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Dry Garden Poetry is a completed residential landscape in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, designed to reconnect a home above Monterey Bay with its hillside, woodland and views. Arterra Landscape Architects organized the two-acre property around smaller buildings and outdoor rooms, including a shaded Summer Terrace and a sunnier Winter Terrace. The project was completed in 2020 and received an ASLA Professional Awards Honor Award in Residential Design in 2023.
What is Dry Garden Poetry?
Dry Garden Poetry is the name of a specific private residential landscape project, not a general term for Japanese dry gardens or a book of poems. Arterra Landscape Architects designed it for a sloping property in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Monterey Bay. The garden was built in 2020, according to Landezine’s project description.
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The project responds to a familiar problem in residential design: a house and its boundaries can make a site feel separate from the land around it. The clients had lived on the two-acre hillside for more than 20 years. They felt that their traditional stucco house and tall enclosing wall cut them off from the property and its views, and wanted a more energy- and water-conscious home that made fuller use of the land. Arterra’s design addressed that brief through the placement of buildings, outdoor spaces, planting and materials—not by treating the garden as a decorative border around the house.
That distinction matters. The project’s central idea is not simply a dry-looking plant palette. It is a sequence of spaces that links the residence to the meadow, coast live oak woodland and bay views while responding to the slope and seasonal comfort. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) describes the site planning and landscape in its 2023 Professional Awards project statement.
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Where is the Dry Garden Poetry project?
The garden is on a private, two-acre hillside property in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, above Monterey Bay. The available project descriptions do not give a street address, and the site should not be assumed to be a public garden open to visitors.
Its setting is integral to the design. Rather than flattening the hillside into one large outdoor space, the plan uses a series of smaller buildings and the spaces between them to open the residence toward the surrounding landscape. Views toward the bay and transitions into the meadow and oak woodland help connect the different parts of the property. That approach makes topography and surroundings part of the project’s organization, rather than background scenery.
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For a construction or landscape project on a slope, the case study is useful as a planning example, not a ready-made site plan. The location’s orientation, existing landforms, vegetation and microclimates shape the result. The project sources do not provide enough information to reproduce the layout or determine whether a similar arrangement would work on another property.
How does the design reconnect the house with the land?
Arterra placed a series of smaller contemporary buildings higher on the property and used the intervals between them to make outdoor rooms. The result is a more gradual relationship between home and landscape: residents move among sheltered, sunny and planted spaces rather than encountering one large wall between the house and the hillside.
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Several built details make that idea legible. A covered loggia and a screen that filters light define an edge of the courtyard. An eight-foot stucco wall, as described by ASLA, contains a blackened-steel water feature; the wall is colored eggplant. Olive trees shade the dining area. A vegetable garden and lounging nook occupy the space between the studio and garage, and a Tuscan grill is tucked behind the fountain wall. These features give ordinary activities—eating, gardening and relaxing—specific places within the larger site.
The arrangement also shows how walls and smaller structures can both enclose and connect. A wall can shelter a courtyard or hold a water feature, while a screen can mark a boundary without blocking all light. In this project, those elements create outdoor rooms, but the landscape beyond them remains part of the experience. The design therefore uses enclosure selectively instead of relying on a single enclosing edge to define the entire property.
How do the Summer and Winter Terraces work?
The two terraces are designed for different seasonal conditions: the Summer Terrace offers shade and cooling features for hot weather, while the Winter Terrace is a sunny place for cooler days. Their placement and planting use the site’s orientation and microclimates to make outdoor use more comfortable at different times of year.
The terraces connect through pocketing glass doors. That connection allows the rooms to function in relation to one another, rather than as isolated destinations. The design also pairs the terraces with specific features: the Summer Terrace is shaded, while the Winter Terrace includes limestone steps, a boulder firepit and stone seating. Plantings around the winter space benefit from reflected heat, according to the project descriptions.
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The broader lesson is that seasonal comfort can be addressed through the arrangement of spaces, not just through mechanical equipment or a single planting choice. Orientation, shade, sun exposure and the relationship between indoor and outdoor rooms all contribute. ASLA says the team used passive cooling and heating and the property’s microclimates to shape the experience. The sources do not publish a measured energy reduction, temperature range or operating-cost figure, so those design intentions should not be read as quantified performance results.
Which plants and materials were used?
The planting combines regionally associated and drought-tolerant selections with trees, grasses, succulents and other varieties suited to different parts of the property. The published lists describe what was selected for this project; they are not a universal planting prescription or proof that the garden requires no irrigation.
ASLA’s plant list names coast live oak, coffeeberry, toyon, Pacific wax myrtle, deer grass, coral aloe, olive, Desert Museum palo verde, several manzanitas, grevilleas, Leucadendron, buckwheat and white sage, among other plants. Landezine summarizes the dry palette with grasses, native buckwheat, coffeeberry, kangaroo paw and Leucadendron. The project’s California buckwheat is identified as Eriogonum fasciculatum. The lists show variety rather than a uniform field of one low-water plant: trees provide shade, grasses and shrubs contribute texture, and succulents add another form to the planting mix.
Material choices likewise support a sequence of distinct spaces. Published project descriptions identify limestone steps and pads, decomposed-granite paving, stucco, board-formed concrete and water-washed boulders. The boulders are stacked to support the grade and ease the transition toward the meadow; in the Winter Terrace, a boulder firepit and stone seating anchor the sunny outdoor room. These are documented materials and uses, not a complete construction specification. The sources do not provide quantities, details of structural assemblies, supplier information or installation costs.
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Anyone adapting the planting should check local conditions rather than copy the list wholesale. The available data establishes the chosen species, but not their irrigation schedule, soil requirements on this site, maintenance regime or suitability for another California microclimate. A plant that appears in this project’s palette is not automatically appropriate for every region or property.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the project show about hillside construction?
Dry Garden Poetry is an example of a design that treats slope, outdoor circulation and landscape transitions as connected decisions. The property’s buildings and outdoor rooms are placed in relation to the hillside, while stacked, water-washed boulders help support grade and soften the transition from developed areas toward the meadow. The descriptions document these elements, but do not include engineering plans or enough detail to assess retaining-wall design, drainage performance or construction methods.
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The project’s spaces also illustrate how a landscape can accommodate varied uses without requiring every activity to happen on one terrace. Dining, grilling, gardening and lounging each have a place, connected by the broader arrangement of rooms. That planning strategy may inform other residential projects, but the exact solution depends on the lot, the home and the people who use it.
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What award did Dry Garden Poetry win?
ASLA gave Dry Garden Poetry a 2023 Professional Awards Honor Award in Residential Design. The organization’s awards page lists the project and its jury statement. The jury wrote: “Artistically crafted landscapes in response to functional spaces and the local environment. The muted palette and well-proportioned spaces allow the plants and context to be the stars of this beautiful project.”
Arterra’s press and awards page also lists a 2022 World Landscape Architecture Honour Award and a 2023 Architizer A+ Popular Choice Award. Architizer’s 2023 Typology Winners page lists the project as a finalist; that listing should not be conflated with the Popular Choice Award. The awards recognize the project in their respective programs; they do not independently establish measured water savings, energy performance or construction quality.
What is not documented about the project?
The project is described as energy- and water-conscious, and its plant palette includes drought-tolerant and native selections. However, the sources do not report a construction budget, irrigation demand, water savings, energy savings or quantified environmental performance. They also do not provide a maintenance schedule or detailed construction drawings.
Those limits are important when using a design award project as a reference. The published material supports an understanding of the design intent, spatial organization, selected plants and named materials. It does not support a claim that the property is entirely water-free, that a particular feature produced a measurable utility saving or that its construction details will suit another site. Dry Garden Poetry is most useful as a case study in coordinating architecture, landscape and seasonal outdoor use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the public visit Dry Garden Poetry?
The project is described as a private residential landscape, and the available project sources do not announce public visiting hours or tours. Contacting the landscape architect would be the appropriate way to ask whether any formal access is offered.
Does “dry garden” mean Dry Garden Poetry has no irrigation?
No published source establishes that the property uses no irrigation. “Dry” describes the project’s drought-tolerant landscape approach, not a verified zero-water operating condition.
Who designed Dry Garden Poetry?
Arterra Landscape Architects is credited with the project. The sources also identify a broader project team, but the landscape design is attributed to Arterra.
