Stamford Garden

Judith Heintz and Diana Drake worked with the owners of an early 20th century carriage house to transform an unusable sloping site into an outdoor entertainment space suitable for large or small gatherings. The clients wanted as much paved area as possible, yet needed screening from the too-visible neighbors just beyond. The solution opens the clients' living room to their new entertainment spaces, via their newly installed french doors and steel & wood stairway, to an intimate terrace mid-slope, then down, by way of planted bluestone steps, to the large bluestone terrace at the bottom of the slope.

The plant palettes have been chosen exclusively from Northeastern native plant communities adapted to the site’s conditions while accommodating the clients' favorites from their previous garden. The clients installed a new fence and relocated a tool shed that previously occupied this portion of the site. Because of the scale of the plantings, the new landscape succeeds in feeling intimate while also providing generous paved areas for dinner parties and other gatherings.

Project Team: Judith Heintz, Diana Drake