LITMIR.BIZ

      Curved grass steps create a lovely line in a garden. Here I made the steps exceptionally wide for a gracious effect.

      I first saw steps with grassed treads in the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, DC, 35 years ago. This garden is open to the public, and I heartily encourage you to visit there. The steps were designed by Beatrix Farrand in the early part of the 20th century and hark back to the grassed treads of English gardens. Since then, I have used them so often that grass steps have become a signature feature of my garden designs. I have found that they can be used in landscape styles ranging from contemporary to cottage. While the treads are always lawn, the risers of the steps can be fashioned from Belgian blocks, bluestone pavers set upright, thin granite edging or Corten steel.

       Beatrix Farrand, Landscape Gardener

      Beatrix Farrand, 1872-1959, was America’s first female landscape architect. She was responsible for designing the grounds of Princeton, Yale and many estate gardens, and assisted in plantings at the White House. Her masterpiece was Dumbarton Oaks, in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC.

      Farrand grew up when there were no schools of landscape architecture, so she apprenticed herself to Charles Sprague Sargent, founder of Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum and made several tours of Europe’s great gardens. She had an intuitive eye for design and this skill, together with her horticultural knowledge, helped her build a thriving practice.

      In 1921, Farrand was hired by Mildred and Robert Bliss to design the gardens of Dumbarton Oaks. Mrs. Bliss wanted a romantic garden and requested that all details in the seats, ornaments and gates have literary connections. The tenacre property is a series of separate outdoor areas connected by walkways. Long views are numerous because Farrand believed in offering beautiful vistas on which to gaze.

      As a token of their gratitude, the Blisses placed a plaque dedicated to Beatrix in the garden. It is in Latin and reads:

       “May kindly stars guide the dreams born beneath The spreading branches of Dumbarton Oaks. Dedicated to the friendship of Beatrix Farrand

       And to successive generations of seekers after Truth.”

      The elegance and versatility of grass steps enables them to be sweeping arcs or a contemporary rectilinear feature. The type of line you choose for your garden depends on your intent. Long gracious curves allow people to fan out in all directions while straight lines of steps channel visitors toward a desired route. Curving steps look good from all angles, but straight steps are best viewed from the front. The depth of your grass treads can also vary: the minimum depth is 18 inches, but they can be as deep as 42 inches. I sometimes slope the treads so that they become, in effect, a ramped stairway. This aids in drainage for the grass and requires fewer steps to ascend a hill. The important point to remember, however, is that deeper steps require lower risers for a comfortable ascent.

      Using “Hide and Reveal” to Lead to a High Point

      An ascent to a high point can be made more enticing when you use an ancient Japanese garden design technique known as miegakure or “hide and reveal.” It rests on the idea that hiding a full view of a space can make it seem larger than it is. It can also make an ascent seem less daunting. Thus, if you screen a section of steps, visitors are more likely to venture up to see what is out of sight.

      I “hide and reveal” steps by angling sections of them within a long run. A bend in a series of steps makes the ascent seem less steep and heightens the air of mystery. A small landing at each bend is helpful and lets people enjoy a meditative pause. I also obscure the full view up a hill by placing a leafy plant strategically, using shadows to “hide” a portion of the steps or narrowing them near the top.

      Of course, outdoor steps that are half hidden should be illuminated at night. You can place lights high up in overhead tree branches to provide a diffuse “moonlight” effect; this creates quite the romantic scene in the evening. Additionally, a decorative light fixture such as a stone lantern next to the steps acts as a striking garden feature as well as a safety beacon.

      The ascent to a high point is a significant aspect of its power spot appeal. The walk up may be narrow, rocky steps, a gracious incline or a grand staircase. Whichever it is, it will certainly be a lovely part of the serene garden experience.

      The ascent to a high point is a significant aspect of its “power spot” appeal. These are various steps I have created to draw people up to a high point. Each fits the setting.

      The Elizabethan “Snail Mount”

      If you relish the idea of having a high point in the garden but your land is relatively level, why not follow historic tradition and mold an artificial hill? The first known constructed “mountain” was the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Towering over the sun-baked plains of Mesopotamia, this eight-story-high complex of terraced gardens was sculpted from imported soil and meant to evoke the tree-covered mountains of a far-off country. A more modest idea – and one more suitable for today’s gardens – is a variation on the lovely Elizabethan “snail mount,” which was a popular outdoor feature in the 17th century.

      In 1625, English philosopher Francis Bacon wrote in his “Essay of Gardens” about forming a high “mount” in the center of a landscape: “I wish also, in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents and alleys enough for four to walk abreast; which I would have to be perfect circles…; and the whole mount to be thirty foot high.”

      Visitors would walk up a three-story grassy hill via a path spiraling around to the top. The walk would cut into the mound, making it look like a snail shell, thus the name “snail mount.” The gradual ascent, going round and round, was perfect for ladies in their stiff hoop skirts. Their climb was rewarded at the top with a view of the formal gardens below. A power spot indeed! I suspect that another reason for creating a snail mount may have come from the availability of excess soil that was generated from the creation of the water features and sunken gardens popular during this time.

      A Quiet Power Spot

      A shady spot and a secret path enhances a power spot.

      The lookout reigns over a garden, but the shadowy niche nestles within its heart. This kind of quiet power spot is “a place to dream and linger in of a summer evening, green with perpetual verdure.” So wrote the American poet and author Hildegarde Hawthorne in The Lure of the Garden. Such a place becomes a sweet outdoor sanctuary, as in the seclusion experienced under a wisteria-covered arbor, beneath the canopy of a wide-spreading apple tree or beside a ferny grotto. Interestingly, a garden that contains both a bright open area and a muted, shady spot makes for the most appealing locale, as it blends two distinct atmospheres. Imagine, for example, sitting on a bench under the protective canopy of a tree and looking out onto an open sunny lawn.

      This was a shady spot that I enhanced with a stepping stone path, ostrich ferns, and a rock bordered dry stream that serves as a seasonal drainage feature. Sustainable, functional and lovely – a quiet power spot indeed!

      A Woodland “Folly”

      Shady corners can become power spots if you enhance them in some way. You can do this simply by clearing brush away from around a large tree or placing an art piece in a forgotten corner or niche among plants. I was once asked to draw attention to a shady spot at the edge of a distant wooded hillside. It could be seen from the house and the property owner suggested I design a folly for this

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