The Coppice.

A naturalistic Berkeley garden, stewarded since the first season.

Plate
10
Location
Berkeley, California
Site
0.41 acres
Scope
III · Stewardship

Status

Stewardship only · Scope III · sixth year on site

Begin a similar brief All plates

I.PLATE 10 · INTRODUCTION

The brief,
in short.

A garden Verdant didn't design but has stewarded since the first season. The original designer left the practice in 2019; the homeowner asked us to adopt the garden rather than re-imagine it. Six years later it reads like our work — because it is, season by season.

II.I. THE BRIEF

The brief

A naturalistic Berkeley garden, designed by a peer firm in 2017 and built in 2018. The original designer left landscape practice in 2019. The homeowner asked us to adopt the garden — to read the original intent and steward it forward, not to redo it. We took the engagement on the condition that we'd say so when something stopped working.

Meadow detail — PLATE 10.A · Stipa meadow edge, late summer

III.II. THE SITE

The site

Forty-one hundredths of an acre on a north-south slope. Mature live oak and California buckeye on the upper slope; a meadow of Stipa pulchra and yarrow on the lower. A serpentine path of decomposed granite cut into the hillside. The house is at the top; the meadow is the experience from every window.

Path through coppice — PLATE 10.B · Serpentine path under buckeye

IV.III. THE INTERVENTION

III

The intervention

Year one: we read the planting plan, surveyed every plant, and produced a maintenance schedule. Years two and three: we replaced the worst-performing accents (a Salvia clevelandii that couldn't take the slope's shade; two Romneya that bullied the meadow) with substitutes that fit the original logic. Year five we re-edged the meadow against the path.

Mature naturalistic planting — PLATE 10.C · Year-six establishment

V.IV. THE PLANTING

The planting

Stipa pulchra is the structure of the lower meadow. Achillea, Eriogonum, and Asclepias provide the seasonality. Above, the oaks and buckeye are the canopy; below them, Iris douglasiana and Heuchera maxima. We've added two Cornus florida at the upper edge — a peer-firm choice we'd have made differently, but the homeowner loves them.

VI.V. MAINTENANCE PLAN

Maintenance plan

Standard Stewardship. Monthly April — October; quarterly otherwise. Meadow edged in March. Oaks consulted on by an arborist annually. Decomposed-granite paths refreshed every other year. The annual review is delivered as a printed booklet; this is the sixth.

VII.MATERIALS · PLANT SCHEDULE

4 MATERIALS · 6 SPECIES

MATERIALS