Rooted in the Land

The Rooted Garden began with a blank backyard and a client ready to become a gardener. New to growing her own food, she wanted to create a landscape she could learn from, care for, and share with the family and friends who gather here.

Working alongside the landscape team, we designed the kitchen garden as part of the larger property, positioned to create a beautiful view from the deck toward the lake. Two 12-by-12-foot L-shaped corten steel raised beds form the heart of the potager, with a separate 4-by-12-foot bed devoted entirely to strawberries. Together, they provide 208 square feet of growing space for vegetables, herbs, berries, and flowers, with custom trellises adding height and structure throughout.

The land itself played an important role in the design. With considerable grade and pitch across the site, each corten bed was custom cut to accommodate the slope. This allowed us to work with the existing land while minimizing additional hardscape and avoiding the need for retaining walls.

Beyond the raised beds, the garden extends into the surrounding landscape. A blueberry hedge borders the front of the garden along the gray granite chip, while meadow-style orchard plantings on either side feature peach, pear, and cherry trees surrounded by pollinator-friendly plants. From the deck, the layers of the landscape unfold toward the water, with the kitchen garden at the center of it all.

For a client who is learning all she can about growing food and caring for her land, The Rooted Garden is a place to put that knowledge into practice. What was once a blank backyard is becoming a landscape she can tend, harvest from, and share with the people she loves.