It was 1984 when Duffy Hurwin, a former clothing designer who also did interior design and photography, met her future husband, Ron, the former owner and publisher of the Marin Express card and its Bay Area sister programs, were “fixed up” by her Mill Valley roommate.
The couple married five years later and moved to Tiburon for its water views and the proximity to the bike path where they had roller skated for decades.
Growing up, she says, her parents had a garden “if you call a dichondra lawn, seasonal flowers and a few trees a garden.”
However, her parents really wanted a pool instead. “So they pulled out the little orchard in the backyard to put in the pool, and because we were on a hillside, they cantilevered a deck around the downslope side of the pool,” she recalls.
Years later, that cantilevered deck would become the inspiration for her own hillside deck in Tiburon.
There was no decking when the couple first moved into their home, and the garden was almost non-existent.
“The backyard had a cement slab and a plastic hot tub surrounded by a very small redwood deck and nothing else,” she says. “We built a deck over the concrete slab and extended it by cantilevering out and making it two levels, north to south, to follow the slope of the land.”
Eventually, the rarely used hot tub was removed to make way for a much-loved tiled patio.
Besides wanting a water view, Hurwin also knew she wanted a relatively low-maintenance garden with lots of tropical plants, one that would make her feel like she was on vacation in her own backyard.
In 1990, after redoing the interior of their house, the couple turned to an architect to lay out the design of the hardscape and to Davis Dalbok of Living Green Design in San Francisco to help choose plants and design a planting scheme. The scheme involved the three areas of their backyard — one at each side of their deck, and another in between the upper and lower levels.
“We started with 12 palm trees — queen, Chinese windmill, Mexican blue and Mediterranean fan — and added numerous sago palms over the years,” she says.
As plants outgrew their spaces, they were transplanted to other areas of the garden.
“We also planted tree ferns, lower-growing ferns, asparagus ferns, aloe, birds of paradise, philodendrons, agapanthus, mondo grass, podocarpus, hibiscus and rose bushes,” she says.
After living with the garden over the years, the couple has made thoughtful changes. For example, the wind-sensitive electric awning that was once on the upper patio has been replaced with a weatherproof motorized Pergoroof awning.
“It’s a retractable awning, which, unlike other awnings, seals out all the wind and rain so we can enjoy our patio and eat outside regardless of the temperature or wind,” she says.
Two electric heaters, purchased from Alfresco Heating in Novato, were mounted on the walls so the patio could stay warmer and allow the couple more time to enjoy the outdoors.
And, after 30 years, Hurwin redesigned the original redwood decking and had it replaced with composite.
“The redwood got pretty old and beat up in the salty air and the boards kept getting loose from age and settling, and we had to keep adding more screws,” she says adding they were tired of having to periodically sand and refinish the decks.
The composite decking they selected was TimberTech Edge, a line that features a straight matte grain, and chose a finish that closely resembled stained redwood.
The decking is attached to the joists with hidden clips, rather than anything “screwed through the top surface except for the end pieces, so it’s a much cleaner look,” she says.
“The original redwood handrails and pickets were also replaced, using a TimberTech cable system in the back garden and an aluminum frame cable system around the front deck and garden,” she adds. “It’s all very low maintenance.”
All of the planning and effort that went into creating a lush and colorful garden, along with the new carefree decking, gives them more time to enjoy it, she says.
“It makes us feel like we’re on holiday in our own backyard,” she says. “We feel like we’re in Hawaii or Mexico year-round and sitting out on the patio, having our meals with a view of the garden, helped us a lot during the lockdown.”
Here are Hurwin’s three good garden practices:
• Find someone good with irrigation. “I found my current gardener (Flores Landscaping) through a referral via the Marin Municipal Water District. We got a Hunter Hydrawise controller that we can control remotely and our gardener (who was already familiar with the system) has our system on his phone to monitor it if we’re not around.”
• “Find someone, as we did, who understands all the different plant foods needed by different plants as well as the least toxic ways to deal with pests. It’s chemistry and not all gardeners know the difference.”
• Be prepared. “Those little tiny trees and plants that first go in grow at different rates and can get very crowded with minds of their own.”
Show off
If you have a beautiful or interesting Marin garden or a newly designed Marin home, I’d love to know about it.
Please send an email describing either one (or both), what you love most about it, and a photograph or two. I will post the best ones in upcoming columns. Your name will be published and you must be over 18 years old and a Marin resident.
PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and entertaining topics every Saturday. She may be contacted at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914, or at pj@pjbremier.com.
