Garden Terrace

Baywatch: Once a barren patch of grass, the new terraced yard offers a dramatic view of Kaneohe Bay.

Lanai Living: A small stairway leads to another patio and a larger lawn, ideal for entertaining.

Lanai Living: A small stairway leads to another patio and a larger lawn, ideal for entertaining.

Views of Kaneohe Bay and the rest of Windward Oahu’s windswept coast were spectacular. But the home’s best vantage points for these sights—a sloping, sparse backyard and its postage stamp-size exposed lanai—were dreary. Though the picture-perfect panorama could draw a crowd, there was no place for them to stand.

For many years, this design flaw wasn’t an issue, since the house was a rental property. Then, several years ago, the homeowners decided to move back to the Islands and make the Kaneohe hilltop house their permanent home. The couple gutted most of the structure’s rooms, expanding and re-creating their living spaces. They did the same to the outdoors, starting with the backyard, which had an eye-catching view—but was an eyesore in itself.





“The grade back here wasn’t too bad, a two-to-one slope, which is gradual but basically useless,” says Steve Dewald, of Steve’s Gardening Service, who was hired to design and install a new landscape. “We decided we’d terrace the area and create two entertaining spaces, both with open viewing planes and plenty of privacy from the upper and lower neighbors.”

(left to right)Xanadu philodendron, Dwarf Tahitian gardenia, Red caribea heliconia, Spathiphyllum silk plant

To achieve this simple-sounding plan, Dewald had to design a complex series of retaining walls to tame the property’s incline. The largest of the walls is nearly eight feet tall, reaching up from the property line shared with the neighbor below. Smaller walls define the property line along the upper half of the lot, as well as create planters and wide, spacious living areas. Dewald and his subcontractor also built a series of walls in front of the house, which created small verdant side yards, an elegant entry and dynamite curb appeal.

When it came to the plant selection for these landscapes, which total about 2,000 square feet, Dewald kept things simple: Along the perimeter with the upper neighbor, Dewald chose a couple of silver buttonwood trees, a variety well known for its high salt and wind tolerance. He also rehabilitated an existing coral tree and cut back and reshaped a handful of strawberry guava trees, which were growing wild in a far corner. All of the trees have since grown generous canopies, providing privacy while not disrupting the neighbor’s view of the bay.

In the shady area below the trees, Dewald planted a ground cover of wax ficus to protect the slope against erosion. On the next terrace, he built a wide, gracious patio, which is bordered by a tidy lawn of el toro zoysia grass. A concrete walkway links a second patio with its own little lawn. To preserve the viewing planes of each area, Dewald framed each grassy area in low-growing philodendron xanadu and akia plants. “The akia is compact and has touches of silver, which complement the silver buttonwoods,” Dewald says.
Dewald also installed a collection of raphis palms, spathyfillum silk plants and red caribea heliconia in planters along the shady, protected side of the house. On the lower perimeter, he planted dwarf Tahitian gardenia, a song of India bush and more philodendron xanadu and heliconia.



In these outdoor entertaining areas, Dewald wasn’t the only person doing the planting. The homeowners did some gardening of their own, experimenting with brightly colored annuals, placed in large, ceramic pots on the lanai. They grow orchids throughout and just added a small hedge of hibiscus along the side of the house. In fact, Dewald encourages homeowners to tweak a professionally installed landscape, because inevitably some plants or trees don’t thrive in a certain area. Every landscape is different.

In Bloom: Low-growing Akia plants, installed along the perimeter, preserve the view.

“Landscapes aren’t like houses; they’re living things,” Dewald says. “Some plants thrive while others don’t. The homeowners are very attentive. They came out and made some subtle changes, which is very helpful. Just because you have a professionally landscaped yard, you shouldn’t feel like you can’t touch things. You should feel free to touch your own yard.”

In the front of the house, the landscaper created a few pocket yards, or more terraces cut out of the hilly property. The lower space features a small Singapore plumeria tree; the upper yard, with more tiers, features a tongatabua tree, stone bench and meandering pathway to the home’s front door.
“This area used to be a mess; hilly, with dirt and dust everywhere,” Dewald says. “By terracing the place, we made the area useable and created a nice, gradual entry to the home.”
But as elegant as the new entryway may be, there’s no doubt what the home’s defining and show-stopping features are—the new outdoor rooms with their views. “The homeowners wanted something tropical and lush, but they also wanted something simple, which worked out very nicely,” says Dewald. “We didn’t use a wide variety of plants, and we were careful where we planted them. Nothing obstructs the view of the bay, which, of course, is the real center of attention here.”�