Greenwood Heights Backyard

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August 18, 2008

Design on a Dime

When we made the decision to seek out a landscape designer or architect, we knew we had to set up expectations, not only for what we were looking to accomplish, but also the realities of working within a very limited budget.

We looked for start-up or recent grads who might be looking to fill out their book with an ambitious backyard project. Unlike many of the back yard redos we have seen posted on brownstoner and the DIY shows on the tube, we had four basic criteria for the designer we were to work with:

-Strong skills in hardscape design (since we know how to plant)
-Enlarging and relocating of our veggie garden (a unique request, we found out)

-Reuse of the majority of the plants in the garden and containers (still left over from our roof top gardening days)

-Creating more privacy between our yard and the neighboring properties (especially the new building)

While we knew we wanted to work in some of the reuse of field stones and blue stone we had already and had a strong desire to introduce bamboo as strong thematic in the design, we were open to ideas (obviously!)

After having friends post for us on brownstoner's forum and brooklynian.com, we had two good leads for designers. We met with both designers, each understanding the project, each interpreting in their own way.

We first met with David at Future Green Studio (Future Green Studio's website). David had a ton of experience working for other firms and was starting out with his new venture. Very savvy on "green" design and and expert with bamboo. The samples he showed us were very Asian influenced, with clean lines and a nice use of bamboo, wood and stone. He found the idea on our "Brooklyn back yard" an interesting challenge as he normally has full play with the design process, but would have to work under our four basic stipulations.

We also met with Diana of Fun City Design (Fun City Design's website). A graphic designer by trade, Diana is making the transition into landscape design and had recently completed her degree at NY Botanical Gardens and had begun working on projects in Brooklyn. Her portfolio was a bit more organic and seemed to have a better understanding of the challenges of back yards in the city. She had done several yard projects in Brooklyn, including her own, which was highlighted on brownstoner earlier this summer (see if you can find it...). She also had a similar background of being an avid roof top container gardener who made the transition to a backyard after she and her husband bought their home...and yard to boot.

We decided to work with Fun City Design. Future Green Studio was an excellent back up, but we felt Fun City Design understood our like of "controlled chaos" and the need for a large veggie garden. We did ask David if he would consult on the best type of bamboo for our scenario and best method of containment. We look forward to working with him once phase 1 (hardscaping) is complete.

Up next: sketches from Fun City Design.

(to contact Diana at Fun City Design, goto (their NEW website) )

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Comments

i notice you and your neighbor both have sheds or studios in the back. are these common in greenwood heights? are they prefab? anyway, i look forward to reading more about your landscape project. it looks like a good "making lemonade out of (big new neighbor) lemons" story!

Posted by: i disagree at August 18, 2008 2:56 PM

Many folks have sheds, some prefab from the '70's till today, many of them built as kits in the 1950-60's, as ours was. Some home made, like the one on the left in the picture.

Ours is approx. 16X8 ft. with a tongue & groove floor. Work shed/potting shed/lumber storage for us, but could be turned into livable space one day if we were to run proper and water to it and finish it off....it's built so well!

(I'll try to add some pics of it in one of our future posts, since it will remain an central part of the garden's design)

Posted by: tikihouse at August 18, 2008 3:03 PM

Your mention of bamboo made me think you were looking to use it as a material. Then your mention of "containment" sounds like you want to have a living bamboo screen.

I would select clumping instead of running bamboos to eliminate the need for containment and the long-term maintenance issues that entails. Research the genus Fargesia for species that are hardy in our area and will be tall enough for your screening needs.

Posted by: Xris at August 19, 2008 5:59 PM

is nice

Posted by: slumlord at August 19, 2008 7:49 PM

Xris,

You'll see in today's upcoming post that we're potentially planning a raised planter to run along part of the new 4 story brick wall. We're going to be working with a bamboo consultant on the best type and proper containment. Clumping, while lovely, won't work there we have been told, since it gets little morning light and completely baked in the afternoons. And we'd like some height, so we'll more than likely be going with a running species...and properly containing it!

Stay tuned.

Posted by: tikihouse at August 21, 2008 10:50 AM