by Isabel Duprat

 

The gardens of this Isay Weinfeld’s house are located in the voids created by the occupation of a plot of land measuring 865 m². They spring up here and there as sources of light and freshness for the interiors.

​With the possibility of seeing two patios at the same time, I selected plants that repeat themselves, some, not all, passing from one to the other, and then to the first that is not noted but are etched in the memory, as if these gardens were actually one producing the feeling that they run throughout the house. What marked the choice of species in this area was the shade cast on the walls of these small patios and of the house itself, with some patches of sun in their reduced dimensions. Also considered was the depth of soil for planting, as only in one of them was there natural soil.

 

Plumeria rubra was used in the sunniest patio and on the slab, due to its smaller and sculptural size, adapting well to a small depth of soil and yelding beautiful fragrant flowers. In the garden where we had permeable soil, I planted a Handroanthus impetiginosus with its trunk free up to almost 3 meters, for its crown to show itself in the upstairs office. Ptychosperma elegans palms with very fine stalks, interspersed with ferns and philodendrons, and small mirrors of water appears here and there, reflecting points of light.

 

The house faces a garden next to the pool and the barbecue terrace, limited by the limit walls, the one on the right quite high. In order to minimize its unwanted importance on the garden, it was cut by an intermediate plant bed, where we planted Parthenocissus as the bottom of a line of tall and thin Triplaris brasiliensis, whose verticality and good height contributed to this task.

 

This green board lacked the most difficult movement: the social entrance to the house, 1.50m wide and 30m long between two walls, a long, thin corridor!

 

At the beginning of the project, I went to visit the house where the clients lived, at their request, so that I could get to know the garden and the pleasant feeling they had in its daily and intense use. Many different vines, perfumes, species and colors covering walls and clamping the pergola of the daily meals.

 

This was the key to thinking about the entrance. A wooden pergola supported by the two walls had its spacing increased at our request to let in more light. On the path from the sidewalk to the main door, I planted several partial shade vines that would not advance much over the already narrow path, such as clerodendrons, stephanotis for perfuming, abutilon, philodendron cordato, jade and wax flower, climbing the walls and the pergola. I chose this variety of species with the purpose of distracting the walk and making Adiantum capillus-venerisarrival pleasant. I interspersed begonias of different species and sizes, colorful and delicate phytonias, velvety leafy ferns, ferns, Adiantum capillus-veneris, peperomias, cissus alternating and involving the basalt floor with a joint of black grass (Ophiopogon japonicus).

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The vines were also covering other garden walls. Wisteria and morning glory, near the pool, Petrea volubilis in the Plumeria rubra courtyard, climbing fern and philodendrons in the darkest patios.

 

In the precious book The Islands by Jean Grenier, he delicately describes a passage, when he lived in Italy:

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It was April or May. In a place where the alley was at an angle, a strong odor of jasmine and lilac pervaded me. I didn't see the hidden flowers that were on the wall. But I stopped for a long time to breathe them and my night was scented with it. How I understood those who were so jealously confining these flowers that they loved! A passion wants fortresses around, and in that minute I loved the mystery that makes everything beautiful, the mystery without which there is no happiness.

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