrangea) in unique, concrete planters invite you out the door and into the first room of the garden where a Cotinus coggygria (Smokebush) adds drama in a custom, corten steel cube. 

An archipelago of poured concrete pads, polished to reveal a pale gray aggregate, step-stone their way around the side of the house and form a unique patio and dining area. A thick layer of warm-toned ornamental gravel provides a complementary foundation for concrete, steel, and plants.

On two sides, an L shaped planting bed edged in complementary corten is home to soaring yellow bamboo, underplanted with shade-loving hostas, Brunnera macrophylla (Siberian Bugloss), Hakonechloa macra (Japanese Forest Grass), Liriope muscari (Lilyturf), and other bright and limey perennials. Three specimen Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Katsura Tree) form an elegant wall along the third side. Another custom corten planter fills the sunniest part of the space, home to a hot pink-flowering crape myrtle and an underplanting of herbaceous perennials and bulbs.