A behind-the-scenes look at Ogden’s on HGTV’s “Dear Genevieve”

Talk about challenging spaces – with all of the properties and soil conditions and styles I’ve worked on over the years, this space was among the toughest! No wonder the Adcocks wrote to Dear Genevieve! The incline was steep, steep, steep, and the footprint was very small. Light was limited and erosion was a serious threat. The access from the house to the garden was indirect and uninviting and there was this monstrous warping stone wall to contend with. . .

Such was the challenge presented by the producers of Dear Genevieve when they asked me to be a guest designer on their first outdoor episode: A Boring Backyard Is Transformed Into A Zen Retreat. What a fun adventure it turned into! A short few weeks of planning and then a whirlwind three days of installation. Thanks to the teamwork, expertise and creativity of a team that included the Ogdens crew, our friends at RB Irrigation, and master carpenters Walter Chapman and Tim Barry, we cleared, graded, amended, irrigated and created a wonderful sun and shade landscape that includes a beautiful new deck, appropriate and exciting sustainable plantings, a water source and other features to inspire calm and attract songbirds. A zen retreat in the heart of Huntington.

We are very grateful to Genevieve Godor, her producer Jessica Canovas and the entire team at Dear Genevieve. We’re happy to share these photo memories of the project and hope you enjoy the transformation process.

– Judy Ogden