When we first embarked on creating the Sweet Laurel Cottage, one of the most important design elements for me was the garden. The ambiance outside of the home had to match what was inside the home. I wanted an English countryside garden theme, and that has been the vision that has come to life in a beautiful way!
We turned to landscape architect Tracey Price at American Growers Co for her expertise. We met her a few months before running around the Palisades Village, the shopping center where our cake shop is located: Sweet Laurel: Cake, Coffee and Tea.
The house is special in that there is a large amount of outdoor space, especially for LA! The lot is quite large, and when we purchased the property, the front yard was not enclosed. The first thing I told Nick was that we must has a wrap around picket fence! I wanted our children to have lots of space to run and play and also it was an aesthetic I was going for. I envisioned garden roses climbing all over the white picket fence, giving it that timeless cottage vibe.
The second outdoor feature I wanted to a rose arch. If you’ve been following on Instagram for a while, you know I’ve been posting rose arches I am crushing on for years! Our house had a detached garage, with a path from the garage to the house. Why not connect the two with a rose arch I thought? Nick was into it, and designed a rose arch using green house beams that were saudered together to make an arch. This dream arch is now completely covered in Cecil Brunner roses, a quick climbing rose with a delicate smell. When I say quick climber, I really mean it. Within 3-4 months of the roses being in the ground they had nearly covered the entire arch. Nick has lots of fun tending the roses and fastening them to the archway. I want to host a workshop under the arch or even a small wedding one day!!
The third component I wanted was a secret garden. We had the perfect location, a mini backyard space off the master bedroom. Since we already had a large enough front and side yard space for the children to play in, Nick and I wanted to add something for us in the back. We created a fountain garden with people pathways, lavender and roses, all surrounding a beautiful fountain. We love listening to the fountain at all times of the day and night, and recently made a built in bench on the back wall for reading.
How do we water all the beautiful foliage? Nick is a sustainability engineer, and has been working on a grey water system for our yard to keep in it in sustainable shape. This is exciting as we are striving to make our house a beautiful design capsule with the help of Claire Thomas, and a sustainability haven with the help of my husband. Our house in nearing Net Zero in terms of energy use, and we will be covering this process in detail in a few posts on my personal Instagram page. Stay tuned!!
xoxo, Laurel
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