Editors’ Choice: Serenity in Bloom

By Natural Home Staff
Published on April 10, 2009
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Made of salvaged pine, the Japanese tea house features a lightweight, weatherproof fabric that mimics traditional Japanese shoji screens.
Made of salvaged pine, the Japanese tea house features a lightweight, weatherproof fabric that mimics traditional Japanese shoji screens.
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Bright blooms, shrubs and ground-covering herbs line the walkway.
Bright blooms, shrubs and ground-covering herbs line the walkway.

Two Boulder, Colorado, homeowners modeled their garden after Monet’s Giverny gardens and Japanese peace gardens, creating a serene oasis filled with native and adaptable plants, a salvaged-cedar teahouse and a Japanese bridge crossing a 100-year-old irrigation ditch. Landscaped with berms to naturally provide quick drainage for plants, the property was parceled into small gardens filled with flagstone, groundcovering herbs, Japanese lanterns and bright blooms.

Three things we love about this garden:
1. Once considered an unattractive land divider, the irrigation ditch was transformed by a lightweight bamboo “bridge,” a lining of sandstone and river rock and a border of ornamental grasses and bright blooms.
2. The homeowners planned for four seasons; they say winter offers some of the most peaceful and beautiful garden moments.
3. The Japanese teahouse and meditation garden offer an escape from the hectic world.

Read the original Serenity in Bloom article.

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