The Studio Garden is where traditional motifs are re-interpreted with industrial materials to give this Rhode Island garden a fresh look. Hedges of yews, beech, arborvitae, and boxwood provide a rigorous green architecture to perennials and grasses, which offer color and texture through the seasons.
The garden surrounds a 1920s clapboard home. The overall design is based on a traditional layout. The clients are English, and the idea of garden rooms appealed to them. The rooms include an entry court, a terrace with a fire feature, a woodland garden, a dining terrace, a formal garden with a lap pool, two-facing pavilions, and a sweeping lawn. Richly planted architectural berms serve as focal points. Concrete and gabion walls terrace the land in striking ways. The arbor over the fire feature defines the space, creating an outdoor room that reinforces intimacy. The pergola creates a strong view from the dining terrace, crosses the lap pool for verve, and provides an unexpected approach to linking the two pavilions.
Richly planted for enjoyment twelve months of the year, the planting design acknowledges the clients’ roots with color and form. The garden provides a romantic overlay to the bold architecture.
Aerial view of pool arbor, perennial border, dining terraces, and pool house. Hedges delineate the outdoor rooms, while arbors create intimate spaces.
The Studio Garden
Location: Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA
Landscape Designer: Land Morphology
Lead Designers: Richard Hartlage; Sandy Fischer, RLA
Landscape Designer: Adrian Coerver
Photography: Land Morphology