Joel and Diane Schatz have photos (circa 1927) of their Mill Valley, California, house that show a garden party in progress under a great canopy of wisteria, with guests in party hats posed against a backdrop of pampered rhododendrons, camellias, and holly. This is not how the place looked the first time the Schatzes saw it 75 years later.
"It was a wreck," Mr. Schatz recalled the other day. The "lawn" consisted of hard-packed clay covered in cat droppings, the rhododendrons were strangled by overgrown vines, and the redwood house—subdivided into five apartments after World War II—was a mess. The Schatzes took one look and bought the place on the spot.
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Photographs by Marla Aufmuth for Gardenista.
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Above: The Schatzes rebuilt the house—and the garden, with the help of San Anselmo, California-based garden designer Jan Gross of Heritage Landscapes.
For the story of a grand garden nearly destroyed by a mudslide, see "A Survivor: A Grand Seaside Garden in Tiburon."
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Above: The effect of mixing different textures and leaf colors is to create a serene retreat. Photographer Marla Aufmuth got stuck in traffic and rushed through the gate 30 minutes late; her first words were, "Well, at least I arrived in paradise."
For a sprawling kitchen garden designed to accommodate gardeners in wheelchairs, see "A Garden With No Obstacles."
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Above: What prompted the Schatzes to take on such a huge project? The 5,000-square-foot house did have a few things going for it. Like many of the earliest homes built in Mill Valley, which got its start as a summer retreat for San Franciscans, it is situated on a gentle ridge a few hundred feet above a picturesque downtown square. The house has dead-on views of Mt. Tamalpais, in whose shadow the town was built. And underneath the tangle of undergrowth, the Schatzes suspected, there might lie the bones of a magnificent garden.
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Above: They were right. The property is ringed by towering redwood trees; as the sun moves overhead, a mix of light and shadow create vignettes of color and texture throughout the garden.
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The first steps Ms. Gross took were to amend and enrich the soil, which also aided drainage, and to rescue through judicious pruning established plants, including century-old rhododendrons (above), camellias, and wisteria vines. Shaping the old shrubs into "trees," she created "trunks" and culled the branches to allow air and light to circulate.
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Above: All the windows, doors, and shingles on the house are from a single reclaimed redwood tree from Mendocino County. On a slope near the house, Ms. Gross planted mondo grass, baby tears, and one of many Japanese maple trees whose leaves punctuate the garden with a dramatic burst of color.
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Above: A weeping cedar grows against the house. The one-acre private garden, open to visitors last month during a convention of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, is on the largest lot in downtown Mill Valley. The original owner, a congregational minister, dubbed the property "Crown Point," a name the Schatzes still use.
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Above: A hundred-year-old holly true was pruned from within to retain its shape while allowing air and light to circulate. For a shade garden planting scheme, see Design Sleuth: The Ultimate Shade Garden.
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Above: A patio area gets mid-day sun.
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Above: A creek runs through the property.
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Above: Ms. Gross routed the stream to lead to a fish pond and lined the path with ferns and plants with tropical foliage to enhance the property's natural feeling of being in a jungle.
(N.B.: For more, see 217 images of Shade Gardens in our Gallery of rooms and spaces.)
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