Prospect Heights Garden Build: Setting the Stage
Over the next few weeks, Dumbo-based landscape designer Joanna Pertz, a Park Slope native and Fort Greene resident, will walk us through a current project of hers in Prospect Heights from beginning to end. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section. A couple of weeks ago I received a wonderful email from a…
Over the next few weeks, Dumbo-based landscape designer Joanna Pertz, a Park Slope native and Fort Greene resident, will walk us through a current project of hers in Prospect Heights from beginning to end. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section.
A couple of weeks ago I received a wonderful email from a woman in Prospect Heights. She said she was thrilled to have found someone on the web whose work spoke to her aesthetic. She also went to RISD and asked how soon I could come over. It was already March and I knew between the baby she was about to have and the coming spring I needed to get moving.
I always start a design meeting by asking three questions: What do you love about your garden? What do you hate? If you close your eyes and imagine yourself in your ideal garden, what are you doing and what do you see? I close by asking whether there are any plants that must be in this garden. There were two.
In this case, the house has just been renovated…
…It is very modern, very textural, warm and beautiful. It is home to an expecting mother and father and their 6-year-old son who is mad for basketball, as well to an avid gardener living in the garden apartment. The garden is a classic Prospect Heights garden; very long and narrow with low fencing. The garden is 80′ deep and 17′ wide, almost twice as long as most brownstone gardens with a 5′ tall chain link fence.
What’s the existing landscape I have to contend with? A mature multi-stem magnolia draws your eye to the rear of the flat yard and seems to make the garden not as long and narrow, as I would expect. A majestic oak, taller than the house stands on the fence line a third of the way from back and a thorny rose hangs into the garden. Lastly the vegetable garden, bare from winter, fills the open space with its six 10’x 3′ raised planting beds.
Before leaving the garden on my initial visit, I always do a few things: Take note of the sun, the shadows and what microclimates exist; feel the texture of the soil and look at the color and how much moisture it is holding; check the pitch of the garden and the location of the drain; try to take into account the entire block as a landscape, in terms of drainage, invasive plants, pollination and visual impacts good and bad. Finally, I ask my self what does this space want to be? And what is sexy?
We were away so I’m just looking at this.
I’m sure the homeowners and Joanna will be checking back so here goes:
PLEASE try to limit the amount of hardscaping. Don’t cover the land with lots of impermeable surfaces. Cement is highly energy-intensive to produce and causes issues with the soil pH. Also all that ipe and other hardwood shown on Joanna’s website isn’t so hot for the environment. And all that metal work is also energy-intensive and trendy.
Please try to get avoid thinking you want or need a look, one that might be hard to maintain in the long run, will be outdated, etc.
Best bet is to do what you can with plants and permeable surfaces…and possibly some moving of soil and addition of natural materials obtained locally…and if the homeowners count on keeping a large space for growing food, so much the better.
Maybe, instead of dot-planting or using plants almost like decorative houseplants, you can mass some good green screens on both sides of the yard close to the house to both screen for privacy (visual and sound) and frame the views from the house. The way so many people insist on a full width deck or hard surface leaving little or NO room for any planting on the sides with the neighbors is something I just do not get.
In terms of leaving the fence, think s-e-r-i-o-u-s-l-y whether it really *must* be removed, or if you can clothe it in plants with minimal cost in additional hard/built barriers. There is a rather awful reflex to slap up horizontal board fencing to look “cool” which creates a couple of issues: trend-stultification, non-cuteness, lack-of-charm/possibility of picturesque dilapidation, loss of wildlife habit, etc. Granted, chain link fencing is not my favorite either, but I would seriously caution against operating on auto-pilot and sticking up high fencing in ipe or somesuch and close in the views outward. Let the land and the space breathe.
There a number of shrubs and vines that can cover an unsightly fence pretty darned thoroughly.
I guess with an owner space over the ground floor apartment, a deck is inevitable…ugh…but try not to make it full width. Plant a columnar tree or put in tall bamboo to screen the sides of the deck from the neighbors.
And, yes, despite the problem with mosquitoes, a well-managed water feature is okay…it just has to be that, very well managed…and therein lies a possible pitfall.
There are a number of water features that avoid the problem by having no standing water. Worth a try in a Brooklyn backyard.
Great initial advice from this designer, I’ll be following this avidly and taking lots of notes…and yes, I would also love to know a price tag. We’ve done garden design, specifically hardscaping, DIY and with a pro, and the tradeoffs are seldom as brutally evident with any other DIY/pro decision in renovating (in particular, lots of back pain!)
MR and cmu my thought as well, especially after checking out her portfolio. The hard scape on that Kaufman House must have run close to a 1/2 million!
Anyway, I think we would be talking about an Architects fee structure, which would certainly depend upon the amount of supervision provided. Since this specific case is being posting by the Architect and not the home owners there might be some privacy issues. Otherwise I don’t see why she wouldn’t discuss her pricing. After all, free advertising on Brownstoner should require full disclosure.
Also, looks like this job will be requiring a deck or at least a stairs of some sort, and the fact that there has been a lot of interest in the forum, why is it not possible for someone to sell a basic set of metal deck plans to the public at a discounted price?
Funny, cmu.
“prospect heights (like much of brownstone brooklyn) is already crawling with mosquitos,”
This is a reason not to have a water feature in a backyard?
what a very negative view of gardens.
I am sometimes quite taken aback by some of the responses to my innocent postings. What have I accidently tapped into? Garden envy?
Well, nevermind.
have a nice long weekend everyone!
“I’m curious to know the details of the budget”
If I were a betting man, I would bet you that it will not be disclosed. Why the first question that’s on most people’s mind is rarely answered is beyond me. Is there a way to extrapolate from disclosing a renovation budget to identity theft?
I love the usual shrubs, trellis, and mini-lawn patches. Not that I would mind seeing the Alhambra.
i’d urge them not to include any water feature — prospect heights (like much of brownstone brooklyn) is already crawling with mosquitos, making it increasingly difficult to get much use out of a backyard from the mid- to late-summer. if the water feature has still water, it would undoubtedly contribute to what is already a v. unpleasant problem.
This looks like a great deep garden. So much potential. My humble advise to the owners is go on a research junket to Spain and visit the Alhambra. Take pictures and demand no less from your landscaper.
I would definitely consider a water feature of some kind, a shallow pool with some water spray is so pleasant. I hope this project turns out to be more interesting that merely the usual shrubs, trellis, and mini-lawn patches.
That yard is calling out for more!