Nothing But Nature
A supposedly unusable Pasadena plot becomes a hidden retreat in the hands of a designer’s designer.
By B.J. Lorenzo 03/01/2010
When Cynthia Bennett finally found her piece of Pasadena heaven after a two-year search, the land she chose was unused and considered unusable. Realtors called it “a flagpole lot” because it was shaped like one. The “pole” portion was a 250-foot drive hidden from the street. At the top and off to one side sat an abandoned stretch of craggy, overgrown land shaped like a flag.
Make the same trip up the long drive today and you’ll find the estate that Bennett and her husband, Ed De Beixedon, call home. It’s a cottage with Old World attitude nestled in what poetic types might call a woodland grotto. Or imagine a mini-villa centered in a bed of exuberant blooms and greens, like an entrée presented by a five-star chef.
Simply charming, you might say, and leave it at that. But there was nothing simple about achieving such charm. The gardens and hardscape — with multiple rock walls, terraces on many levels and meandering gravel paths — are essential to the home’s rustic appeal. It took ingenuity and knowledge of the Arroyo Seco’s ecology to put them in place and make them seem so serendipitously natural. And that was no simple matter: The sloping, rocky terrain, typical of the area, has challenged homeowners for more than a century.
Bennett heads Bennett & Associates, an interior design firm specializing in upscale remodeling. She is a blond wisp of a woman with a soft voice, radiant smile and contractor’s license. She designed and oversaw construction of the house, she says, and its simple architectural lines are an homage to the old barns and rural homes of Holland, where she lived for many years and where her children were born. The house was relatively easy to design and build, Bennett says, because she knew exactly what she wanted. But when it came to the gardens, she says, “I needed help.”
Bennett called on Margie Grace, a Santa Barbara–based landscape designer. Her firm, Grace Design Associates, won the 2009 International Landscape Designer of the Year award and the Gold Award for Residential Design from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. She is president of the Green Building Alliance of Santa Barbara. And she is not one to mince words.
“There were multiple challenges on Cynthia Bennett’s project,” she says. “You’ve got the 12,500-square-foot lot at the end of a long narrow drive, shoe-horned between other people’s properties. So you have the screening challenge. Everyone needs screening from everyone else. You can’t just throw up 25 feet of bamboo, because you must be respectful of your neighbors’ view and sun exposure. Sun and view have no respect for lot lines.” The problem was solved with a variety of plantings that include luxuriant climbing roses and wisteria on the arching trellises, two kinds of trumpet vines (blood red and royal) along the walls and dogwoods and camellias. The strategy was so successful that a recent visitor had no idea there are other residences anywhere near the Bennett property.
Then there are the massive old oak trees, which offer dappled shade where one might prefer sun. The oaks can’t be moved and, by law, must be kept healthy and protected. “Watering must be appropriate, and you can’t throw too much soil around them,” Grace says. “They’re used to a rainy season and then nine months of dryness. That limits your choice of planting. The patchy sunlight is ideal for azaleas and camellias.”
And then there’s the soil itself, typical of the Arroyo area. “It’s all decomposed granite — really sandy, not much organic material in it. For that we use plants that want good drainage” such as such as lavenders, sages, catmint and yarrow.
And there’s the rock challenge: masses of river rock and boulders, also native to the Arroyo. “What do we do with them? For centuries, people have removed native rocks from where they want to build and then used those rocks to build fences around the perimeter. Makes sense, doesn’t it?”
But Grace says the “slope challenge” was the biggest. “Cynthia built her house on a flat pad. But all around that house was a drop of 12 to 15 feet. How do we step outside and not fall off the edge?”
Terraces and terracing were the answer. Some terraces on the same level as the interior floors of the two-story house offer outdoor rooms right outside the French doors. Others are just a step or two down — all intimate spaces enclosed by walls of river rock. And all those walls are the height of a chair. “So it’s a seat/wall,” Bennett says. “Of course you have your flat terrace with tables and chairs. But you also have the walls, so if guests are standing and talking, they can put their drinks on the wall or use it as a seat.
We needed the walls for soil retention, to create the terraces for outdoor living and entertaining.”
Grace built planter beds next to some retaining walls “so we could put some good, rich organic dirt in there and grow different types of plants –- not necessarily native. We could sneak in some tomatoes, a veggie patch, all sorts of great stuff.” As for the many different microclimates on Bennett’s property, Grace says, “we took it all into consideration in planting. At the top of the lot, behind the house, it’s warmer. At the lot’s bottom, in front of the house, it’s cooler. So you look at a wall that will soak up and reflect sunlight and heat, and you think oranges might be good there. Or tomatoes and herbs. The herbs like it really hot.”
In other words, what looks like a simple garden project turns out to be a masterful manipulation of the Arroyo’s resources and ecological eccentricities. Bennett says she and her husband enjoy their outdoor environment every bit as much as they enjoy the house.
“We packed so much into the gardens that wrap around our house that I can’t even tell you everything we’re growing,” says Bennett, ticking off a partial list. “We have a rose garden, an herb garden, a vegetable garden, an orchard. We have fruit trees — fig, lemon, orange, plum, nectarine, apricot, espaliered apple trees. We have camellias, azaleas, hydrangeas, climbing vines and so much more. We look out any window of our house and we see nothing but nature.”
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