Tour A Northwest Hills Edible Garden In Austin, Texas
Designing for the space
The Seed Sage’s main goal in creating edible kitchen gardens is to design for the existing space. Complimenting architectural elements of this Northwest Hills Austin home was primary in the design process.
This unique L-shaped, caged cedar garden was custom designed to fit into the existing landscape.
design
Upon being introduced to the family and space it became clear there were some challenges to overcome. The homeowner was looking to establish a garden that was protected from deer and that could handle dappled sunlight under the numerous old Live Oaks in the front yard. It was important to the client that the aesthetic match the modern ranch style home. Jennifer embraced the clients needs and created a lovely winter, caged garden area.
Build
The homeowners had recently remodeled their 1950’s ranch style home and were left with splotchy patches of grass. This made the demo of the space quite easy to lay the groundwork for a solid box build. After scraping the below surface, it became evident that the boxes should be built in place.
During the home’s renovation, a side driveway apron was installed but the family was left without any landscaping ideas in this particular area. Jennifer decided to feature the perimeter of this space by following the landscape surrounding the apron. Her team defined the raised bed space by installing simple blackstar gravel walkways on three sides of the boxes. The existing sidewalk from the driveway acted as an access to the side beds.
Caged Edibles
The main issue for the homeowner was protection from large pests/predators. Living off the back of Bull Creek Park, they are visited by skunks, coyotes, raccoons, foxes and deer which decimated their landscape. The cages provide a barrier of protection that allows the garden to flourish in all season, but can be removed if the owners decided to do so. In order to work in the garden, Jennifer creatively designed arms that can be put in place to hold the lids open while harvesting or tending to the vegetables.
“During the renovation of our house, part of the planning involved allocating space for a kitchen garden. All I could do for this was leave a blank space labeled “garden” on the plans. Jennifer knew exactly what to do to transform that blank barren piece of ground into a wonderful overflowing garden. She designed the raised beds and surrounding area to tie in beautifully with the rest of the house and property. She was very knowledgeable on soil preparation, what to plant, when and how to care for it.
This summer we had a wonderful harvest of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and squash. From what looked like just a few small plants, hundreds of tomatoes poured forth. I would highly recommend her to anyone who wants a beautiful kitchen garden.
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This active family has now had two successful seasons of growing year-round in their custom designed caged edible garden. Are you feeling inspired to start your own Kitchen Garden? Reach out to us by clicking the button below to schedule your first consultation with Jennifer.
