The garden and the entrances
Persephone is named for the goddess of spring. The garden is the reason.
The house reads black and quiet from the street, which is winter. Then you come through the gate and the whole thing turns. Mature trees, terraced beds cut into the slope, cedar screens that divide the courtyard into rooms, and something in bloom nearly all year.
Star jasmine
Star jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides, is the plant that defines this garden. There are around fifteen of them, at both entrances and trained up through the cedar screens, so you walk under it on the way in. One is a Pink Showers, which flowers softer than the rest.
It is evergreen, so the dark glossy leaves hold through winter. It flowers around late May and for a few weeks after that the whole side of the house carries the scent. If you are here then, leave a window open at night.
The other climbers
Wisteria and a white Banks rose on the structure, an Iceberg climbing rose, three climbing hydrangea, Clematis armandii ‘Snowdrift’ which flowers early and smells of vanilla, and a chocolate akebia, which is the odd one and worth finding.
The bones
A Kay Parris magnolia, a Red Pygmy Japanese maple, a red Acer palmatum and a gardenia standard. Behind them, arborvitae, laurel, boxwood, camellias and pieris hold the shape of the garden through winter.
Underneath, black mondo grass laid through the shaded beds, heuchera in a dozen shades of plum and green, hellebores, bergenia, and ferns. Sword, hart’s tongue, tassel, holly and maidenhair.
A gardener keeps it. Nothing is asked of you out here except that you sit in it.
The full planting list is on the plants page.
A note on the no pets rule. A number of the plants out here are toxic to dogs and cats, and the courtyard is open, so this one is not negotiable.
Arriving
There is one covered carport spot and it is yours. Your entrance is off the courtyard, private, and you will not pass through anyone else’s space to reach it. Door and lock details come in your arrival message the day before, so there is nothing to memorise here.
The plants · The greenhouse · The neighborhood · How things work
