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Photography by R. Todd Davis
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Gay Goessling worked with basic geometry when she considered how to turn one client’s back yard into a meditative garden that would nurture her artistic soul. The L-shaped back yard wrapped around the back of a Craftsman-style home on a quiet residential street just a short walk from the Clayton business district.
Ms. Goessling, who has worked as a landscape architect in St. Louis since 1990, recalls that she followed the lines of the house to form a square and a rectangle. Within the rectangle, she partitioned off another square, and a circle took shape in its center.
Two gardens emerged—a meditative labyrinth and a secret garden.
The integration of the two with each other and with the house reflects the home’s architectural style. The Craftsman style, says Ms. Goessling, expresses harmony between the inside and outside; one reflects the other.
The gardens also reflect the homeowner, who places a high value on her privacy.
Ms. Goessling’s client was a longtime family friend with whom she’d worked before. In fact, the woman already lived on the same street when the neighboring home with broad porches and a simple and open floor plan beckoned about eight years ago.
The homeowner screened the porches, allowing her to access the outside from multiple glass-paned doors. She added two sets of wide center steps to the front of the house, but fenced in the sunny front yard with a cream-colored picket fence. It’s at once welcoming but private, cottage-like yet elegant.
Ms. Goessling drafted a plant list for the front that’s disciplined in its simplicity. What’s more important to her than cultivars and botanical names is that the plants bloom readily and over many weeks. Hydrangeas and roses suit her nicely. Her color palette is a soothing blend of whites, soft pinks and pale greens.
The front is outlined by a row of Nearly Wild floribunda roses fronting a slightly taller hedge of yews. Inside the rectangle formed by the fence are dwarf crab apple trees, viburnum, boxwood, hydrangeas, hostas, stonecrop sedum and lamb’s ear. Peonies and irises sport color in the spring.
“I chose stuff that’s going to grow and be simple,” she says. It may be simple, but it’s certainly not bland.
Statuary collected by the homeowner on her antiquing jaunts flanks the steps and side alcoves. Handrails of verdigrised metal cast as slithering snakes add a touch of whimsy to the neat-as-a-pin orderliness.
That playfulness is echoed in details throughout the house and the back landscape. A visitor is naturally drawn to the side door, where a hand sculpture grasps a small spiral notebook bearing greetings of “peace” and “shalom.” Nearby, statues of dogs in repose and at attention offer a sneak peak into the homeowner’s abiding interest in the animal kingdom.
Nearer the garage, the back gardens unfold like origami. Turn right at the hedge of European hornbeams, and you get split glimpses of the private patio off the garage apartment and the homeowner’s prized meditative garden ahead. Move forward a few paces, and you’re surprised by a circular stone opening known as a Chinese moon gate that offers a peekaboo look into the secret garden.
“The moon gate creates a sense of mystery,” says Ms. Goessling. “I don’t like to see everything at once in my gardens.”
Step over the ledge of the moon gate, and you find yourself in the shelter of stone walls nestled between the home’s study and its kitchen. Koi swim at the base of a trickling fountain. A Buddha statue faces west, and a ceramic cat sits on the wall above, clenching a mouse between its teeth. Two ceramic chairs fashioned like tree trunks invite visitors to sit and test them out.
From this vantage point, you can peer through the circular moon gate at the meditative labyrinth to the west. It, too, is enclosed by a hand-crafted stone wall, but this one is circular—not square—and knee-height rather than shoulder-height. The top of the capstone ledge undulates to create movement through the garden, and it invites one to stay awhile.
The interior turf grass is intersected by concentric circles formed by cut stone of a rosy hue. The labyrinth’s centerpiece is a simple, Corinthian column’s capstone.
Planted around the exterior are Southern magnolias, Tardiva hydrangeas, a purple-leafed beech, lilacs and Russian sage. Lush tufts of mazus sprout from between flagstone steppers. A mature saucer magnolia and a Japanese maple are the only trees that came with the original garden. Two large Tuscan urns and a vine-covered wooden swing anchor the back corners. Perched high above the garden on the garage roof is a cast-bronze cat that appears to be eavesdropping.
The homeowner finds solace in walking the labyrinth, and she shares that experience with her friends and family. “It’s very calming, grounding, relaxing,” she says. She frequently entertains guests at lunch or small dinner parties on the deck that overlooks the garden.
It’s less serene, however, when the homeowner’s 12 grandchildren visit. They delight in the treasures hidden within the short wall. Bowing to the homeowner’s fancy, the stonemason created secret cavities in some of the stones. One holds a tic-tac-toe board; others are filled at Easter with chocolates.
Overall, the gardens are integrated seamlessly with one another—and with the home.
Ms. Goessling was born in Hawaii, reared in St. Louis and educated at Harvard University. She says she has always been interested in indigenous cultures and the way landscapes and gardens affect people’s spiritual natures.
For the Clayton project, she says, “I was aware of the four directions and the four elements essential to life—earth, air, fire and water.” She also considered how the gardens would be viewed from within their confines and from the house. In the end, she and the homeowner agree that the land dictated how the gardens took shape.
“You let the land speak to you and tell you what it needs,” the homeowner says. “It’s about respecting what it is and going from that point.”
Ms. Goessling agrees. “It’s about creating cozy spaces that give a sense of peace when you come in.”
Design Tips for a Meditative Garden
- Keep the color palette simple and cool: whites, shades of green and blue-gray, pale pink. Choose plants that will bloom for many weeks. Examples: roses, hydrangeas, crape myrtles, Russian sage, catmint.
- Use multiple species of the same genus. Examples: oakleaf, smooth and panicle hydrangeas, southern and saucer magnolias.
- Create privacy and a sense of mystery with walls or a hedge of European hornbeams or yews.
- Plan for interest across the seasons. Examples: saucer magnolias and peonies in spring, roses and hydrangeas in summer, oakleaf hydrangeas in fall, southern magnolias in winter.
