STYLE : GARDENS : Behind the Vines

A lot of the fun of John and Terry Poplawski’s flower-filled street garden in Woodland Hills lies in trying to guess what unfolds beyond its vine-topped gate. So dense and colorful are the blooming heaps and drifts of the public beds that it’s hard to think how the inner sanctum could be any more seductive.

Designed by Sandy Kennedy of Sassafras Landscaping in Topanga, the dual garden realms allow the Poplawskis their privacy while presenting the neighborhood with a romantic alternative to the conventional lawn. Though the couple’s house is all but invisible from the road, you can’t miss the bush morning glory and true geranium spilling hospitably onto the sidewalk or fail to be tempted by purple wallflowers and rosy breath of heaven pointing the way uphill.

Just what would you find if you passed under the looping pink jasmines and white potato vines? A double perennial border lush with bearded iris, valerian and penstemon. A secret shade garden with a bench, set among campanula and abutilon. A wild hilltop bursting with ceanothus and St. Catherine’s lace.

“We wanted a natural-feeling garden,” says John Poplawski. “We also wanted it to be drought-tolerant and attractive to birds and butterflies.”

Besides butterflies, the unusual and unexpected landscape tends to draw passers-by, whom Poplawski catches peering through the gate as he weeds. “They tell me how pretty the garden is,” he says, “but, of course, the plants do all the work--just by growing wild and being themselves.”