Yards Transform into Adventure Zones
By Gina Dostler
Christine Fenmore finds herself making outdoor spaces the realm where coastal homeowners love to live year-round. Having worked in landscape design since graduate school for a landscape architect as well as for Rodgers Garden, she started out on her own 17 years ago. This led her to designing outdoor living spaces that flow the indoors to the outdoors with deep seat arrangements and kitchens. And with these loggias she found a niche where children also need their own spaces and has begun designing outdoor children gardens. The Newport Beach Library selected her design in their own outdoor area.
Q: Tell me a little about your play space for kids.
A: Awhile back an opportunity presented itself where I got to combine my outdoor living design with outdoor play-spaces for children. Soon I was designing children’s playgrounds for preschools, young families and soon won a challenge several years ago to design the outdoor children’s space for the Newport Beach library. Since outdoor living spaces have become part of most households in Southern California, incorporating a space for children to be part of the outdoors is so important. The old fashioned layout of a simple green grass and ball to play with has given way to playhouses, trampolines and little pathways that engage the child’s senses with exploration and fun.
Q: What do you like best about your Newport Beach Library design?
A: I love the fact the space is so interactive with all kinds of touch and feel experiences that take the kids beyond the boundaries of a library. Designed for reading time to 3 – 7 year olds, it’s an ocean discovery garden with a central patio made with mosaics of waves. There are two gardens each with a reading path and around the backside is a discovery maze that has sea creatures out of tile mosaics every six feet. An informational pamphlet allows the child to find the creature it can read about. There’s a fountain with seashells in it where the children can splash their hands in to feel the water and touch the shells. There are also colorful pillows that can be carried around so the children can sit on a comfortable pad wherever they like. The whole purpose is for kids to continue their library experience outside with some movement and activity with their parents alongside them.
Q: Do you think it a big advantage for homes to have these as well?
A: The kids love them. I have one client who wanted a garden where their three granddaughters could have a secret fun place to play. The grandparents had an outdoor fireplace and dining and lounge area, but there was about a 10-foot space behind the fireplace that was perfect for a secret little garden. She wanted something special so we turned it into an enchanting fairytale garden with moss and interesting scented plants that looped all the way around the backside. Halfway down the path a specimen olive tree spread its gnarled branches out where the grandmother hung interesting things. The path continued on with the moss and sweet little flowers. Her house was recently on the Sherman Gardens tour a couple of weeks ago.
Q: How do your ideas come about?
A: Well, usually the clients will have a space they don’t know what to do with or might have their own formal space for entertaining but want a space for kids. So the design usually gets based on the client’s needs. I had one client whose children were really into games, so I did a dart board for them and made room for an outdoor ping pong table on one side of the yard and placed a trampoline on the other side, both hidden behind garden space. It makes for fun adventure further into the yard. But every client has different needs so I work with them to create the perfect play space. Personally I love to use artificial turf where a shady side of a yard doesn’t allow for much grass. This turf is great fun where little ones can push their toys and it cleans up easily. I’ve also built playhouses on these turfs. On occasions with a lot on a hill, I like to do a little path through secret little spaces filled with fun plants. Kids love to follow trails.
Q: A side yard can even make a great play space.
A: So many of my ideas come out of how I live my life. I started making spaces for my own three kids then coming up with creative spaces for client’s kids. The side yard was for a client’s two little girls. I created a parterre garden, a French classic space with separate boxwoods filled with vegetables and cut garden flowers. One section I planted a scratch and sniff garden where the kids could wander up a path and touch scented geraniums or nasturtiums, plants that smell interesting and when picked and rubbed between fingers offer different fun smells.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Christine Fenmore, Landscape Designer
Garden Studio Landscape Design
2732 East Coast Highway, Suite A
Corona del Mar, CA 92625
949-673-5450
