Small Space, Big Impact: Tour a Jewel Box Tudor Garden in Seattle 💎

Friends, welcome back. We are here with my fellow landscape designer, fellow creative, Robin Parsons. Robin is going to show us one of her projects today that is filling in so beautifully. And this is just a yummy little jewel box of a garden. But before we jump in, tell the whole wide world about you and what you do, where we can find you. Thank you. Good morning. Robin Parsons here. My company is Spring Greenworks. I've been practicing as a landscape designer with APLD of Washington for the last 12 years. Before that, I was a graphic designer. And I do a lot of residential work and some public work in Seattle area involving residential projects, commercial projects, containers, and project management. Oh my God. You do some really incredibly beautiful work. And I feel like you're known for detail, shape, form, and creating really timeless landscapes. Do you feel like we're going to see a little bit of that today? Yes. We've got lots of layers and plant obsession today. I love it. I love it. Now, this is a cool project. I've already had a little sneak peek of it, but you pack in so much in this landscape. But when you got here, what did you, what met you? So obviously we have a classic traditional Tudor home in Seattle, and we had many hydrangeas, which the clients did want to keep and retain certain plants. We had a lot of old roadies, a lot of heavy planting throughout the property. So what we did is we edited, we cleaned up, we replaced, we renewed, we created some nice architectural elements, artistic elements, and paths, and created some cohesiveness throughout the property. Also, the clients would like to sit in the front yard and sip their coffee in the morning. So we'll show you some nice features and focal points that you can capture what we've been doing. Yeah. And I think the other thing that's going to be really fun for people to take away from this is you've done some amazing things in small, narrow side yards. I mean, what you have packed into five feet, seven feet is really, I mean, this is bravo, madame. Bravo. Well, I think we should jump right in because I want to start with these pots. They are fabulous. Initially, when I came here, there were some traditional pots and my client asked me, and I requested and suggested to her that we replace some of them and create a more contemporary, fresh look. So we replaced a number of pots. Everything is texture and line, and everything is cohesive in color. So we added these lovely pots on the plinths, which is the entry statement of the home. My lovely friends, Moss and Pearls, came and filled these pots for us when I wasn't able to come this spring. And she did a great job with Aeonium Schwarzkopf and the Calibrachoa here. And of course, the nice statement above, just loving the architecture in these elements. And then it repeats itself over here. I think, so Moss and Pearls, I think Zilli is known for sophisticated color, very texture-driven. The clients wanted to keep their topiary pot. I wanted to create some cohesiveness and a feeling of uniformity. So we brought the bench over here. We have another focal point. Gorgeous. With screening behind it of the Oakleaf Hydrangea, the two topiary on either side and Eurydoron. It feels equal parts classic Northwest. The topiary gives a nod to the structure of the Tudor. Do you feel like that was a part of the client brief? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we had to honor the architecture of the home, of course, but yet we've popped in some contemporary features, which we'll see as we go further into the landscape. Yeah. Incredible. Now Robin, I want people to take in this vista over here because this is a very small front yard. How deep is this? Yes. I don't know the exact measurements of the show, but I did bring my plan to share with people as well as the before shots. This was very heavy. We do have a lot of density on the outside here with the hydrangeas. We wanted to keep them. The clients still love the hydrangeas. We clipped down the camellia. We're going to be having other beautiful specimen Clematis growing up the arbor on the side here over time that that is planted. We have some beautiful layers over here, which I'm obsessed with the Mahonia soft caress. It's such a good one. What you've created back here with this layering. I mean, talk us through this because this is sensational. Thanks. We've got the adjuga. I really tried to repeat a lot of the deep burgundies and the fine textures, which is one of my favorite things to do in a landscape design. We have the pittosporum down here and you can see there's just nice contrast on the on the color wheel. The hellebores in the back and the ferns just gives you a nice background behind this bench. And this is where the clients would sit and sip their coffee. And what I did was created this arbor, which we had to convince them over time. And now they love it. This heavy arbor in the It frames the magnolia and screens the church, but it gives them another sense of an outdoor room space out here. There's a little bit of privacy without creating a wall. Yes, because that's the thing is, I think when you have beautiful morning sun, people want to sit in that beautiful morning sun. But if it's your front yard, you don't want to be on display all the time. Right. And so you've like, I mean, you've created a little bit of like a hidey hole in here. This is fabulous. Yeah, they love their neighbors. It's a lovely neighborhood. People are very friendly, but still it does feel like there is some privacy here. Gives them a veil of privacy. Now, and just a little bit of grass, a very intentional usage of grass. Just kept the one little patch of grass. They wanted that. And we now have a path leading out into this unusable space and creating into a fun little exercise in walking around your property and using a narrow area for something creative. Gorgeous. Let's go in. This is really cool. I also think it's interesting for people to take in the architecture of what you've done with your spaces. Because it's a Tudor, you've left things very square, which I think is great with that architecture. And then we work into curves. Is this actually wood? Yes, it's cedar and we stained it. Love that it's heavy. Kevin and the Avalon team did such a great job fabricating this modern chic, but it's very timeless. Yes. So we have our path coming through here and this clematis will eventually grow up the side. We'll have this beautiful asymmetric suite of color blooming in the spring, purple blossoms. And then we work our way around in this little narrow path, which again, you know, a space that's not typically used for any reason other than we now have a labyrinth. Oh, my gosh. This is so sweet. What's so cool is how you've decided to capture this space. Now they can enjoy it from the outside or from the inside looking out. Yes. Because this is a throwaway zone. Exactly. This is absolutely delicious. Now you decided to go with just a bunch of classic characters in here. Massive movement, brass that has texture. And we've got the beautiful weeping red bud over here that's starting to establish itself. This is beautiful. This is beautiful. And again, the burgundy foliage, you know, it kind of it pulls in some of these dark colors that you see on the house. Yeah, that was the intent. And then you're starting to pick it up in the purple and the hydrangea as well. Gorgeous. So there was this whole wall was hydrangeas and rhododendron. It was just too much. So we had to convince them to get rid of some of it. And then we've got some nice conifers. We've our weeping atlas cedar, which I'm in love with. And we've got some heavy quicksilver. I guess it's on the other side when we go down that way. I'll show it to you. Oh, I do. I'm really excited to show people almost the walls surrounding it, because you've again captured small space and you're linking all of your spaces together. Robin's a genius when it comes to linking spaces. She does a sensational job. And I feel like this is stuff everyone can take away. So we're at the curbside. This is the lower wall. And this is the most challenging strip of life ever. We always have to have a two foot setback from sidewalk in the city of Seattle. And I never know what to do with this strip because it's so hard to create movement. How did you handle this strip? Well, dealing with that white wall was definitely a challenge. And whether we would replace it or cover it or paint it or what we would do. And in the end, they did have the black mondo grass here, but I added some layers and movement, which I think does a nice job and gives you the pop, the Allium Millennium, the Ajuga, the Geum, and the Geum is profuse in June and July, just started to finish off. We also have Nepeta on the corner down there and some Junkus, but that is the general repeated plant palette for this area. And I really do think that it looks nice against the white popped into the beautiful shadows here for the Allium. Oh, gosh. I think bringing up lighting is so important because we forget that you can play with shadow against a wall like this. That is gorgeous. The other thing I'm noticing you're doing is you're creating low spots that then build. Was that intentional? Yes. Oh, yes. So not only are you creating movement forward and backward, you're creating shadow, but you're creating sweeps up and down through the landscape. Yeah, so it's not constantly uniform. You want things to look unique. It's dynamic. Yes. Oh, achieved. Now, the other really cool thing here that I thought was very, very smart is now we turn the corner and you see just a drift of silver. This is so phenomenal. And then you're also jumping plants. It almost feels like up and down from this landscape, like this Geum here. Yeah, that was the intention. And then, of course, the Carex. And then in the spring, which we're not seeing now, these iris are stunning. They're Siberian iris. And the client actually had them. And she's like, well, should we get rid of? No, no, no. No, no. We strategically place them around the arbor. You can see they're on different sides and different layers. And the peonies, which she had, and then the clematis over here on the corner, which will sweep up to the top will give us another whole height layer as we go through the I think that these drought tolerant plants really do achieve what they're supposed to do. This lithodora was here and we cut it back. But I think it also works nicely with the drought tolerant plants. I agree. I have to give you another compliment. This is the best use of potent till I've ever seen, honestly, because sometimes it can be very stiff. This is so beautiful. I know people generally don't seem to like it. It feels like an old fashioned plant. But I happen to like the the pale apricots and the orange versions of Potentilla. And I use it in a lot of my landscapes and my H.O.A. behind my home has it. And it's it's it's fabulous if it's used in a soft way, not like a street side commercial gas station way. Yes. Do you remember what variety this is? Because this color is so beautiful. I have it in the name and I'm happy to share it. Oh, good. OK, we were going to share a plant list, which I'm like, yes, I love a plant list. Oh, gorgeous. And then continuing down here. I also love that you kept the lithodora because this marries the spaces up and down. This is so wonderful. Now, you chose a lot more silver on this side. Was there a reasoning for that? Well, this is the hottest part of the property, so it felt like it worked well with the exposure that we have to deal with. It's it's practical and it's aesthetic as well. Yeah, yeah. It offers like a cooling element because if you put hot colors in a hot, sunny environment, it can almost be very brash. Oh, so good. OK, do we get to peek in the backyard? You do. Let's do it. So the homeowners had this patio in existence and there were a lot of roses here and a lot of green. The yard was really a green statement with roses and some simplistic plants. I'll be happy to share my before so you can see what we had here. But other than the key trees on the sides and the corners, it was pretty much a laurel hedge out there. And they had a recessed little seat bench where the pixie maple is now sitting here in the center of the yard. My goal for them was to bring this home of tradition into a contemporary focus. They are art collectors. They have beautiful contemporary art on the inside of the home. And I wanted to bring that feeling outside. So what we did was I wanted to break up those laurel hedges. We had some custom walls built and their screen walls here. The tile is custom tile. It was made in Belgium by Atelier Vakant. You can look them up on the web. They have an amazing selection of containers and they made this custom tile and we picked the color and they actually, the artist, actually custom painted the various tones and let us pick from them. Wow. And then they shifted over in the most precise, amazing box that I've ever seen where each individual tile had its little void in this styrofoam box that protected each of the tiles in the most immaculate manner. So you just pulled them out. It was like the sheet. It was like a presentation. Yes. But don't you love stuff like that? You're like, oh, this it's thought to the nth degree. Yes. Okay. We have to go in and look at this because I do want to talk about it's unusual to see something like this in a garden. But you have this massive wall of laurels to contend with. Yeah, I think we broke it up really well with the pixie. I didn't want to have too tall of a tree. So we have the pixie maple, which is just starting to fill out this year and feeling really happy about that. And it echoes with the smoke tree, which was existing on the property. These tiles are so spectacular. I have to come up close to see them later. They're also raised. There's a textural element to them. You can see they're not flush to the wall. They're they're mortared in here and some of them are recessed and some of them are deep. And actually, we selected a percentage of tile to be like a quarter of an inch thicker. Interesting. So some of it pops and some of it stays in the recess. Yeah. And at night, we might have to include a shot for you to have the night shot so you can see how beautiful these walls are when they have light cast on them. You put it, of course, you put in lighting. This is so smart. You know, it is also something you're doing back here. Not only are you up lighting it, but having that little bit of variation in the depth, you create more shadow. The Dechampsia creates more shadow. That's the intention, just to create this naturalistic feeling with, you know, native plants and softness at the same time with a hard structure behind it, you know, with natural colors mixing and they all change in the evening to a really different dramatic feel. This is so great. This is such a beautiful marriage because I think when people do a Tudor, I see this time and time again. Everything is stiff and then you have stiff architecture and it's like, where where's the movement? All right, Robin, talk me through this adorable seating area. This is super intentional. It's just the perfect little moment. And I feel like you're capturing sun, but also you're doing something really interesting, bringing the tile coloration in here. And this feels modern, too. Yeah. And I wanted to use the geometry of different. We have the circular labyrinth space on the side of the house. And I'm echoing that over here with another circle. So we've got circles and squares which work with the geometry of a traditional home. But yet this is modern. And I wanted to point out another thing, these lull chairs. We try to elevate this home into a more of a contemporary sensibility. And as a designer and talking to my other colleagues as designers, oftentimes clients will work with us and think we're only providing landscape design services. But in the end, there's a lot of us who will be happy to provide both artistic elements and furnishings to really create what is more a cohesive look to a property. And that those are the elements that kind of the jewelry on the on the person that really create the pop and add a lot. So in this particular case, we've got the lull chairs and then deep blue. We've got a lot of blue plant material here. We've got the blue in the walls. We have a nice sleek dining table which replaces a heavy old traditional wrought iron set that the clients used to have and they were happy to replace. And we've got more of a fresh contemporary look here. We've got textural pots. We've got the uniformity. We've got some sheen and our pots over here, texture over there. We did keep some of the blue pots that the clients had originally because it echoes the same blue we have in the landscape. So I think we've tied it all together in a nice way. This is also a masterful mix of container material because you do have the traditional kind of cobalt that we we see. Love a cobalt pot. But then you bring in these finishes here. I mean, you've got this gorgeous mirror finish and then two more of these barnacle bubble. How do you describe this finish of pottery? Same way you are kind of a bubble texture. It's so great though because I love using this. In each one of these little pockets you get a bit more of that metallic zest. And talk me through the plants that you've selected here because these are so beautiful. Well, I'm a real fan of rogersia. I think it's just the most amazing foliage plant and you've got the floral blossoms at the top and this deep rich burgundy echoing. This was their existing maple. It was looking kind of sad. I think it's quite happy here now. We have contrasting a chorus. Excuse me, not a chorus. Hakuna Kloa underneath. Aurea. And then we've got some other copper like grasses and some copper blossoms as well. And the euonymus, which is more of a simple textural plant in the combination of three pots. Yeah, I love this. And then what's also kind of cool is this statement pocket. I love that what you've done is you've taken the eye all the way down the stairs. Now, can I talk about the deck actually for a second? Because you don't have it shooting straight down. Was this part of the renovation as well? This was here before I came. This deck. But I do work with the elements that existed previous and that takes us to the table. And I had them replace their tree that was diseased this year. We have a nice tall parotia, which will give us some beautiful fall color in a few months, which will also echo that beautiful burgundy of the two maple trees. And of course, the banana, which will hold out until frost. What's really interesting is it almost feels like you've created an alcove for art back here with this parotia because you delve back in. And then also more of a textural shade combination. Talk me through these plantings. I feel like you are so good in like a shade texture pocket. So we've got a variety of hostas in here. Got the giant hosta. I have a list of my specimens I'm happy to share. We have the brunnera in the foreground with the silvery leaf. And a really nice selection of ferns, which harkens back to our kind of like Northwest heritage. Really fantastic. Now, was this maple also here? This was here and it's thriving. Actually, it has some issues, but I think it's become quite happy. We fertilized it and give it a chance to remain. The pieris were all here, but I kept those in limited form just so we had some anchor plants as well as the panicle hydrangea. And then we added these carex, these variegated carex to bring in that white and echo the pieris. Were the pieris shaped like this or did you begin kind of sculpting them? I did begin sculpting them. OK, this is so smart because people can put in something like a pieris and it's not just you set it and you leave it alone. You can do that. But do you find that you want to like shape the plants into what you desire? The longer I have been a designer, the more I learned from others and even people like Tony Fiorillo, who does bonsai work, how to work with the tree. I'm certainly not the expert that he is, but I've learned so much in sculpting and working with shape of the existing trees that you have to make them look their best. Just like when we get our own haircuts, you know? Yes. It's like you almost have to see through the tree to understand what it wants to do, because I'm looking at this going, come on, Robin, like this is so good. Because there's sometimes, you know, you'll get an old ancient plant at someone's property. We did the same thing in the front yard with the camellias. We opened up the camellias and created more layers. They grow so vigorously. I'll have to do it again this spring. But opening up a tree and being able to see its structure, I think really gives an opportunity to see the best qualities of a plant and a tree. You know, when you go to a home and when I do a new landscape project, if I see an older plant, I do look at the structure because there are opportunities to change the shape or at Yeah. For the best that they possibly could be. Isn't that so smart? So it's almost, I would put the invitation out there to anybody watching, if you have something that you think is ho-hum or has gone the way of the buffalo or is tired, it's like, could you look through the canopy and discover, is there a beautiful shape waiting to emerge? And then thin it out, sculpt it, help it in a different direction. Yes, and then uplight it. Yes, it says, if you could give guidance to anyone out there who is dealing with a really small space that they don't have a lot to work with, what guidance would you give them? I would say work with the light, work with your light conditions, and even if you have like a balcony or an alcove, you can bring in some type of art or plant material and make it your own. There's always an opportunity in a small space to make it special. That's hence we call this the jewel box over here because it has some artwork, but the furnishings and the plant materials all combined together make it this little treasure trove for my clients, and I know they enjoy that. So wherever you can create that in your own home, I say go for it or get some help from a qualified designer. There's so many of us out here that are doing beautiful work and would love to help. Yeah, oh my gosh, this has been so wonderful. I'm so grateful to you. The homeowner came out for just a second and we just showered our gratitude too because this is such a beautiful study in cohesion, art, shadow, light. You have, bravo Robin, bravo. Thanks for being here. Oh my gosh, I will link to everything Robin listed in the description below. So website, Instagram, which is Spring Green Works. Yes. But again, I will list everything below. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for sharing this gorgeous garden and your work in this world. We so appreciate it. Thank you for being here. Oh my goodness, this was like the best morning. Thank you so much for coming along on another garden adventure. We're going to see you next one. And in the meantime, as always, please get out there and say hello to your friends.