Tag Archives: SEATTLE GARDEN DESIGN
Fall Color Arrives at the Pike’s Peak Garden
We are proud to present these two images of fall color at the Pike’s Peak Garden, which was designed by Seattle Landscape Architect Brooks Kolb and installed ten years ago. These photographs were taken by the owner, Jeff Lum, in the last week or so.
Laurelhurst Hillside Garden in “Pacific NW” Magazine
Seattle Landscape Architect Brooks Kolb’s Laurelhurst Hillside Garden was featured in the January 27, 2013 issue of the Seattle Times’ “Pacific NW” magazine. “Growing Up Gracefully: Gentle Curves and Masses of Plants Keep a Garden Looking Good” was the way Times writer Valerie Easton titled the piece.
Quoting from Valerie Easton’s article,
“A great view is about all Kevin and Jean Kelly’s Laurelhurst garden had going for it when landscape architect Brooks Kolb first saw it. The topography was precipitous, the plantings worn, the steep steps down to the garden cracked and broken. The handsome old house not only lacked connection to the garden, it turned its back to it…”
“Kolb started by designing an entry terrace to connect the old house to its new garden. A geotech warned against filling in with heavy soil, so Kolb used foam to raise the grade about a foot. Now the expanded porch steps graciously down to a terrace at lawn level. Kolb replaced the chute-like stairs with a gentle S-curve of steps that wind their way through fragrant shrubbery….”
“How to create a garden that’s tactile, scented and seasonal, yhet so easy to care for? ‘The garden isn’t Noah’s ark, there aren’t just two of anything,’ says Kolb of his strategy of massing grasses, prennials and small shrubs…”
“Both Kelly and Kolb emphasize the importance of teamwork in the garden’s success. Kelly had a vision, Kolb realized it, and gardener Eileen O’Leary stepped in to maintain the place. ‘Gardens evolve,’ says Kolb, who includes a yearly post-evaluation with all his landscapes.”
Here’s a link to the full article: http://seattletimes.com/html/pacificnw/2020148828_pacificpnwl27.html.
The project team included Dochnahl Construction (concrete and foam work); Gardenstone Masonry (Wilkeson sandstone masonry); Clayton E. Morgan Landscaping (softscape.)
The S-curve sandstone stair from below
“Before” picture
“Growing Gracefully” – A Brooks Kolb North Capitol Hill Garden Featured in “Pacific NW” Magazine
The Entry Gates – all photos by Seattle Times Photographer, Mike Siegel
Seattle Landscape Architect Brooks Kolb was once again featured in the Seattle Times’ “Pacific NW” Magazine on September 7, 2014, in an article by the noted Times garden writer, Valerie Easton. Titled “Growing Gracefully, A Redesign mixes the best of old and new,” the column lead with the following paragraphs:
“It’s not often a landscape architect gets another shot at a garden he designed years ago. But when horticulturist Sue Nicol was hired to come up with a fresh plant palette for an aging Capitol Hill garden, she asked Brooks Kolb to collaborate with her on the project. And it turns out that Kolb, along with his partner, Bill Talley, had renovated the garden in 1997 for an earlier owner.” ….New owners Don and Marty Sands “remodeled the (1932 brick Tudor) inside and out, then turned their attention to updating the garden. The couple appreciated the dramatic entry gates, as well as the matuing Japanese maples, Korean dogwoods and Hinoki cypress from the earlier renovation. Marty loves how the garden wraps around the house ‘like a little haven.’ And she calls the majestic copper beech that dominates the scene ‘a Grandfather tree.’”
Since the house is located on the corner of a curving street near Interlaken Boulevard, Brooks loved the original opportunity to remove a scruffy lawn, replacing it with a path that curves parallel to the road, connecting several distinct garden rooms along the way.
All photos by Seattle Times Photographer, Mike Siegel: The House and Rockery from the Street; the Entry Gates
The Birdbath with Japanese Forest Grass; Owners Marty and Don Sands
The Fountain in 1997; The Fountain Today, with its Lily Bud Jet
Inteviewing Brooks, Valerie asked, “What was it like for Kolb to re-imagine a garden he designed long ago? ‘It’s a wonderful chance to come back in and retool a garden,’ he says. He planted a necklace of new daphnes around the old fountain and left alone the huge white wisteria growing on the hefty arbor at the side of the house.”
Brooks also relished the opportunity to work collaboratively with Sue Nicol, whose contributions to the jointly designed planting plan included the “intensely fragrant” Daphne bholua and ‘Korean Apricot’ chrysanthemums, among many other selections. Brooks has collaborated with Sue for her horticultural and arborist expertise on a number of Seattle area garden designs.
