Gardens
Secret Garden
Mission Hills homeowners carve out an unexpected slice of paradise.
BY
Kimberly Stern
PHOTOGRAPHY
James Maidhof

One of the most satisfying elements of any home-driven renovation project is finding the unpolished gem that might lie hidden beneath years of once-appreciated design, ready to yield inspiration to a redefined space.

When the owners of a Mission Hills home embarked on a teardown of their property’s original residence 11 years ago, the small parcel that constituted a backyard was included in the arduous rebuild. Concealed by a 10-foot sheer wall crowned with a rickety white wrought iron fence flanking a narrow patio was what the couple dubbed a scary jungle: Towering weeds choked unremarkable terrain that nonetheless remained a muse for the homeowners determined to transform the neglected garden into a refreshing outdoor escape.

What emerged from the overgrown and unimaginative space is a supremely elegant and intriguing retreat that utilizes the natural landscape and beautifully transitions the home’s sophisticated interior to a lush multipurpose hideaway.

Punctuated by a dramatic, terraced cliff and exploding with rich groundcover and varying shades of pinks, purples and verdant greens, the homeowner’s garden is a combination of rich horticultural overlay juxtaposed with rough and craggy natural limestone for a truly spectacular swath of suburban land. A waterfall tumbles over the rock ledges into a pond where fat goldfish swim (a favorite destination for the homeowners’ grandchildren) and steps lead to the top of the hill where a pergola with a swing offers uncompromised, wide-angled views of the neighboring golf course and the garden’s only mowable patch of grass.

“We knew our goal was to create something unusual back here,” the homeowner says. “We envisioned something really special.”

Gary Lueckenotto, a landscape designer with Rosehill Gardens, was hired to bring the hibernating garden back to vigorous life and reinvent the area to dovetail with the homeowners’ dream. “The crew spent a day pulling down the wall and exposed gorgeous bedrock that already had terraces,” Gary recalls. “We enhanced Mother Nature’s work with steps leading to the top of the garden.”

He says there are many unique elements in this natural, romantic English-style garden, including a weeping white pine (characterized by soft bluish-green evergreen foliage) near the water garden’s origination point and Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick, a contorted ornamental tree whose wandering stems add character to the terraced rock.

“There is a smoke tree, a gingko, multiple varieties of lily-like hosta plants and a clump-forming perennial called astilbe that yields feathery summer blooms,” Gary adds. “We wanted to achieve a striking palette.”

Rhododendrons and azaleas are interplanted around the base of a magnificent 60-foot oak tree that provides a canopy-like covering to the area when in full leaf. Recent additions to the Mission Hills garden are various forms of frothy hydrangea, including Endless Summer and Oak Leaf.  Black lace elderberry, a shrub with distinctive burgundy foliage, and the fragrant white flowering shrub viburnum provide additional visual delight.

The homeowner says Gary displayed an impressive expertise in his enrichment of the once-starving landscape and also addressed challenges along the way, such as solving drainage issues with catch basins in the patio and dry stream beds and channeling the yard’s upper edge to shed the water down property lines.

Once the limestone with the undulating terraces was discovered, Gary had the perfect place for the garden’s centerpiece — the water feature. His skillful placement and configuration of the waterfall cascading into a pool ensured a harmony-with-nature dynamic. “It was essential to make it look natural, to nestle it into the bedrock,” he notes. 

A thick wall of junipers creates a natural privacy fence for the outdoor room, and the paver bricks on the patio have moss sprouting in between them, adding to the dreamy
feeling of a mature and established garden. 

Although spring is the homeowners’ favorite season to enjoy the garden as it wakes from slumber and marches toward its summer finery, the structure of the space offers visual interest as well. Visible from the large windows and spiral staircase leading to the home’s second floor is the garden’s hibernating vegetation, including trees with interesting branch character. “The garden’s layout on a slope that progresses into a 16-foot elevation also gives you the feeling of looking at a rainforest outcropping,”
Gary adds.

The homeowners frequently entertain on the patio and also enjoy solitude in the garden space.  Tables and chairs placed along the softly curving lines of the patio create inviting vignettes for breakfast for two or a cocktail party at dusk, with lanterns softly glowing from the terraced rock and the waterfall’s music adding to the ethereal and romantic ambiance of this secret garden. Whether it’s the two of them or 20 others, this second-chance garden brings spellbinding botanical pleasure to all.