Garden Tour: A midcentury modern design
When Amy first called me in the spring of 2023, her inquiry note said, “I’d love to build a beautiful garden to complement my beautiful midcentury modern home.” Sure enough, when I walked through the heavy red doors into a swanky, light-filled foyer, I knew I had my work cut out for me.
This image is an old real estate photo from 2018. Forgive me, Amy, for not taking a photo of your whole house. But here you can see the original Warterfield & Bass design- wow wow wow.
The beamed portico off the back of house was studded with gray river rock and Japanese maples that shaded the park-like backyard. Amy had recently cleaned out a thicket of honeysuckle and privet to reveal an old stone wall and iron fence, which grounded the house firmly in our lovely old city. This house is a gem— a designers dream. And Amy, a therapist and artist, had an eye for something beautiful.
The Shed and Patio
The process of building the garden happened in stages. Amy already had a thriving collection of metal Vego beds, so she decided to focus on a garden shed first. In year one, a sleek black modern structure appeared in the corner of the garden. While Amy was busy dreaming of new climbing roses and window boxes, Tennessee Kitchen Gardens came on the scene to build a large slab patio.
Amy wanted a natural look—no cement, no gravel—so we used heavy slabs of stone and left space for creeping thyme to fill the cracks. Using flagstone thinner than two inches would have caused the patio to wobble and crack without a proper paver base.
The Garden
Finding the lines of the garden. The stone wall is our focal point.
The patio was finished in late fall of 2024, and we shifted our sights to the raised bed design. We decided that the sunniest spot in the yard was near the pool, but we had some groundwork to do. An old brick pathway created a narrow bottleneck that didn’t accommodate the right angles we needed, so we decided to remove it. In its place, we used low-profile black steel edging to shape the square garden space without stealing the spotlight from the stone ledges and flagstone steppers.
A Mixture of Modern and Magical
Blossom posing on the pathway
To reflect the home's clean lines and architectural confidence, we chose matte black cedar beds that offered strong geometry and a minimal footprint. They grounded the space in structure—echoing the symmetry of the home and giving the garden a bold, graphic presence. These modern lines made the garden feel fresh and intentional, like it was always meant to be there.
But balance is everything in a garden. At the entrance, we carved out curved beds that softened the overall layout and offered a quiet sense of whimsy. Filled with native plants—roses, yarrow, sedum, and low grasses—these beds hum with life and movement. Where the raised beds brought order, the native plantings brought play. It's a garden that understands contrast: sleek but soft, precise yet alive.
Gardens That Belong
At Tennessee Kitchen Gardens, we believe a garden should feel like a natural extension of the home—rooted in the architecture, reflective of the people who live there, and responsive to the land itself. This garden now does exactly that.
From the bold lines of the black beds to the playful curves of the native borders, every inch of this space was designed with intention. It’s a space for gathering, for growing, for grounding—a modern garden that speaks the same language as the home beside it.
The final postage stamp.
