8/19/13

This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene

Outdoor Living

Patios

Patio of the Week: Koi Glide Around a Tranquil Garden's Moat

This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene
Becky Harris Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta... More Comment 43 Bookmark 275 Like 30 Email Embed Follow

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arry Harrison wanted to transform his small vacant yard into a lush private garden that would provide a healthy habitat for his prized koi. He also wanted a space that could help

earn money for The Greening of Detroit as part of the Detroit Garden Works Garden Tour. He and Arturo Sanchez, co-owners of interior and furniture design firm Art | Harrison Interiors, hit the drafting board and then the workshop to come up with unique and clever ways to create a 25- by 42-square-foot backyard oasis that screens out a city park, provides comfortable seating and the relaxing sounds of water, and gives his koi plenty of room to swim around. Patio at a Glance Who lives here: Barry Harrison Location: Birmingham, Michigan Size: 1,050 square feet

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by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

One of two large granite slab bridges leads to a gravel patio. Y ou are lured across by a 1960s statue of a temptress that Harrison picked up at the Brimfield Antiques show.
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This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene
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He and Sanchez adapted these luxurious chaises for the garden with an all-weather finish. Chaises: The Lewiston Chaise, Art | Harrison Interiors
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Smaller granite slabs create a 2- to 3-foot-deep moat all the way around the gravel patio, which is a great habitat for Harrison's prized koi.
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by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

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This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

Bamboo and this whimsical garden folly screen out an adjacent city park. Designed by Sanchez and Harrison, the fanciful shed has copper pipes just off the front of its barrel-shaped roof, which spout water down into the moat. The structure serves as the fountain's pump house as well as a cleverly concealed potting shed.

Around the back of the folly, a vintage cast iron bull statue stands guard over the potting implements and over Harrison himself at the moment.

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

Harrison also keeps vintage gardening tools, watering cans and cloches back here.

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This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

This large obelisk provides more ingenious hidden storage, hiding an air conditioning unit and larger garden tools, like rakes and hoes.

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

Stag horns and ferns mark the entrance to the great room. A marble-topped French console helps the space serve as an outdoor foyer.

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This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

Out front, a foot-deep space at the side of the driveway did not offer much room for plants, so Sanchez and Harrison whipped up sketches for this screen of plants in clay pots. The two design indoor furniture at their firm, so this was an interesting departure. The pots are filled with succulents that don't require much attention.

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

The screen nudges you off the driveway and around the side, down a granite flagstone path to the private garden.

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This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

Harrison carved pairs of ravens and guinea hens atop Western cedar posts overlooking the plantings.

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

Most of the plant palette is simply lush green, including easy-to-care-for plants like petasites, Baltic ivy, angelina, creeping Jenny and ferns. Catching a glimpse of the bull through this vista for the first time may give you a start, but is a delight. Please tell us: I've never seen garden tools so cleverly tucked away in a garden before I saw this yard. Do you have a clever spot for concealing your
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This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene

rakes, hoes, pots and other implements?

by Art | Harrison Interiors & Collection

Related: How to Build a Backyard Fish Pond Without Going Belly Up

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Comments Scott This has to be one of the more creative patios I've seen. Very cool.
3 days ago Like 16

ladypin56 I absolutely love this layout! I have a huge yard and am finding it hard to landscape it into garden niches....the concept in this yard is amazing....
3 days ago Like 5

Lauren Elyse Fine Art, LLC. That is pretty neat. I love koi!
PRO

3 days ago Like

deannebutch24 This is gorgeous!!!!

3 days ago Like 6

mizmolly Absolutely fantastic! Beautiful, creative, private perfection.

3 days ago Like 7

EW Kitchens & Extraordinary Works Great job on the patio, we love your kitchen designs too!
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3 days ago Like

lmljinx

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have seen! Beautiful work.
3 days ago Like 6

This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene
This is one of the most creative, thoughtful, elegant, serene-with-energy idea books I

atyg Picture perfect, so staged. In need of naturalness. Everything appears distinct and hard colors and shapes. In need of subtlety. Jekyll and Sackville-West had "informal" masses, herbacious borders, textures to reflect differently for bright versus shadow, softly shaping and subtly harmonizing to create different moods and songs within a garden, with wilder patches of berries where songbirds and butterflies wing in the kingdom.
3 days ago Like 2

einportlandor Oh! Be still, my beating heart!

3 days ago Like 1

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Pamela Bateman Garden Design Becky~ No, I have never seen such a lovely place to store garden tools. The obelisk as storage area is fantastic. I have seen a large hand painted mail box on a post next to a vegetable garden that served as a clever storage place for seeds and trowels but nothing like this. A place to sit, the sound of water, art, green plants, storage, this garden has everything needed to make a beautiful outdoor room.
3 days ago Like 9

sarascottcullen Just lovely, timeless, edited and beautifully executed! Bravo.

3 days ago Like 3

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Perkins Kitchen & Bath Studio Amazing use of outdoor space! Based on the pictures, I can't quite get a picture of the whole area...but very creative and unique solutions used here. Hats off!
3 days ago Like 1

docilana Brilliant
3 days ago Like 1

midmodfan Very creative garden storage indeed, especially the obelisc. I wonder about the koi, though. The moat isn't very deep and doesn't hold a lot of water. Is running the pumps all year round enough to keep it from freezing?
3 days ago Like 4

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Susan Cohan, APLD Incredibly creative yet classic in every way. Love the details - especially the storage tuteur.
3 days ago Like 2

Becky Harris midmod, I would have worried about the same thing, but the owner raises koi on his farm in Kentucky and is an expert when it comes to them.
3 days ago Like 2

scarbowcow midmod - the fish go into 'torpor' during winter and shouldn't be swimming against a current, because they need that rest. There are different ways to keep ponds aerated and to make sure that the water doesn't get too cold for the fish to find 'warm' pockets to rest in during winter, even under several inches of ice and snow. Two-three feet deep does seem shallow. Perhaps he has an alternative, deeper indoor pond for the fish when Michigan winters set in. Chances are the owner has a winter plan in place to avoid losing his fish. An expensive lesson if he doesn't.
3 days ago Like 3

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This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene
Anita Roll Murals Very beautiful and tranquil setting! The moat gives the koi more room to roam.

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3 days ago Like

midmodfan My previous comment was not meant as critique! I'm sure the owner knows very well how to protect his koi. I was just wondering what they do in the winter. We had a (very large and deep) pond with koi and other fish for about 15 years, so I am naturally interested in this topic.
3 days ago Like 1

Becky Harris Oh I didn't think it was at all midmodfan! I just wanted to reassure you that they are in good hands :) The darn internet does not convey tone!
2 days ago Like 3

bubblyjock @ atyg - don't forget, Vita and Gertrude were genteel ladies who had time on their hands, and worked their magic in social circles where there were thousands of pounds and hundreds of acres, not hundreds of feet, to work with, let alone a gently temperate climate...
2 days ago Like 2

Becky Harris I love what Jekyll did with color theory in the garden, and I love that this garden is somewhat strictly green, having a clean look without being clipped. It's very calming to me. To me, this yard is too small for undulating layers of shrubs and perennials, it would have been way out of scale, and too much color would have overwhelmed.
2 days ago Like 2

bubblyjock I agree with you, Becky: I like that they took so much care planning the vegetation, unlike me, who buys end-of-season perennials at 70% off, and hopes for the best! It's a jungle out there...in my garden, I mean. We have ridiculously fertile soil, so evening primrose, for instance, is 7' tall (it said 18" max on the packet...).
2 days ago Like 1

Charlotte wow that is just...wow.

40 hours ago Like 1

Madelyn Kaleta Gonzalez so creative!

23 hours ago Like 1

pinarsavas really nice! how did u make the gravel part of the garden? did u put something beneath the gravel to prevent weed gowth? I tried the same but the soil in my garden is fertile, it rains a lot in winter and I cannot prevent the growth of weed in the gravel.
18 hours ago Like

1stladydawn Awesome (not overworked in this case), beautiful and ingenious use of space. Intimate yet seems larger than it is.
18 hours ago Like

ghel I love it!!

17 hours ago Like

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judygilpin

This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene

Beautiful serene garden. The potting shed and obelisk to store garden tools are to die for. Very creative. Love every inch of it. I'm so envious.
15 hours ago Like

limoge Lovely idea, very unique and creative use of small space. I am concerned about the copper used with the water circulation. It was my understanding that copper is toxic to pond fish, long term.
15 hours ago Like

Brooke Wilson Absolutely beautiful! The quiet garden is an open invitation to restful enjoyment - so Zen! Thank you for sharing.
15 hours ago Like

balmbeach I would also be interested in the fate of the koi in winter!

14 hours ago Like

PRO

Lami Grubb Architects LP Lovely and very creative. Although the storage obelisk is a fabulous idea, I would caution that this type of enclosure around an ac compressor could shorten its life and reduce the efficiency. Most of them are designed to give off heat in a spiral straight up, and need to have five feet or so above the unit kept clear to work best.
13 hours ago Like

Dolores Stewart Beautiful garden space with very creative storage.

13 hours ago Like

scotshot @atyg gave the impression Gertrude's & Vita's informal style is the only way to go. In fact their gardens included many rigid elements - hardscaping, The massive house next to the garden, stone paths, stone or brick walls, sculpture, or softscaping - the grass path with The sharply defined straight border. The "naturalistic" planting beds: If they're not planted in a pretty rigid fashion/style/plan you end up with a blob. It's all very beautiful, but it's as natural as a bouquet of flowers. This is one of the best gardens I've seen displayed on these pages. PS Love the klismos chaises
12 hours ago Like 2

judygilpin atyg always has a negative comment on every home/garden shown on Houzz. I'd love to know what his/her credentials are and see photos of his/her "showplace" home. You know the old axiom " Those who know, do; and those who don't, Preach !!!!
12 hours ago Like

rmlabao Very nice! Love the obelisk storage. Ingenious! Does anyone know the big leaf plant under the tree?
12 hours ago Like

Ann Davis When I see photos of lovely creations like this, at first, I admire its beauty and clever work, then I wonder, how on earth is it kept so clean and orderly? Is this in some part of the country that has no dirt - no wind and dust? Are there full time servants? I suspect it is different there than where I live, in a more natural, woodsy, windblown, alternately dusty and rain, leaves rotting... where I work in the soil like a farmer, pot plants and don't always get to clean up the soil on shelves and pots. Earthy and unkempt at times. The

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11 hours ago Like 2

This idyllic retreat combines lush plantings, statues and moving water for a serene backyard scene
disciplined, groomed places in such photos seem alien to my eyes.

hillonthehouse Wow. Love the charming garden folly potting shed and storage obelisk. I just wonder how that shed (and everything in it) stays so clean exposed to the elements like it is. I know it's probably staged for the photograph and it looks new, but in my yard, it would be spotted with dirt (from rain splashing) and mildew (it's been a very rainy year), dusty from pollen, and draped with spiderwebs (you knock them down and they're back the next day and I don't like to spray). It's hard enough keeping our screened porch (also white) clean and fresh looking.
10 hours ago Like

tita12 Creative, elegant and peaceful!

9 hours ago Like

princess211 Love the garden "tool obelisk"; so creative and even hides the ac! Awesome!
5 hours ago Like

AmyCat They must not have raccoons in their neighborhood... 2'-3' isn't deep enough for a koi pond to be safe from becoming a hungry raccoon's favorite "sushi bar"! Even in an urban area, you can still get the little bandits: I live in the middle of town in Eugene, OR, and we have a family of raccoons on our block (not to mention a possum and tons of squirrels). When I was young, in L.A., my dad built a pond/fountain in our front yard and tried to keep koi. It wasn't deep enough, and the fish lasted about a week before the fishing raccoons ate 'em all. My brother has koi now, but he built his pond about 10' deep at one end. No sashimi for the 'coons from HIS pond! :-)
5 hours ago Like

cathylenny Makes me want to edit our 2 sheds, tossing unnecessary plastic pots I have been saving just in case--- recycle them of course! Why dread your shed! Purge the pots! New project! Thanks for this!
47 minutes ago Like

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Ideabook updated on Aug. 16, 2013.

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