Los Altos Residence

A family garden with a sense of humor — a backyard railway, a resident dinosaur, and rooms that keep growing with the family.

The project

Built for watching the grandkids grow.

Oak root fungus was moving through the yard, taking plants with it, and the lawn was more than anyone needed. What the owner wanted instead was a garden for her own pleasure — and a place to watch her grandkids grow. The design kept the redwoods and mature canopy she loved.

The rusted-steel dinosaur browsing the shrubbery above the lawn was her idea, not mine: she'd admired them for years on drives past the sculpture yards along Highway 92. The garden railway — tunnel, station, and all — brought the family's own trains out of a back building and into the front planting. A children's garden anchors one corner: a basalt-column fountain over river pebbles, and a raised planter for gardening with the grandkids.

I designed the garden and built the first phase in 2009; Flora Farm Landscaping installed the front yard in 2012. I tended it through its first years, down to tracking the family's water bills to make sure it lived as lightly as it looked. Three generations live there now, the train still gets dressed up for Halloween and Christmas, and as the owner puts it, the garden "keeps maturing into a wonderful space for entertaining and family gatherings."

Los Altos family garden — the back garden from the lawn, the redwood and the house deck beyond, a flagstone path curving through the planting — The garden from the lawn — the dinosaur browsing at the far end.

Los Altos family garden — the children's garden with a basalt-column fountain over river pebbles, rushes, and a small brown garden shed — The children's garden: a basalt-column fountain over river pebbles, and a raised planter for gardening with the grandkids.

Los Altos family garden — the garden railway emerging from a stone tunnel in the front planting, the engine pulling pumpkin-laden cars — The garden railway runs through the front planting — tunnel, station and all.

Los Altos family garden — a decomposed-granite path under mature redwoods, white calla lilies in flower along its edge — Decomposed-granite paths wander under the redwoods through vine maple and heuchera.

Los Altos family garden — the decomposed-granite path leading to the small garden shed, callas and grasses at its edge — The path to the garden shed.

Los Altos family garden — the rusted-steel dinosaur sculpture rising from the planting behind ceanothus in full blue bloom — The steel dinosaur, the owner's idea, browsing above the ceanothus.

Project credits

Back garden — design & build, 2009Sharon DeBell

Front garden — design, 2012Sharon DeBell

Front garden — installation, 2012Flora Farm Landscaping

PhotographySharon DeBell

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