A Heartwood Hillside: Designing a Better Garden in Portland, Maine

The Challenge: Creating a Walkable Garden on a Steep Hillside

Tucked among the trees overlooking Back Cove in Portland, Maine, this hillside residence offers a beautiful setting… and a challenging landscape. When
the aging timber and dry cast components began to deteriorate, Little Lion Landscape Design saw an opportunity to create a more durable structure while preserving the garden’s natural character and its connection to the water beyond.

The hillside’s original design included a wooden stairway, pergola, and freestanding trellis walls, and featured dry-cast pavers and blocks. The wooden components were rotting, falling apart, and unsafe, while the pavers and blocks looked tired and worn. Its tiered garden already featured plantings, but a large hedge obscured their view, and the homeowner ultimately wanted to make better use of the space.

When project designer Liam Brochu assessed the site, he envisioned a layout created from the ground up, offering the experience of moving through the garden. He wanted the retaining walls to create usable levels without making the entire hillside feel like a fortress. The stairs, plantings, and tiers needed to work together, so a walk to the water would become part of enjoying the property.

The Solution: Matching the Hillside to the Hom

Brochu and the homeowner selected Rosetta Hardscapes’ Heartwood Wall solution because they wanted an organic wooden look with the durability of a stone wall. The homeowner liked the warmth of wood, but replacing the failing old structure with another timber system just didn’t make sense. Alternative solutions were considered, including another wood-look concrete product and recycled plastic with timber graining. Heartwood ultimately won out because it preserved the original design vision while reducing material costs.

A priority for the homeowner was connecting the look of the hillside improvements to the wooden deck recently added to the rear of the residence. Rather than simply choosing a standard brown color for the Heartwood, a custom Walnut Brown hue was selected to create the link between the new hillside feature and the timber deck. “[Local Rosetta producer] Gagne & Son helped us work through the material selection and custom color,” explained Brochu. “Rather than simply choosing a standard brown, we matched it to wood the homeowner had used to build her deck. Walnut Brown was the closest color, and the custom finish helped connect the new walls to what was already there.”

The Project

The project commenced in August 2026, with work requiring roughly one month to complete. Brochu commented that the most challenging part of the installation was accessing the site. “Getting our Caterpillar excavators onto that steep hillside was a major challenge,” he stated. “The site itself dictated how we could move equipment and approach the work.”

The steeply sloped site also made securing the walls more important. As a result, geogrid and a friction connection between block courses was used to reinforce and stabilize the three wall sections.

Brochu’s thoughtful design enabled he and his crew to take advantage of opportunities to improve the project during installation. It also allowed for Heartwood’s versatility to be placed on display. “The walls and stairs stayed true to the design, but we left room to make use of opportunities on site,” he explained. “We had some extra material, played around with it, and ended up using it for a patio. That was a useful addition without changing the overall direction of the project.”

The Outcome

The finished space brings the retaining walls, stairs, pathways and planting together into a hillside garden, with a patio to enjoy the setting. The structure follows the design, while the planting and movement between levels keep the space from feeling dominated by walls.

“We’re grateful to Gagne & Son for helping us get the material and color right, and to Rosetta Hardscapes for a product that let us carry the design through.” –Liam Brochu, Little Lion Landscape Design

The selection of Heartwood gave the homeowner the wooden character they wanted without rebuilding in wood. The custom Walnut Brown color ties it back to the deck, which was an important part of making the new work feel connected to the property.