Park Ave South Patio
This client’s patio is surrounded on all sides by tall high rise buildings, making it a challenging planting situation with not much air movement or light. Our priority was to soften the hard concrete and glass walls with lush green textures that would give a sense of enclosure as well. All plants chosen for this design are tolerant of low light.
Our main planting was Fargesia Denudata bamboo which lines one side of the patio, underplanted with trailing, flowering fuschia. A single Fargesia is also installed in the opposite corner to provide a sense of balance. For height, we provided a white flowering Cornus Kousa, which will eventually fill out to provide a canopy in the far corner. Under the windows we filled a row of narrow planters with evergreen Euonymus Fortunei ‘Moonshadow’ and Liriope ‘Pee Dee Ingot’ grass. We used an Acer palmatum Dissectum ‘Garnet’ cascading laceleaf Japanese maple as a soft lower planting near the couch, providing color contrast to the green. Lonicera ‘Purpurea,’ fragrant, evergreen honeysuckle vines are planted in a corner near the maple, to eventually be trained across the gray wall. The maple and vines are both visible from the client’s bedroom which enters out onto the patio.
