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Ten years
ago, a Memorial-area couple by the names of John and Jennifer
Randall contacted us. They had just bought a beautiful lot
located off of Piney Point drive. Because Jennifer loved the
French, and because John was Acadian from Louisiana, they had
already decided to have their home built in the style of a
modern French country house. The Randall’s wanted to landscape
the property in accordance with a European theme, with a paver
driveway and partier garden in the front, and a very large and
uniquely styled pool in the back to host summer parties.
However, the premier element to this landscaping project was to
be a private morning garden they asked us to create in the far
East corner of their yard. The Randall’s wanted this corner set
apart as separate, personal space, consistent with French design
elements, but with the consciousness of Zen. It was to be a
place just for the two of them to relax, talk quietly, and read
in the early morning and evening hours of the day.
To establish the feeling of Zen, we first built a very special
kind of fountain in the center of the morning garden known as a
disappearing fountain. (Another term you may have heard to
describe this feature is vanishing fountain.) The fountain
itself was made from a cast iron container shaped like a
Louisiana sugar cauldron. This not only supported the French
elements of the landscape, but also directly referenced John’s
Acadian origins. The concrete water tank was concealed
underground beneath the cauldron, and hidden jets filled its
center to overflowing, causing it to pour over the sides and
onto the steel mesh deck that was concealed under dark moon
stones. There, it circulated back into the tank, to be returned
to the fountain again by a silent pump. This deceptively simple
design created the illusion that there was no base to the
fountain, and that the water itself was mysteriously vanishing
back into the Earth.
To establish geometry and symmetry in the center of the morning
garden, we laid down a hardscape/softscape space in the grass
that surrounded the fountain. We interspersed travertine blocks
through the lawn in such a way as to form proportional,
perfectly-shaped squares of green space that alternated like a
checkerboard within the stonework. In a few of these places, we
further ornamented the softscape with the same gravel that
surrounded the vanishing fountain. This sharp contrast of light
and darkness provided the ever so subtle suggestion of Yin and
Yang that added the Zen element the Randall’s wanted to an
otherwise European design theme.
We then planted greenery all along the wooden walls that
surrounded the property, deliberately integrating curved spaces
into the linear planting areas to soften the sharp right angles
of both the walls and the hardscape/softscape design. Palm and
bottlebrush trees worked to give the morning garden a sense of
private enclosure, while azaleas, seasonal flowers, and boxwoods
created gentle ornamental touches and alternating shades of
light and dark ground cover that maintained the French theme of
the landscape.
The project was completed with the construction of a private
patio just large enough to seat two people. Here, the Randall’s
could read the paper at sunrise from an elevated vantage point
overlooking the fountain and greenery. While their family,
friends, and neighbors instantly fell in love with the
architecture of the house and the entertainment areas
surrounding the pool, the Randall’s always told us that, out of
all the many elements we designed in their landscape, they loved
their morning garden the most.
For more the 20 years
Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's
fine neighborhoods.
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