Photography by Niya Bascom Photography.
One of the first landscape projects that designers Anishka Clarke and Niya Bascom took on five years ago when they were launching their business was a backyard garden in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood that had suffered a typical city fate.
The designers decided to work with instead of against the big Japanese maple tree.
Before
“The shell of the hardscaping was there–the concrete walkway–but the garden was very overrun and it was just a hodgepodge of things,” says Clarke.
The plan was to use the poured-concrete path, which ran in a U-shape around the perimeter of the garden, as a frame for a new patio.
The designers covered the leveled dirt with a layer of landscape fabric to create a weed barrier.
For the new patio, Clarke (L) and Bascom set concrete pavers in sand.
“We used white stones between the pavers because the color created a nice pop,” says Clarke.
In the dappled shade beneath the Japanese maple tree, “black or a natural color stone wouldn’t have the same effect.”
Vintage metal garden furniture painted white visually reinforces the brightness of the white stones in the patio.
After
When Clarke and Bascom first saw the garden, clumps of hostas were thriving beneath the tree.
“We liked the idea of using more hostas to make the space more minimal and uniform,” says Clarke.
In the foreground is a smoke tree shrub that Bascom and Clarke planted in an old pickle barrel.
“The barrel will limit the smoke tree’s growth, but it’s been doing really well,” says Clarke.
The old poured-concrete path frames the new patio.
An aerial view of the garden, from the fire escape.