The landscape of this home honors the formality of Spanish Colonial / Santa Barbara Style early homes in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix. By re-grading the lot and allowing for terraced opportunities, we featured a variety of hardscape stone, brick, and decorative tiles that reinforce the eclectic Spanish Colonial feel. Cantera and La Negra volcanic stone, brick, natural field stone, and handcrafted Spanish decorative tiles are used to establish interest throughout the property. A front courtyard patio includes a hand painted tile fountain and sitting area near the outdoor fire place. This patio features formal Boxwood hedges, Hibiscus, and a rose garden set in pea gravel. The living room of the home opens to an outdoor living area which is raised three feet above the pool. This allowed for opportunity to feature handcrafted Spanish tiles and raised planters. The side courtyard, with stepping stones and Dichondra grass, surrounds a focal Crape Myrtle tree. One focal point of the back patio is a 24-foot hand-hammered wrought iron trellis, anchored with a stone wall water feature. We added a pizza oven and barbecue, bistro lights, and hanging flower baskets to complete the intimate outdoor dining space. Project Details: Landscape Architect: Greey|Pickett Architect: Higgins Architects Landscape Contractor: Premier Environments Photography: Sam Rosenbaum

We were contacted by the owner of a Houston, Texas home who asked us to design a series of gardens and landscaping features that would compliment and expand the Mediterranean theme of his house into the surrounding landscape. This house sat on a very large lot of several acres in a secluded Memorial Drive neighborhood located near the 610 Loop. The home featured a symmetrical, linear appearance in spite of its two-story build, and our client wanted a landscape and garden design that would follow these same principles of self-contained regularity and subtle linear motion. Creating a Mediterranean theme in a Houston, Texas garden and landscape is a bit more complex that it might appear at face value. The southern coast of Europe—particularly in Italy and Greece—is a mountainous area where homes and gardens are built on steep angles and sharp vertical rises. Gardens and fields are often built in terraces that climb the mountains due to the limited planting area and rough, rocky terrain. Limestone is the predominant rock type in Italy and Greece and has become iconic of this part of the world in our collective consciousness. Mediterranean homes and gardens are historically famous for their white stucco walls, olive groves, and carefully sculptured greenery embedded in a rugged limestone backdrop. The challenge lay in taking an essentially three-dimensional landscaping style and transfering it to a Houston property. As we all know, this part of Texas is very flat, so a hillside garden is out of the question in the literal sense. However, using a combination of symmetrical forms and linear progressions, along with some innovative garden materials, we were able to mimic several aspects of seaside European terrain. The key to doing this was to establish a combination of circular forms and linear patterns in the multiple garden elements we designed. French and Italian gardens place a heavy emphasis on order and symmetry, and both tend to utilize right angles to establish form. We planted a variety of low level growth around the house and rear swimming pool patio to emphasize its walls and corners. We then added three keynote forms to the landscape to create a Houston equivalent of a Mediterranean garden. The first of these forms was a knot garden centered on the front door, located just in front of the home’s motorcourt. We planted boxwoods in three circular rows that looked like terraces on a hillside. In the center of the knot garden we planted Loropatalum, punctuated with a lone Crinum lily as the center piece. The rich purple of the Loropatalum draws catches the eye, and the vertical dimension added by the lily draws it upward to the front entrance of the house. Moving then to one side of the house, we transformed a substantial portion of the yard into a parterre garden that centered on a large glass room that extended from the west wing of the house. This garden was populated by low-growth rose bushes whose amenability to constant trimming makes them an ideal plant material for parterre gardens, and whose colorful blooms a made them stand out from multiple vantage points throughout this Houston neighborhood. The garden borders were made from of boxwood hedges, and the central pathways were made using European limestone gravel that mimics the color of the limestone cliffs of the Aegean and Adriatic Seas. We then completed the design by adding dwarf yaupon, a small shrub that bears a curious resemblance to clouds, all along the borders of the gravel walkways. This helped create the impression that the garden was located on a hilltop near the sea, and that the clouds were rolling across the shoreline. One of the most appealing attributes of this Houston, Texas property is its superb location. The back of the yard borders a 50-foot ravine carved out of the earth by a major tributary of Buffalo Bayou. This seemed to us a natural destination spot for garden guests to visit after strolling around the west wing of the home to the pool. To encourage them to do so, we planted an alley of crepe myrtles leading from the pool area all the way back to the woods along the ravine. We then built a walkway out of limestone aggregate blocks that started at the parterre garden, ran alongside the house to the pool, then ran straight out through the alley of trees to the scenic overlook of the forest and stream below. For more the 20 years Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's fine neighborhoods.

With a lengthy list of ideas about how to transform their backyard, the clients were excited to see what we could do. Existing features on site needed to be updated and in-cooperated within the design. The view from each angle of the property was already outstanding and we didn't want the design to feel out of place. We had to make the grade changes work to our advantage, each separate space had to have a purpose. The client wanted to use the property for charity events, so a large flat turf area was constructed at the back of the property, perfect for setting up tables, chairs and a stage if needed. It also created the perfect look out point into the back of the property, dropping off into a ravine. A lot of focus throughout the project was the plant selection. With a large amount of garden beds, we wanted to maintain a clean and formal look, while still offering seasonal interest. We did this by edging the beds with boxwoods, adding white hydrangeas throughout the beds for constant colour, and subtle pops of purple and yellow. This along with the already breathtaking natural backdrop of the space, is more than enough to make this project stand out. Photographer: Jason Hartog Photography

Brigid Arnott
На фото: большой солнечный, весенний регулярный сад на заднем дворе в морском стиле с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, хорошей освещенностью и настилом

The back of the house has a large bank of windows that extend from the dining area to the main living area; so there is a very strong indoor outdoor connection. Curving planting beds filled with green plants of varied textures enclose the new bluestone patio. To the right is the Tea House which is a major focal point in the rear portion of this Zen Garden.

Really fun project featuring: Drystack retaining walls using 14 tons of Cabinet Gorge wall block Juniper raised beds, stained Pergola, stain Irregular Flagstone Patio 165 sq foot Bluestone featuring many extra large pieces Cut bluestone risers for main stair case Raspberry Trellis Cucumber/squash trellis Galvanized Horse Trough Planters, both oblong and circular, including a double stacked one in lower area. 200+ foot long fence extension + gate. Wetland buffer planting of both ornamental and edible varieties of plants 4 zone, complete automatic drip system with micro valve (manual) controls on all beds

Credit: Linda Oyama Bryan
Пример оригинального дизайна: большой солнечный регулярный сад на заднем дворе в стиле модернизм с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, хорошей освещенностью и мощением тротуарной плиткой

Пример оригинального дизайна: огромный весенний регулярный сад на боковом дворе в классическом стиле с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, полуденной тенью и покрытием из каменной брусчатки

Corten steel retaining walls with Italian cypress. Also pictured are the quarry block walls.
На фото: большой солнечный, весенний регулярный сад на переднем дворе в стиле модернизм с подпорной стенкой, хорошей освещенностью и покрытием из каменной брусчатки с

Пример оригинального дизайна: большой весенний регулярный сад на переднем дворе в стиле модернизм с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, мощением тротуарной плиткой и полуденной тенью

Photography by Matthew Momberger
На фото: огромный солнечный, летний регулярный сад на заднем дворе в стиле модернизм с подпорной стенкой, хорошей освещенностью и покрытием из гравия с

Landscaping: Walkabout Outdoor
На фото: большой солнечный, летний регулярный сад на переднем дворе в стиле ретро с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, хорошей освещенностью и мощением клинкерной брусчаткой

Expansive outdoor patio for dining and entertaining. Patio adjoins house with three riser landing integrating large container plantings.
Пример оригинального дизайна: большой солнечный, летний регулярный сад на боковом дворе в классическом стиле с хорошей освещенностью и покрытием из каменной брусчатки

Источник вдохновения для домашнего уюта: большой весенний регулярный сад на заднем дворе в стиле кантри с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, полуденной тенью и покрытием из каменной брусчатки

Свежая идея для дизайна: весенний регулярный сад среднего размера на заднем дворе в классическом стиле с полуденной тенью и садовой дорожкой или калиткой - отличное фото интерьера

Sun- and shade-loving plants fill planting beds carved out of the lawn and under trees. Photo by Linda Oyama Bryan
Идея дизайна: большой летний регулярный сад на боковом дворе в классическом стиле с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, полуденной тенью и покрытием из каменной брусчатки

Romantic Country Garden, Surrey, UK
Свежая идея для дизайна: огромный летний регулярный сад на заднем дворе в классическом стиле с садовой дорожкой или калиткой и полуденной тенью - отличное фото интерьера

The landscape of this home honors the formality of Spanish Colonial / Santa Barbara Style early homes in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix. By re-grading the lot and allowing for terraced opportunities, we featured a variety of hardscape stone, brick, and decorative tiles that reinforce the eclectic Spanish Colonial feel. Cantera and La Negra volcanic stone, brick, natural field stone, and handcrafted Spanish decorative tiles are used to establish interest throughout the property. A front courtyard patio includes a hand painted tile fountain and sitting area near the outdoor fire place. This patio features formal Boxwood hedges, Hibiscus, and a rose garden set in pea gravel. The living room of the home opens to an outdoor living area which is raised three feet above the pool. This allowed for opportunity to feature handcrafted Spanish tiles and raised planters. The side courtyard, with stepping stones and Dichondra grass, surrounds a focal Crape Myrtle tree. One focal point of the back patio is a 24-foot hand-hammered wrought iron trellis, anchored with a stone wall water feature. We added a pizza oven and barbecue, bistro lights, and hanging flower baskets to complete the intimate outdoor dining space. Project Details: Landscape Architect: Greey|Pickett Architect: Higgins Architects Landscape Contractor: Premier Environments Photography: Sam Rosenbaum

Chelsea Creek is the pinnacle of sophisticated living, these penthouse collection gardens, featuring stunning contemporary exteriors are London’s most elegant new dockside development, by St George Central London, they are due to be built in Autumn 2014 Following on from the success of her stunning contemporary Rooftop Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2012, Patricia Fox was commissioned by St George to design a series of rooftop gardens for their Penthouse Collection in London. Working alongside Tara Bernerd who has designed the interiors, and Broadway Malyon Architects, Patricia and her team have designed a series of London rooftop gardens, which although individually unique, have an underlying design thread, which runs throughout the whole series, providing a unified scheme across the development. Inspiration was taken from both the architecture of the building, and from the interiors, and Aralia working as Landscape Architects developed a series of Mood Boards depicting materials, features, art and planting. This groundbreaking series of London rooftop gardens embraces the very latest in garden design, encompassing quality natural materials such as corten steel, granite and shot blasted glass, whilst introducing contemporary state of the art outdoor kitchens, outdoor fireplaces, water features and green walls. Garden Art also has a key focus within these London gardens, with the introduction of specially commissioned pieces for stone sculptures and unique glass art. The linear hard landscape design, with fluid rivers of under lit glass, relate beautifully to the linearity of the canals below. The design for the soft landscaping schemes were challenging – the gardens needed to be relatively low maintenance, they needed to stand up to the harsh environment of a London rooftop location, whilst also still providing seasonality and all year interest. The planting scheme is linear, and highly contemporary in nature, evergreen planting provides all year structure and form, with warm rusts and burnt orange flower head’s providing a splash of seasonal colour, complementary to the features throughout. Finally, an exquisite lighting scheme has been designed by Lighting IQ to define and enhance the rooftop spaces, and to provide beautiful night time lighting which provides the perfect ambiance for entertaining and relaxing in. Aralia worked as Landscape Architects working within a multi-disciplinary consultant team which included Architects, Structural Engineers, Cost Consultants and a range of sub-contractors.