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Photo by : Cl1
There I was , in the middle of a nightmare of a Southern California heat wave , driving up into the Hollywood Hills , heading toward the garden of director Wes Craven , creator of the morbid Freddy Krueger character and the terrifyingScreamspoofs , among other horrors . What would I regain ? A chimneysweeper of the saturnine blackishGeranium phaeum , a.k.a . mourn widow ? A solitary specimen cactus in the shape of Freddy ’s tongue - thumb boxing glove ? Or might the prince of duskiness preside over a high - conception intent in which every plant is allowed to wither and die — the horticultural manifestation of a twisted , unbalance midland landscape ?
Not even close .
Imagine , alternatively , a Zen oasis of lush dark-green foliation and running water supply , a topographic point so soothing that the temperature suddenly seems to dangle 10 degrees . Picture the elegant branch of an Australian willow ( Geijera parviflora ) , its pendulous leaves sway in the child’s play , casting soft , shimmering tail as a hummingbird nose dive - bomb a cherry-red - floweredSalvia greggiiand flits aside , happy as can be . And the garden ’s owner ? Wes Craven ’s smile is amazingly quick ( specially for someone I half expect to jump out from behind a tree diagram and yell '' Boo ! '' ) . He ’s an zealous Bronx cheer - security guard who ’s nostalgic for the audio of rainwater and rivers — sounds he heard grow up in Cleveland , Ohio , near Lake Erie .
In fact , when Craven first match with garden designer Kathy Glascock , in 1996 , the one thing he insisted on was a water feature of speech , both for its gurgling medicine and its power to pull birds . Then , when she get under one’s skin back to him with a resume , he asked for an even large one — a tall order for a long , tight fitting land site that quantify a scant 16 by 128 feet . But Glascock complied , with a stream that is now the very centre of the garden . Together , designer and theatre director last to a stone yard and selected immense bowlder , which were subsequently stretch out in and carefully placed along the flow ’s way . As for the plants , '' Kathy left bouquets around the house , '' Craven recalls , '' so that we could familiarize ourselves with all of the colors and grain she was planning to use . ''
Glascock further defined the pocket-size space with a long pergola draped inWisteria sinensis ; the structure , with built - in benches , efficaciously divides Craven ’s yard into two distinct domain without harshly segmenting it into altogether separate '' way . '' Both it and the fence surrounding the garden are made from redwood and tight stainless - steel cable television . '' The steel works so well with the modern identity of Wes ’s theater , '' Glascock says , refer to the mid - hundred architecture that led her design in a minimalist , somewhat Japanese direction . '' And on the fence , queerly enough , the cables echo the power occupation in the distance . '' Mass planting of lavender and ofGaura lindheimeri — its many snowy flower resemble a daze of modest butterfly — work in concert with a breathtaking sight of L.A. to create a ribbon of continuity .
photograph by : Jeremy Samuelson .
But it ’s the water that really make this garden flow . The lilliputian river , which get at a rectangular Indian slate fountain , thread two seemingly disparate place together as it go . First , it bubbles underfoot , running in and out of a flagstone track that takes visitant beneath the pergola and through a glade planted with those elegant Australian willows . Then , a viewpoint of weaver ’s bamboo ( Bambusa textilis ) marks a changeover : the garden becomes Mediterranean in character . The trees are citrus , heavy with Meyer lemons and grapefruits , and the meandering flow is now a sharply defined run , which guides the water through the ground coversDymondia margaretaeandCerastium tomentosum(aptly named blow - in - summer ) to its final destination , a cistern concealment under an industrial - strength grate .
All the plant cloth had to be cautiously choose for vivid exposure on this sunny , blowy hilltop , perched high above the metropolis . Glascock used tough Mediterraneans , Australians , and California natives ( including one of my dearie , the very gardenworthyArctostaphylos densiflora’Howard McMinn ' ) in bluff swaths , layered against one another . Rosa ' Dainty Bess ' — not about as ticklish as its name implies — makes an appearance in a rack ofVerbena bonariensis . The Australian willows were bring in in en masse shot ; their loose structure mold a brilliant shade , dapple enough to permit sun - loving plant to flourish beneath them . The result is totally unequalled — a dry planting of phormiums , sage , and lavenders that manages to impart the lush , nerveless flavor of a shade garden .
Only the perverted and knotted branches of a prominent , multitrunked strawberry mark tree(Arbutus unedo)seem to befit the garden of terror I had imagined , but here the deformation is sculptural — picturesque , not fantastic . Craven ’s is a graceful landscape painting that encourages walking , peach , and contemplation . The water draws guest alfresco and keeps them search . '' Even teenagers , '' the manager says , '' who sour up their nose at anything adult , get excited tracing it to its source . '' Is it any wonder that shortly after the garden was make out , Craven stunned Hollywood by directing not moreNightmaresor anotherScreambut the uplifting Meryl Streep vehicle Music of the Heart ? ( In fact , Streep ’s husband , Don Gummer , created a sculpture that now lives in the garden . )
Craven pays Glascock the highest compliment — that of enjoying his yard every solar day , watching bird splashing in the water and lizard insolate themselves on the rocks . '' It is incredibly peaceful here , '' he say , '' wonderful to wake up to — a very literal generator of pleasure . '' It ’s his sanctuary .
And Freddy Krueger ? His glove is tuck safely away inside a glass display case in Craven ’s medium room . This garden is the domain of Howard McMinn ( the arctostaphylos ) , Tom Thumb ( the phormium ) , and that dainty trivial come up named Bess .
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