Biet olam

BERKELEY, CA

2022-2023

This project began with a passing. The client’s father had recently died, and they wanted to use part of the small inheritance to reshape their home into a place of joy, gathering, and remembrance. A garden that could hold both grief and celebration. We called it Beit Olam, “house of eternity.”

The couple, gracious and grounded, lived here with their two dogs and two kids, one just off to college, one entering high school. Their home, cottage-like, was warm and thoughtful, but the surrounding landscape hadn’t caught up. The backyard had a newly refinished deck, but the yard below was scattered with broken up concrete slabs and weedy grasses pushing through. Rather than reuse the blocks of concrete to create a patio out of it as the client initially proposed, we repurposed it into a low curb to define the planting beds. The new patio space was kept simple with decomposed granite, ringed with raised beds planted with a mix of drought-tolerant spillers, thrillers, and the repeated theme of our beloved Agave attenuata.

A fire pit marks the center of the gathering space. Smokebush and Japanese maple add light screening and seasonal color, while the shady bordering beds beneath the existing Pittosporums became home to ferns, succulents, yerba buena, and a soft burst of Campanula flowers in spring. The central theme of the work was that the clients wanted it to be very low maintenance yet beautiful. As a collaboration picking out the plants, one move that we were all really excited about was including an espaliered apple tree with multiple varieties of apples grafted on.

The front yard came in a second phase. The old picket fence was dilapidated. The driveway had become a seasonal bog from poor run-off, and the concrete paths were too far gone and were replaced with cement pavers. We installed a french drain and regraded the area, then poured two simple concrete strips for the car tires with gravel in between to soak up the rain. We had added color to the concrete, but because the soil was still wet from recent storms, the drying process pulled moisture to the surface, leaving a white residue that was disappointing at first. Thankfully, time, use, and weather have softened the effect and now it has a soft rosy glow akin to the concrete pavers to complement the green of the new landscaping.

The new fence is rustic and rough-sawn, built from grape stakes, and finished with a bar-door style gate that’s easy to pass through but still keeps a soft barrier from the passersby. Planting beds were filled with natives and a few succulent cuttings from my personal stash. An edible feature, repeated in two locations was the bold and sculptural cardoon. It was chosen for its presence as much as its utility. Sometimes it's food, sometimes it’s just a monument sprouting brilliant blue flowers and reaching up to eight feet tall.

But the heart of the project sits closer to the house. Deeper within. As I planted a Western redbud in the front planting bed, the client made a hesitant entreaty, asking if I would be willing to mix her father’s ashes into the soil. I said yes without hesitation. It was an honor to be trusted with something so sacred. I placed the ashes in the soil with care, and once the tree was planted, she spent time beside it in prayer while I continued planting at a respectful distance. It was a quiet, powerful moment. One I won’t forget.

Today the garden thrives. It’s a place for memory and presence, dinners and dogs, rest and return. The redbud grows slowly, just as it should.