Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Fairy Garden






This garden is very unusual in that the owners and I decided that unless the garden was built before the house was completed it could never have been realized . We selected and placed huge mature specimen trees, using a 120 ton crane and the biggest excavator that I have ever seen, plus a crew 14 men. We then created stone walls both real and fake to contain the tree roots and hillside. The shotcrete walls were carved in real time and shaped and textured to look like stone cliffs. We created a waterfall and walkways with bridges supported by fallen trees( Which are really made of steel and concrete made to look like fallen trees). The rails are all made of reclaimed twigs and branches using our special technique to assemble and preserve them. The Oak tree in the foreground is really a crutch supporting the Live Oak behind it. See if you can tell the difference. All of the steps and pathway were constructed of recycled wood found on the hillside. The property had been in the family for over 60 years. There were fence posts which we recycled from the original fence and tree roots from that era that were placed in the shotcrete while we were shooting the wall. They were made to look like the roots were growing through the fissures in the rock cliff. After our shotcrete was finished the house construction began. The owner fell in love with some very small Fairy's and invited them to live under one of the new oaks. We built a little castle for them to live in and so far they have been good neighbors.

No comments:

Post a Comment