BITS OF WILDERNESS AND ROMANCE

[ This text is the English version of SCOMPIGLIATE SEDUZIONI  ]

Context and original conditions. 

The project deals with an urban garden located in a central neighbourhood with low green coverage. A thin belt of wasteland was found between the three-floor single-family house and the street. The squared backyard consisted of a flat lawn and a few plants of stunted appearance, with a heavy and compact clayey and stony soil, and almost no topsoil. There were neither irrigation and lighting systems nor marked paths. 

Requirements and objectives. 

Privacy and feeling of estrangement from the city were requested, together with a relatively large green area in the backyard, to deliver summer shadow and visual shielding of the neighbouring buildings. Other requests: creation of different levels; visual mitigation of the south high wall; interesting and amazing views; no troublesome cares and maintenance. 

The concept. 

This urban garden is conceived as an envelope which jealously shields the house from the outer world, embedding it in a romantic atmosphere created by a hortus conclusus layout, particular plant intakes, iron or stone elements, and quiet hideouts: a green spot where the nature is encouraged to do its job, also with a circular use of resources. 

From its very beginning, in 1995, this garden has been thought of as a tiny ecological habitat encouraging any sort of small animal frequentation and plant competition and self-sowing. Plants are only mildly pruned after seed production, and no obsessive care is provided. 

Since biodiversity benefits from a low mowing frequency, a meadow has been created in lieu of a lawn, anticipating the recent notion of a "messier urban aesthetic", where urban green areas act as biodiversity conservation sites [see, e.g., Chollet, Simon; Brabant, Charlotte; Tessier, Samson; Jung, Vincent (December 2018): From urban lawns to urban meadows: Reduction of mowing frequency increases plant taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity. Landscape and Urban Planning, 180: 121–124], cited in Wikipedia/Meadow (2021)]. 

According to these principles, only very young trees and shrubs have been originally planted, for a garden is like a pet, that is nurtured as a puppy and grows up with the adoptive family. The garden is accordingly left to evolve and develop quite freely, with just a few mild controls and adjustments. 

The design solutions. 

A green scene encases the set of the west frontyard, the central house, the east backyard, the south pathway and the north driveway; beyond the backyard and further east, another green scene conceals the back garden, which recalls an old romantic garden. 

The four corners of the main garden lodge a staircase leading to a solarium, two wooden shacks, and a concrete BBQ. One shack hides a tiny courtyard. Also hidden is an area for twig chopping, shredding and composting.  At the centre, a meadow emerges from surrounding shrubs and small trees, seemingly created from cleared woodland. It requires little watering, very low mowing frequency, and no fertilization. 

An organic soil results from shredded twigs and cut grass, while the kitchen vegetable waste is composted with exhausted soil. Raised beds of compost, framed of irregular stones, host the shrubs and trees, sharply separating them from the meadow. The same kind of stones, mostly found in the place, shape a pathway cutting through the meadow. 

An iron bower leaning against the high south wall, flanked and covered by old fashioned plants (aspidistra, aucuba, ivy, and American vine) is a vague and dreamy recall of the cryptoportico of Ancient Roman architecture. 

Several works made in iron or stone are embedded in the garden. The biggest ones – the iron staircase with the small bridge and the iron bower with a stone table – definitely stand out. The other items are scattered here and there and pop up while visiting the garden. 

The garage roof slab works as a much needed raised floor, with the role of both a solarium and a “secret garden”. An iron staircase connects the main garden to the upper level, rising through a canopy of American sweetgums (Liquidambar styraciflua) and ending with a suspended small bridge. 

Dozens of self-produced young plants are ready to come on stage, either to fill the gaps or as substitutes for perished or withering plants.