Church House Stepped Garden

USE: Outdoor Dining, Garden, and Playspace

LOCATION: Somerville, MA

DATE COMPLETED: 2025

AREA: 700sf

The Church House Garden includes a series of outdoor rooms for rest, work, and play: a street-facing seating area to relax and chat with neighbors, a screened dining and outdoor work table, a gravel playscape with boulders for hopping and sitting, and a stepped planter for climbing and performing.

A mix of sedges and grasses intermingled with perennials mitigate variable moisture conditions, while creating continuity between the sunny front and shaded rear gardens.

Purple spherical flower with star-shaped petals surrounded by green grass and foliage.
A wooden fence with a tall green leafy plant growing beside it, small pink and white flowers at the bottom, and water droplets on the fence.
Urban front yard with flowering purple allium plants, concrete border, sidewalk, residential houses, green foliage, and garden steps.
Small green plant with large leaves growing behind a stone on a wooden deck with a black wooden fence in the background, some fallen leaves scattered on the deck.
Garden with tall purple allium flowers, green foliage, and a wooden bench near a house with black steps, green trees, and a parked car in the background.
An outdoor patio area with a long wooden dining table and multiple matching chairs, surrounded by a wooden fence, plants, and a gravel ground. A canopy with string lights overhead and a black mesh curtain on one side.
44 Church Front Planting Plan_2025-09-16.jpg
2408 44 Church Garden _Planting Plan_Backyard_2.jpg

Community

Architecture

Interiors

Ecology