Article by Adrienne Dyer. Photos by Jody Beck.
When the owners purchased this home on Ten Mile Point, the yard was so overgrown they couldn’t see the house from the road. They turned to Merle and Katie Kroeker of Pacific Ridge Landscapes, who transformed the tangle into an Asian-style garden with trickling water and seating areas to enjoy the serenity.
To start, the entire front yard had to be cleared, making way for a new driveway, with a black latticed fence and gate designed by Pacific Ridge, and a stone patio along the front of the house. There were a number of existing trees, including cedar, fir, blue spruce, and the yew that now shades the arched red footbridge, but they too were badly overgrown.
“We always try to use existing trees whenever we can,” says Kroeker, “and with new life, they can serve as focal points to the garden.” With the help of an arborist, they pruned the trees into ornamental, bonsai-like shapes, then added bamboo, three Japanese maples, rhododendrons and a Mount Fuji cherry tree that blooms pink in the spring.
“The moss ground cover will grow into a solid carpet of maintenance-free green space, which gives the eye a calm place to rest,” says Kroeker, who also built a brook-like water feature that trickles from the top of the property down to the patio, with a red bench tucked in between the large boulders Kroeker sourced from a local quarry.
Lit stone pathways and steps lead down either side of the house to the patios overlooking the ocean, including another seating area tucked beneath the weeping willow. A tumbling ivy wall, a huge fuchsia and a maple tree transition to ornamental grasses that Kroeker used to blend the landscaped garden into the natural rock outcroppings lapped by the sea.
From a tangled wild space to a gently controlled haven of peace and serenity, this garden gives the homeowners everything they wanted: a place to relax, breathe deeply and enjoy the views.
