When you drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem you climb up
through hillsides and valleys, coming across new communities built along the
ridges to take advantage of the views.
They move harmoniously for such large developments, as the building
materials are limited to Jerusalem stone, a pale buff and rose limestone.
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| A Typical Jerusalem Street |
The Kaufman house is built into such a hillside, 52 steps up
from the street along a public stairway to other houses along the way further
up the slope. The house is modest by
American standards, about 1,000 square feet, but the garden is splendid: two
levels with a sweeping view of the Jerusalem Forest. Elizabeth and Joseph Kaufman raised a family
of four here, and those children are now bringing children of their own to the
garden.
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| The Public Stairway, Kaufman Garden on the left |
It looks very different now than it did in the early years. It started out on three levels, first the porch (which we
would call a terrace) plus a semi-circle of grass, then two steps down to a
flower border, and on the third level a sandbox. The sandbox rapidly became a kitty-litter
box, freely used by the roaming cat population.
The grass was high-fiber, deeply-rooted zoysia which rapidly spread to
the planting level below, making it virtually impossible to grow anything
else. Then came ten dry years -- a
seven-year drought bracketed by very little water for over a year before and
after. Eventually the walls holding the
levels began to crumble.
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| Demolition of the Old Garden |
Liz: “ We put off a new garden year after year, anticipating
a permit to build out, which never happened.
I would say we spent at least 10 years pondering the change. Twenty-two years after we moved in, our needs
were different.”
Now the plan includes two levels instead of three, a larger
porch (about 500 square feet) with a gas grill, a second level of artificial
turf (about 250 square feet), and minimal planting. Changing access to the house became a major
decision: the old entrance gate was from the public stairway, and since “no one
ever closed the gate behind them, everyone passing had a straight line of
vision into my kitchen.”
The trek up 52 stairs did not deter the contractors, since
they had no intention of making the climb.
All heavy lifting was done by cranes.
Cement was made at street level and hoisted up; all building materials
arrived at the site this way. When the
contractors were ready to deploy soil, it was hoisted up in huge bags, the
bottom of the bags slit open and the soil poured in place.
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| Soil Poured on Site |
A pergola shades part of the porch, small children play down
below on the artificial turf (which I believe is vacuumed rather than mown),
cooling off in a water-filled plastic tub.
An olive tree, planted when the garden was new 22 years ago, provides
the only shade.
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| The Olive Tree, Sole Survivor of the Original Garden |
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| Year One |
The flower border is now on one side of the porch, in a
raised bed 25 feet long and three feet wide.
The tall back wall is painted a vivid terra cotta and provides a
handsome background to plants which grow at an astonishing rate by our
northeastern standards. The bed is
filled with high-quality potting soil and an irrigation system.
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| Year Two |
Liz is a veterinarian at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, a
horticultural wonder with an extraordinary array of plants. Joni Goldberg, the Chief Horticulturalist,
was the unofficial consultant, while I was unofficial commentator. In the interests of full disclosure Liz is my
daughter, which is why I have been in and out of this garden over the years,
and why I have no problem offering unsolicited advice.
If you only have 25 feet to work with, every plant is important,
and when a plant peaks and wilts, Liz is ruthless in removing it. On my last visit non-performing snapdragons
gave way to tuberous begonias and calibrachoa.
Her favorite place to shop is the Nursery of the Jerusalem Botanical
Garden. Adjacent to the garden itself,
the nursery grows for the garden but also sells to the public.
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| Bougainvillea in the Nursery |
Jerusalem is a
Mediterranean climate, so bougainvillea is everywhere, lavender looks glorious,
rosemary survives chilly winters to become broad and hardy, and plumbago, which
we grow only in tiny hanging baskets, is rampant on fences and sprawls over
walls. Some of the plants are familiar
to us, but others we have never seen outside California or in greenhouses.
Cannas, an acquired taste here, proliferate in Jerusalem, Clarkia, a popular
California flower, is offered for sale in the nursery.
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| Clarkia in the Jerusalem Botanical Garden |
The entire process took four to five months from demolition
to completion, not counting the decade of pondering. The result is a cool,
sophisticated private space enclosed in sand-blasted glass. Planting is kept to a manageable minimum. The porch comfortably holds an
ever-increasing family, it’s floor pitched to a pipe under the grass so that
the water runs down the public stairs and out into the street. Nobody seems to object.
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| A Typical Sidewalk Wall of Plumbago |
