NISHIEL PATEL

Gaura and dichondra overflowing in a concrete planter in a Brooklyn brownstone backyard

South Slope Garden

Brooklyn, NY

A brownstone garden for a textile designer’s family and tenants in Park Slope. The checkerboard paving, made of alternating thermaled bluestone and limestone, was selected to achieve a playful pattern while maintaining order and manageability. Specimen and evergreen planting is selected to maintain fanciful seasonal interest, even in the depths of winter, and a visual tableau from the deck above. Year round programming for dining, cooking, reading, and sitting by a fire was accommodated within distinct held spaces.

Photo: Reed Young

Completed in 2023
Installed by Brooklyn Grange

Checkerboard bluestone paving juxtaposed with a weeping blue cedar in a Brooklyn brownstone backyard
Spring flowering annuals blossoming against a painted brick backdrop
A bumblebee on a white coneflower in a vibrant backyard landscape
Deck bistro set against a slatted wood screen with black wire chairs, a Hay table, a cut-flower bouquet, and a concrete planter with trailing dichondra in a Brooklyn brownstone landscape
Meadow-style planting bed with coneflowers, scabiosa, and grasses beneath a weeping blue cedar and raised deck in a Brooklyn landscape garden
Delicate pink scabiosa and white gaura on wiry stems against a dark blue planter
Cut-leaf elderberry foliage arching over a slatted wood fence beside a potted plant on the deck in a Brooklyn backyard landscape
Alfresco table on checkerboard bluestone paving with crusty bread, apricots, and olives, edged by lush green shade planting in a New York landscape garden
Olive-green slatted metal bench with a linen cushion surrounded by coneflowers, sea holly, and grasses on checkerboard paving
Bluestone path flanked by limelight hydrangeas and burgundy sanguisorba leading to the dining table and a red mesh chair
Installation in progress with nursery pots and flats of plants including black elderberry and herbs staged on the checkerboard paving before planting
Wider installation shot of the whole Brooklyn backyard mid-planting with dozens of potted plants laid out on a drop cloth beneath a mature tree