Courtyard Makeover

Renovating an old Charleston garden solves drainage problems and adds a new world of charm.

The brown brick garden walls of Charleston have lives of their own, oblivious to the whirling urban world that thrives around them. They have survived years of high tides, hurricanes, and neglect. When garden designer Tim Daniel was hired to restore a crumbling courtyard, one of those walls immediately sparked his passion. "That's what I love about this town," he says. "Where else are you going to find a wall like this?"

Despite the garden's charm, Tim was confronted with a timeworn wall that had finally succumbed to a falling tree limb. The courtyard also had a serious drainage problem, and a neighbor's second-story porch looked directly down on it. The homeowner's instructions were to address these issues while adding a tropical look.

Nuts and Bolts

With that in mind, Tim crafted unique solutions for each of the problems. He first cut back tree limbs hanging over the courtyard. "We needed to remove some of the branches because it was just too dark," Tim explains. He cut back an old dogwood and brought down a few palms that had grown unwieldy but still didn't offer screening.

Next, Tim hired a local stonemason to rebuild the wall. "He did a really great job of matching the brick materials," Tim says. "Because part of the wall was demolished, he had to start from scratch on some sections. We noticed early on that it needed new mortar. You could stick a pencil between the bricks." The stonemason matched the new mortar with the original color by combining white sand, portland cement, and lime.

With the wall in place, Tim began to work on the drainage problem. "The courtyard used to have serious flooding, like a large part of downtown Charleston," he explains. "We dug a trench for a French drain and tied it into an old brick cistern near the corner of the property. Now it drains like a champ."

A Solid Foundation

Throughout the project, Tim uncovered a lot of old bricks from previous walls and patios. Each one had its own story and eventually found its way into the new courtyard, either in the wall or in the patio. "Because most of Charleston is built on backfill, every time you dig you're going to find something interesting," says Tim. "It's hard to start from scratch and create something that feels real. It's nice to have something already there to work with."

Tim then cut Buckingham slate to cover a portion of the patio and angled the slope of the area so that water runs into the French drain.

Finally, he built the small fountain against the sidewall and installed an olive jar overflowing with water to serve as a focal point. He matched the stucco on the side of the fountain with that of the adjacent carriage house and used old English bricks to cap it. With this finished, the structure of the courtyard was in place, and Tim was ready to tackle other issues.

Plants for Privacy

Courtyards usually work to add a sense of seclusion to a backyard. But in a town like Charleston with houses so close together, it can be a challenge. The homeowner was concerned that without more privacy, his courtyard would not get used as much as it should. So Tim sought methods for getting large foliage into the air. Luckily, plants grow rampantly in the Coastal Plains of South Carolina, and all Tim had to do was judiciously place pots of bamboo and bananas between an existing dogwood and newly planted palmettos. They quickly filled in the space, creating a living screen between the neighbor's porch and the new courtyard.

The pots, however, help in more than one way. Besides simply lifting the bamboo and bananas higher into the air, they prevent the invasive shoots from getting under the new brick patio and buckling the mortar. The containers also add a nice texture to the courtyard. A large, old loquat tree was left near the slate patio for shade.

Functional Foliage

Besides the screening trees, Tim added a number of other plants to create the desired tropical look. "Even with the amount of pruning we've done, there's still not enough light to get much color from flowers," he says. "That's when foliage becomes important." He used a red banana (Musa coccinea) and a Japanese banana (M. basjoo) along with Australian and Mexican cycads and sago palm. Tim then filled in with bromeliads. "Holly ferns and maidenhair ferns just started popping out of the wall," he says. "I simply let them grow, and they look great. Plus, epiphytes grow on the wall and the tree limbs. It's easier to concentrate on details such as these in a courtyard." EDWIN MARTY

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Apr 2005
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