Grace Design Associates

Lovely built dream home on a bluff overlooking the spectacular Santa Barbara coastline. Distinctly different gardens reading as a harmonious whole-was our mission! The owners had defined ten distinctly different gardens to be installed across the almost three-acre site. How were these to be woven together into a cohesive whole, which in turn would compliment the Italianate façade of the 10,000 square foot house? The gardens rendered as a string of pearls -- Each of the ten gardens was separately designed to be its own special jewel. And yet, when viewed from afar or from the grand terrace above, several of the gardens and numerous garden elements are "Linked Together as a String of Pearls" -- the White Garden, the Christmas Tree (a large deodar underplanted with white foliaged "snow"), the Theater Garden, the Perennial Border (mandated by the coastal commission to protect the bluff top from failing), the Koi pond, the Queen's Garden, the Pergola and the Herb Garden all flow in a loose chain around the perimeter of a central back lawn. This design concept drove many of the other design decisions and specific design techniques. ** Builder of the Year: Best Landscape and Hardscape, Santa Barbara Contractors Association