Lazarus

A little corner of France in Kenwood.

For a couple who are confirmed Francophiles, Gray Gardens designed a French-inspired outdoor environment to reflect their New Orleans-style home. Taking inspiration from his travels in Paris and Provence, Andrew Kruger designed a simple, yet sophisticated plan featuring trees, plants, shrubs, and flowers that are equally home in both France and Minneapolis. The Gray Gardens team replaced the old blacktop driveway with intimate courtyard spaces and lined the path to the front door with colorful annuals and Provencal-style urns planted with topiary trees. They built retaining walls of historic Minnesota limestone and planted an abundance of boxwoods clipped and sculpted Parisian-style, in serifs and topiaries, as well as fragrant flowers and herbs. To create a focal point, they installed a French fountain with a low rim that makes an ideal place for enjoying a glass of Provencal rose at dusk.