zen garden

I must have had this in mind when creating the backyard. The sitting area in this picture is a lot like our step/deck facing a wide but shallow yard with a wall on all the ends. Note the roof which is similar to our trellis overhang.

Sekiya's

Sekiya's garden fascinated me ever since I was a kid. I'm sure it was an influence on my fenced in garden. Ward and I went there this past week.

more backyard ideas

Lynn's doorstep

Went to Lynn's for Thanksgiving. I found she has a wooden thing in front of her door as well. This is what I was thinking of when I spec'd the deck.

plant

I passed by Michelle's office at work and she had the same plant I'm looking for. She said she's had it for 20 years.

bad math, sod and Nightcrawler (not worms)

Because of my bad math I ordered 225 square feet of sod instead of the 300 square feet I needed. I realize this mistake derives from my errant belief that there's a constant ratio between perimeter and area. My reasoning went like this. If I measure the perimeter of the yard (it's an irregular shape) I should be able to rearrange the perimeter into a different configuration and then get the correct square footage. For example, if the perimeter of the yard is 10 feet, then I can rearrange those 10 feet into a rectangle and figure out the square footage, kind of like a poor man's calculus. There's one problem  with this: there is no constant relationship between perimeter and area. A 10 foot perimeter could be arranged into a 4 x 1 grid (8 feet on the sides, 2 feet on the ends) and equal 4 square feet. Or it could be arranged into a 3 x 2 grid (6 feet on the sides, 4 feet on the ends) and equal 6 square feet. After doing some research I discovered that if the circumference of a circle is 10 feet, the area is 7.9 square feet. Three ways of arranging a perimeter of 10 feet gives you three different answers: 4, 6, and almost 8 square feet.

Interestingly, my math error was compounded by another math error which prevented the mistake from being even larger. I think what I did was the equivalent of halving the perimeter. For example, if the perimeter of the yard was 10 feet, I looked for the nearest easy multiplier to make 10 which in this case would be 5 x 2. So I multiplied the two together. In the example, this makes 10 square feet. Whatever I did for the yard, it ended up about 75 square feet short.

A simple thought experiment would have proven the error in my reasoning. Imagine a rectangle that is about 5 feet wide and only a hair thickness tall. Obviously, this isn't an accurate measure of the area of a 10 foot perimeter.

Still, I find the lack of a correspondence between perimeter and area baffling. I took a string and arranged it in different ways. I tried making rectangles and circles and I felt like primitive man as I watched the area change dramatically from one configuration to another. At some level, I still don't understand how this works.

There's some part of my mind that incorrectly assumes certain inviolable constants in math and physics, like, apparently, the relationship between perimeter and area. This also explains the X-Men physics problem that bewilders me but not people who've studied physics. The problem goes like this. Nightcrawler can teleport from any one place to another. So, to save himself from falling, he might teleport himself closer to the ground. Apparently, people who know physics find this makes total sense. To me, however, it seems like gravity would be a constant lurking in the background. Nightcrawler could teleport closer to earth, but in the act of teleportation, gravity would be conserved: Nightcrawler would only teleport more quickly to his doom.

Below: both shapes have 10 foot perimeters but different areas.

Idea for backyard hard scape

Backyard "sculpture garden"

Notes on back

>One of the big problems I had was one with names. Tim told the guys they were building a "deck" and that got them all confused and that's why they were arguing for something bigger. It helped when I called it a "Japanese step." Finally, Ben and Britton said that what they in fact built was a "walk," like a "boardwalk." 

>One of the big problems in anything is the ability to discern voices. I had so many voices going on in this--Davis brothers arguing for different approaches. Ben said just make it straight and take out the jog which I did. That was one voice I listened to--I thought it was a good idea. The other voices I just ignored. The hard part of these things is knowing when to listen to voices and when to ignore them.

>One of the ideas that really stuck with me from the entry design for the house was the idea of "no negative spaces." I think Chris Alexander has a similar idea. Anyway, the idea is that our entry is a positive space but it also creates another positive space--the nook by the entry. Only positive spaces are useful spaces. It also strikes me that this is how the dining room was designed. There's a bump out on one side and the cabinets/display nook on the other creating a positive space. So in the backyard, I've been trying to concentrate on creating positive spaces. One way that affected the design is that unlike an earlier plan, the deck stops right at the N side of the bump out.

The problem with that configuration is that while it looked good for the entry, it made the space in front of the 3 windows look bad. That section looked crowded, like an afterthought. That's why we got rid of that.

>Vision/justification. I staked out the step/walk with bamboo to get an idea for the size. The size I arrived at just 'looked" right. I realize that looking right means a lot of different things and mixes function with meaning and visual design. part of the reason the walk looks right to me is that although it gets bigger on the south side, it has a reason to get bigger. This is where the faucet is (soon to be moved under the window) and the shower. And it makes sense because you can wash your feet and walk into the house. And the sliders side is smaller because it fits under the trellis. So looking right isn't just a 'visual design' thing, but mixes in use and our ability to enter into a space.

Water container planter

Flowers and backyard floor ideas

Wildflowers on the way to Templeton, Brick Pattern at Mark's house, Float stone

Chapel/garden/lantern

Another backyard plan

fountains

Plans for back yard

Low water plants at the Gamble House

backyard plan

backyard-courtyard version

backyard idea

Fwd: trellis tests

8:45 May 9.