Courtyard Gardens in Bethesda, MD

Courtyard Gardens for Bethesda Homes and Estates

A courtyard garden is a garden you can step into from the house and feel enclosed by: walls, hedges or the building on several sides, a paved floor, and planting that frames rather than fills the space. In Bethesda, courtyards appear in entry gardens on new custom homes, side yards between a house and garage, enclosed areas off a breakfast room and in the walled gardens of older Chevy Chase and Edgemoor properties. Because they are small, every element shows, and the best courtyards feel calm, ordered and private.

Design usually starts with the floor and the center. Paving in brick, bluestone, granite setts or gravel defines the space, sometimes with a contrasting border. A central feature, such as a fountain, a sculpture, a specimen Japanese maple or a pair of urns, gives the eye a resting place. Walls are softened with espaliered shrubs, climbing hydrangea, or evergreens like inkberry and leucothoe, and the planting beds use a restrained palette that layers ferns, hellebores, epimedium and wild ginger in shade, or lavender, catmint and boxwood alternatives in sun. Low-voltage lighting, recessed step lights and a recirculating fountain wired by an electrician bring the courtyard to life at night.

In the Mid-Atlantic, courtyards can trap heat and humidity in summer and hold shade and cold in winter. Planting for those microclimates, using drainage that moves water out of enclosed paving, and choosing frost-tolerant materials all matter. A quiet fountain also masks road noise from busy routes like Wisconsin Avenue or River Road.