BY
Jennifer Oldridge
PHOTOGRAPHY
Al Pitzner

Tucked away on one of the sloping hillsides of the Brookside neighborhood is an unassuming, pale yellow, Arts and Crafts bungalow built circa 1910.

A quiet and seemingly shy accountant named Bruce Anderson calls this his little piece of earth, but Anderson does not just treat this prime real estate as a place to hang his coat and hat; rather he has transformed his slice of terra firma into a lush, inviting and almost tropical retreat.

He and his landscaper friend, Andrew Wilnerd, collaborated to create a garden oasis in one of the busiest neighborhoods of Kansas City.

But the thoroughfare that bustles with traffic literally two houses down the cresting hill seems only a faint murmur when in Anderson's outdoor sanctuary.

Under the glow of the lights of the Plaza, he's managed to combine the best of both worlds.

"Bruce was so generous with his space and resources that I had an unencumbered ability to create," Wilnerd says.

Built off of the back of the home is a large, spacious deck that was constructed around a roomy hot tub.

A row of full, wispy palm plants in large urn pots flank one edge of the deck, ensuring privacy for anyone partaking in a steamy hot soak.

A banana-shaped water feature boasting two waterfalls on each end converges into the same spacious pool--a living, breathing water garden.

The outdoor area--once just a flat slab of grass--has become a layered ecosystem.

Dry-stacked limestone rocks invite the rock wall to become a staging area for plants to begin to take root.

"I have several living walls. We have experimented with coleus and coralbells in the nooks and crannies as well as the traditional alpine plants like some sedums and thymes that seem to thrive in the cracks of the rocks," Anderson explains.

The element of texture is highlighted in Anderson's yard, while any flowers that blossom serve strictly as icing on the cake.

Using coleus, elephant ear, dock, sweet potato vine, heavenly bamboo, coralbell, weeping pussy willow tree and oak leaf hydrangea, the space is a delight for the senses and a stellar example of how to juxtapose flora.

Anderson, in his bashful way, states, "It is just like any yard. There is always color and movement, plus there is continually someone dirty who is hard at work."

He is too modest to notice that this space is not like every yard on the block, but in fact, the poster child for city living, with all of the accoutrements.