The place

Hidden away in the secluded Yalecrest–Harvard Historic District in Salt Lake City, this significant historical residence was built in 1926, an eclectic blend of English Tudor and Colonial Revival architectural styles. The stone terrace brick home has been married to its landscape and given a garden with a transformative power to enhance its beauty and link it harmoniously with its surroundings. Red Butte Creek runs along the back of the property, with a stone wall built to connect the property to the land — wonderful views, terrific atmosphere, and wonderful light.

The brief

The owner wanted to simplify what was there. The borders around the house and on the two terraces featured a mix of different elements and landscaping materials; all were redesigned, simplified, and existing walls were strengthened. Several stone retaining walls were added around the steps and a large garden bed dividing the upper and lower sunken gardens. The garden design centered around a sense of place, family, and relationships with beauty and the natural world — a garden to last through generations of time — orchards turn houses into homesteads, and so the gardens were filled with espalier fruit trees, used as living screens and placeholders of time and place.

The design

A detailed design specifying exact materials, plant species, and quantities was created. The design emphasized high-efficiency water management and structured planting schemes that balance aesthetics with long-term ecological health.

Twenty-five new trees were planted to give a sense of place and privacy. A water trough was added to welcome wildlife into the garden. Biodiversity and a water-wise garden guided a careful selection of hundreds of perennial varieties. Large paperbark maples and Japanese maples were incorporated into the new design. Crabapples in the upper terrace and a dogwood tree in the lower terrace frame the creek, and at the center of the property a large grape vine was established to give the upper and lower terraces a sense of intimacy. There are landscapes and gardens we carry within us that affect our way of being in the world — this garden, with its beautiful carpet of grasses and herbs and a profusion of flowers of every colour, is scenery filled with fruitfulness and abundance in every season of the year.