Green & Serene

Sculptural shrubs, verdant groundcovers, and dappled sunlight create the magic in this water-thrifty landscape.

- Jeanne Huber

Delve into the history of landscape design, and you see certain ideas over and over: strong geometric forms, energetic use of contrasting colors, a balance between managed and wild. There’s good reason for the repetition—these ideas work.

Studying pictures of classic gardens while taking landscape-design courses at the University of California, Los Angeles, about 10 years ago, interior designer Janet Lohman found herself especially drawn to tidy, globe-shaped shrubs. She saw them in gardens in France, England, Italy, Spain, Portugal—all of Europe, it seemed, and dating back to medieval times. There were even references to their use at the beginning of the Roman Empire. “Some things are just right,” Janet concluded. “They stand the test of time.” She thought that globe shapes, with their strong structure, would look good almost anywhere: modern gardens, traditional gardens, rustic gardens. And she had the perfect canvas for testing her theory—the 1948 Tudor-style house she shared with her photographer husband, Mark, in Los Angeles.

Back then, the front yard was just a blank lawn, fully exposed to the street. The only plants with any heft on the half-acre lot were two mature sycamores, one pepper tree, several eucalyptus, and a large camellia by the front door. The backyard held a kidney-shaped swimming pool. The west-facing side yard, with its lovely evening light and its view into the canyon below, had only a narrow concrete path hugging the house. Below that, the yard dropped off, too steep to use.