CONTEMPORARY FOREST GARDEN
YEAR: 2020
PLACE: JŪRMALA
AREA: 2800 M2
DESIGN: SINTIJA NAGLE, ANSIS BIRZNIEKS
Designed for a family that cherishes aesthetic beauty and practical functionality, this garden epitomizes the ‘Smart Combo’ concept. It seamlessly integrates modern, private living spaces with classic, clean lines and a muted ambiance. The garden is thoughtfully arranged to accommodate relaxation in varied settings, from expansive areas to intimate corners. It features dedicated zones for growing herbs and vegetables, playful spaces for children, areas for pets, and spots for social activities like basketball or chess with friends. The result is a refined outdoor environment that adapts to every need and season.
A living space designed to require minimal time and resources for maintenance, incorporating an automatic built-in irrigation system, a robotic lawnmower, lighting systems, and the use of low-maintenance, visually resilient plants.
The classic, restored architecture of the building and its central position on the property naturally defined the spatial structure of the future garden. As a result, the garden is divided into six functional outdoor zones that encircle the building.
At the front of the house, a spacious Front Garden with a driveway has been created. A solid wood bench opposite the entrance door outlines the building’s contours, flanked by architecturally multi-stemmed trees. To provide more privacy to the garden’s living area, a planting bed with trimmed shrub clouds and a row of rowan trees has been established along the driveway. Guests entering through the small gate are welcomed into a blooming environment highlighted by the forms of cloud-pruned shrub groups. At the center of this zone is a small paved area, ideal for greeting guests or rinsing off sand from a beach walk under an outdoor shower.
The garden features two spacious terraces—a breakfast terrace and a relaxation terrace on the opposite side of the house. The breakfast terrace is surrounded by a forest garden ambiance, with a hardscape chessboard area. Dense, seasonally changing plantings of rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and perennials provide privacy from the street.
The relaxation terrace on the other side of the house is divided into four zones: dining, lounging, spa, and a sunken fire pit area. In front of the terrace, a large lawn invites active play. Facing the living room window is a seasonally changing "living painting" or View Garden, where a vibrant composition of perennials, grasses, and bulb flowers is complemented by perfectly pruned evergreen spheres.
In the deeper part of the garden lies a cherished area for the homeowners—the Herb Garden, complete with a glass greenhouse and rustic metal planters of varying heights. A blooming, airy border of perennials and grasses, which changes with the seasons, separates this garden space from the expansive lawn.
To avoid overwhelming the garden with too much plant variety, a single species has been used extensively in hedges and planting beds to structure the space, creating large, cohesive areas.
