Modern Lowcountry Landscape

A new modern house on a lot that fell toward the water: regraded, walled, planted and paved to match the architecture.

This was new construction, and the lot came to us as bare ground sloping down toward the water. Before anything could be built on it, we did extensive grading to shape the yard into ground you can build and live on.

Where the grade still had to drop, we built a retaining wall in stackable block and made it earn its place twice over: it holds the slope, it is a seating wall, and it wraps a wood-burning fire pit. The block is bright and crisp, which suits a modern house far better than anything rustic would.

Along the side of the house is a water garden that was designed with the house itself, so indoor and outdoor living run together through the glass. We built it under the direction of the architect and the landscape architect, with a sphere fountain set in a bed of Mexican beach pebbles, whose smooth black stones read as a still pool even when the water is off.

Out front, the driveway is plantation mix, a gravel with a softer, more natural look than concrete that lets rain soak straight through. Metal edging holds its line, and a concrete apron, carport and sidewalk take the wear where tires and feet need something solid. The fence behind it is built from narrow horizontal slats, which stretches the length of the house and gives it that modern look.

The planting keeps the same discipline. A clipped boxwood hedge and podocarpus give the beds their structure, and perennials soften the line of the slat fence with a loose, meadow-like border that looks almost accidental against all that geometry. New sod finishes the lawn, with irrigation underneath to keep it that way.