Recently I had the good fortune to visit a unique garden in the northwestern hills of Lafayette, California, on a tour with the Society of Architectural Historians. We were there ostensibly to see the largest collection of architectural miniatures in the world--over 5,000 of them. The collection was awesome, in the truest sense of the word, but it was the garden that interested me most.
The brick and redwood house, originally designed in the 1930s by Berkeley architect Lillian Bridgman, a student of Bernard Maybeck, for Dr. Clarence Wills who was the father of the Olympic tennis champion, Helen Wills Moody, was sensitively restored and added to by the owner-architects when they acquired it in 1990. Their rescue efforts saved hand-painted tiles, roughhewn redwood beams, siding and paneling and removed some insensitive additions from the site. Their expansion of the house did not alter the original building except to convert a window to a doorway into the contemporary three-story addition that steps down the hillside on the north side.
Beyond the architecture though is their beautiful handling of a difficult but spectacular site. The expanded house is surrounded by a series of gardens that provide their home with a distinctive setting and some enticing spaces.
Along with the architectural miniatures collection, the owners have also collected art from around the world and have incorporated several pieces in the landscape, starting at the entrance to the house.
Bottle trees (Brachychiton populneus) from Australia, bamboo, palms, opuntia, aeonium, romneya and a host of other exotic species frame the roadway between the house and the garage that leads to the east. A trellis built from concrete columns and redwood beams connects the house and garage and provides support for wisteria.
The front door of the house opens to a breezeway supported by the roughhewn redwood timbers and beams and paved with rectangles of sandstone that lead onto the terrace and the spectacular cactus garden.
A dining set crafted from horseshoes is one of many whimsical touches.
The verandah continues to the north and connects seamlessly to the sandstone pool deck built with its irregular flagstone.
The tiered pool begins with glass mosaic ponds that cascade into the T-shaped pool. Jets of water along the edges splash on the surface, quelling any sound from the highway below and transforming the swimming pool into a reflecting pool with a glimpse of Mount Diablo in the background.
Citrus trees in faux terra cotta pots flank the doorway from the addition.
View from third floor balcony. Gothic-inspired railings and gates are made from pierced metal.
On the west side of the addition, herbs in large, partially buried terra cotta pots sit along the top of a retaining wall at the edge of the patio under the welcome shade of the oak trees. A grand stair connects the parking area to the patio and provides access to the kitchen.
Tabletop succulent garden.
The cacti and succulents that wrap the house rival the collections of Ruth Bancroft. There is nothing haphazard in the planting--a hierarchy of sizes and shapes, with great sweeps emphasize the unique qualities of each species.
Opuntias, dasylirions, columnar cacti, palms, agaves, and more.
The first installment of cacti was mostly killed by an extreme freeze--lesson learned--so the new hardier species originate mainly from South America.
Dasylirion, barrel (Brasilicactus) and yucca with wisteria trained along the trellis of the verandah.
The garden now features some excellent specimens that are thriving amidst the native oak trees.
Cereus peruvians monstrose.
Stone is stacked to stabilize the hill, laid carefully on the surface as a colorful mulch and used as a liner for a drainage swale, giving these utilitarian elements an artistic interpretation.
Obsidian-lined swale interspersed with red rock. Beaucarnea secure the downhill slope.
Obsidian and red rock with Barrel cacti and Beaucarnea on slope. A recently planted “grove” of purple smoke trees (Cotinus coggygria) is in the foreground.
A steep path leads downhill to the east to the Recycled Garden, where the entrance is flanked by salvaged capitals from the Palace of Fine Arts restoration.
The capitals, of course, are acanthus and palm leaves so the planters that support them here hold those very plants.
This gateway opens to an inviting lawn with a broad sweeping border of aloe that brings to mind the juniper border at the El Novillero in Sonoma, designed by Thomas Church. In both instances, the border defines the manmade garden from the "natural" landscape beyond.
Statues salvaged from the San Francisco Library stand watch toward Mount Diablo.
Fluted cast concrete planters elevate dramatic agaves under a recently planted arbor of spindly Himalayan birches (Betula utilis jacquemontii) with a backdrop of mostly rescued palms.
Espaliered pomegranate and fruit trees in wine half barrels.
Rarely does one see so many emphatic forms juxtaposed, instead of standing alone as an accent to more benign plants. Overall the gardens are a somewhat curious mix of plants, but they are held together by the high level of care that obviously goes into maintaining the collections, and, of course, as an expression of the owners. Most of the rules of garden design have been set aside when it comes to the plant selection but there is an underlying respect for scale, proportion and setting that overrides this incongruity. The house and gardens are wonderfully eclectic and an inspiration to gardeners and garden designers.
Special thanks to David Weingarten, Lucia Howard and Margaret Majua who shared their home with us.
Rancho Diablo will be open for the Garden Conservancy's Open Days on SAturday, July 20, 2013. See www.gardenconservancy.org and www.opendaysprogram.org
For additional images of the house, garden and miniatures collection, see: www.aceland.com and http://todaytravel.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/10/10075742-look-inside-the-worlds-largest-collection-of-souvenir-buildings?lite
For more information on succulents and cacti, visit: The Ruth Bancroft Garden, 1552 Bancroft Road, Walnut Creek, CA www.ruthbancroftgarden.org
