From Parking Lot To Rose Garden

This is the story of how one man transformed an asphalt surfaced parking lot into a delightful rose garden. The house that Kevin Lee Jacobs purchased in 2002 had no garden to speak of, but the sunniest area was used for parking vehicles. He decided that this was the ideal spot for a rose garden as he explains in his article which I found on the Garden Design Magazine website.

With a prayer and a pickax, even the most egregious eyesore on a property can be turned into something appealing. My own rose garden, pictured here, is testament to the power of transformation. Today, fragrant ?owers bloom between ribbons of boxwood, and two classical fountains gurgle where the
biggest eyesore you can imagine once existed: a parking lot.
From Parking Lot to Rose Garden Garden Design Calimesa, CA
Photo by: Kevin Lee Jacobs
Although our Federal-era house which my partner and l purchased in 2002, was on the National Register of Historic Places, its four acres of grounds were
certainly not on any Botanical Society’s registry. ln fact, there were no gardens here at all. There was, however, a parking lot directly behind the house?and, of course, it was in the perfect, sunny spot for a garden. Yes, a parking lot, thickly paved with asphalt. l viewed this lot daily, with great disdain, from the of?ce, the kitchen, and the guest room windows. But the more l looked, the more l saw roses, evergreens. and fountains in place of the asphalt. Four years later, once the house was restored, we hired a contractor to remove every last
trace of blacktop.
From Parking Lot to Rose Garden Garden Design Calimesa, CA
Photo by: Kevin Lee Jacobs
Roderick Blackburn, a friend who has authored many books on historic properties, drew up a design for the garden l’d envisioned: two 50-foot circles.
intersected with brick walkways. and framed with the upright yew, Taxus hicksii. Within each circle would be four boxwood-edged, hexagonal rose beds and a
three-tired fountain.

See more at Garden Design Magazine
Feature Photo by: Kevin Lee Jacobs