Central Gardens

Located in the historic Central Gardens neighborhood in Memphis, the project sought to revive the outdoor space of a 1920’s traditional home with a new pool, screened porch and garden design. After renovating the 1920’s kitchen, the client sought to improve their outdoor space. The first step was replacing the existing kidney pool with a smaller pool more suited to the charm of the site. With careful insertion of key elements the design creates spaces which accommodate, swimming, lounging, entertaining, gardening, cooking and more. “Strong, organized geometry makes all of this work and creates a simple and relaxing environment,” Designer Jeff Edwards explains. “Our detailing takes on updated freshness, so there is a distinction between new and old, but both reside harmoniously.” The screened porch actually has some modern detailing that compliments the previous kitchen renovation, but the proportions in materiality are very complimentary to the original architecture from the 1920s. The screened porch opens out onto a small outdoor terrace that then flows down into the backyard and overlooks a small pool. We wanted to incorporate as much green as possible in the small space, so there is no pool deck. The sod of the lawn comes right up to a limestone coping around the perimeter of the pool. Inside the pool, we used a dark plaster so that it feels more like a reflecting pool in the small space. We nestled it in around an existing Japanese maple that's bordered in seal edging and underplanted in dwarf mondo grass. The backyard is really divided into a couple of zones. So there's the central zone with the pool and lawn. There are an existing garage and guesthouse beyond, just now used as a pool house.