‘There’s so much hustle and bustle in LA,’ says Mintee Kalra of garden design firm Peruse (opens in new tab). ‘You have to drive to get up here, through all the traffic and the chaos, so when you arrive, I wanted there to be the feeling of an exhale.’ The finished space is a lesson on how to create a Mediterranean garden. It belongs to a house designed in the 1970s by LA architect Fred Smathers, an early proponent of outdoor living, is extraordinarily restful. In part this is achieved through its restrained palette of both materials and plants but there are other tricks at work, too. Mintee – a former fashion designer – was keen that the garden should channel the languid, voluptuous feeling of gardens she’d visited in Provence while travelling for her job. ‘I love that culture of lingering over meals and enjoying an intimacy in the company you’re with,’ she says. Here Mintee shares her tips on how to make a calm garden retreat…
1. Design your garden as a social space
With low-water and low-maintenance in mind, Mintee considered how to plan a dry garden as a social space with three key gathering areas – the kitchen garden, dining area and lounge – acting as anchors, connected by a swathe of gravel that crunches satisfyingly underfoot. The kitchen and dining areas are set on a lower level to enhance the sense of seclusion and ease, while the raised lounge space, with its outdoor sofas and board-formed concrete fire pit, feels even more cozy and cocooned thanks to its jasmine-draped perimeter walls, which Mintee extended to heighten the effect.
2. Keep your color palette subdued
The garden color scheme is deliberately minimal, an elegant mix of silvers and blue-toned greens, with pops of lavender and white (from the jasmine and westringia flowers) and bright magenta from existing bougainvilleas, which Mintee had lace pruned to make them more delicate. And yet, despite all the restraint, the overall effect is one of calm abundance, with plants repeated throughout the garden and grouped together in some areas to form lush patchworks of planting. ‘This repetition of plant materials is very important to me,’ says Mintee. ‘It adds cadence and rhythm and, even though it’s very simple, it always feels luxurious.’
3. Choose your plants for sensory appeal
The climate in LA (warm and often very dry) is comparable to that of Provence, so Mintee was able to use a similar plant palette too, choosing plants with multisensory appeal. There are jasmine and lavender for scent – Lavender stoechas so-called ‘French lavender’ has aromatic flowers above blue-green foliage and Trachelospermum jasminoides Star jasmine is happy in full sun or dappled shade; evergreen cherry laurel (Prunus caroliniana); Australian rosemary (Westringia fruticosa); and spiky, drought-tolerant Agave ‘Blue Glow’ for their contrasting foliage. Other low-maintenance favourites include Philodendron selloum, a lush, tropical plant that has a pleasing architectural silhouette. Best for graphic appeal are Buxus sempervirens that can be clipped into myriad shapes and forms. ‘I love the scattered box globes on the higher level. As you walk through this sensory garden there’s a sense of playfulness, a hide-and-seek vibe,’ says Mintee. Good for pollinators is Westringia fruticosa ‘Smokey’, a good clump-forming plant whose white flowers are loved by bees. When it comes to creating a backdrop, Mintee favours Prunus caroliniana ‘Bright and Tight’. It makes a closely packed evergreen hedge, adding instant color and privacy.
4. Add impact with trees
Most dramatic of all, two wonderfully gnarled 40-year-old olive trees (Olea europaea ‘Sevillano’) frame the space and provide some much-needed shade. Fifteen feet tall, weighing 6,000lbs and each with a 6ft x 2ft root ball, getting these into the garden was no easy matter. ‘It was one of those hold-your-breath moments,’ says Mintee. ‘We brought them as far as we could on a flatbed truck and then used a skyjack to bring them the last quarter of a mile up the hairpin bends to the house. A long-reach crane then made the final lift to hoist them into place.’ The effort was well worth it. Their twisting, characterful trunks add a feeling of age and permanence to the garden, which was only completed last summer, and their feathered canopies filter the light, adding far more interest and biodiversity than a pergola or sunshade might. Combined with the other small trees (crepe myrtles, chosen for their year-round interest, and some tall existing eucalyptus with fabulous peeling bark) they also cast beautiful shadows on the concrete walls in the garden, adding a further dimension to the space.
5. Use gravel for surfaces
Gravel gardens tend to work best in sunnier spots away from deciduous trees. Since they retain water and stop it evaporating, true gravel gardens will not need much water. Mintee advises that the first two inches of the base layer should be a 50:50 mix of decomposed granite or crushed stone and pea gravel in the same color tone. Lay this over a base cloth and compress, and then top with half an inch of loose gravel. This gives a stable base and a nice crunching sound when you walk. Medium grade gravel (10-20mm diameter) is the easiest to walk on. If planting into gravel, a permeable membrane can be a good idea to suppress weeds. Simply cut a hole wherever you wish to plant. Mediterranean or drought tolerant plants such as agaves, rosemary and lavender are well-suited to growing in gravel. Remember to rake your gravel occasionally – it instantly freshens it up and looks smarter. Feature / Natasha Goodfellow
