На фото: участок и сад на заднем дворе в средиземноморском стиле с покрытием из гравия с

Dry creek bed with ledger stone, pebbles, trailing sedums and ornamental grasses.
На фото: весенний засухоустойчивый сад среднего размера на заднем дворе в средиземноморском стиле с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, полуденной тенью и покрытием из гравия с

Rusted steel garden beds.
Пример оригинального дизайна: большой огород на участке на заднем дворе в средиземноморском стиле с полуденной тенью и покрытием из гравия

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.

Guest cottage forecourt, with flagstone paving, also created by removing a section of the driveway. The planting and pots compliment the style of the house. This garden has been featured on the Marin Ecological Garden Tour 2009 through 2011. Simmonds & Associates, Inc.

Garden makeovers by Shirley Bovshow in Los Angeles. Homeowner wanted a natural style garden with Mediterranean and native California plants. An avid hiker, the homeowner now has her own decomposed granite "trail." Photo by Shirley Bovshow, http://EdenMakersBlog.com

Because the sunniest place to grow vegetables is in the front yard, custom Cor-ten steel planters were designed as an attractive sculptural element, their graceful curves complementing the organic flow of the landscape. Informal gravel provides stable footing to walk and work, while remaining permeable to rain. Dwarf citrus grow in pots, and foundation plantings of Ribes sanguineum and Phormium 'Guardsman', and Ficus pumila vine anchor the home. Photo © Jude Parkinson-Morgan.

Ultimate backyard escape. Never mowed. Watered once a week. Gorgeous mediterranean garden for a contemporary lifestyle.
Идея дизайна: большой солнечный, летний засухоустойчивый сад на заднем дворе в средиземноморском стиле с клумбами, хорошей освещенностью и покрытием из гравия

L'automne, les graminées, les gaura et les santolines prennent le relais sur les floraisons de printemps et d'été.
Идея дизайна: солнечный засухоустойчивый сад среднего размера на боковом дворе в средиземноморском стиле с садовой дорожкой или калиткой, хорошей освещенностью и покрытием из гравия

Пример оригинального дизайна: солнечный участок и сад среднего размера на переднем дворе в средиземноморском стиле с подъездной дорогой, хорошей освещенностью и покрытием из гравия

Стильный дизайн: солнечный, летний засухоустойчивый сад на склоне в средиземноморском стиле с подпорной стенкой, хорошей освещенностью и покрытием из гравия - последний тренд

Set on a steeply sloped hillside, the site's terraced landscape is supported by a series of natural stone retaining walls and a carefully engineered drainage system. Design | Erin Carroll Landscape Architect Photography | Kurt Jordan Photography

Свежая идея для дизайна: большой солнечный, летний участок и сад на переднем дворе в средиземноморском стиле с хорошей освещенностью, покрытием из гравия и клумбами - отличное фото интерьера

This front yard is a mixture of colorful drought tolerant plants, edible citrus and flagstone. The local wildlife love being able to eat here and the homeowners love coming out in the morning with a hot cup of coffee. You can read more about this project, plus watch the project video here http://tinyurl.com/6tb3p8q

The entrance to the estate on the Gaviota Coast near Santa Barbara. Pino Noir vineyard on the right and lavender on the left (Lavandula 'Provence'), chip seal driveway, all surrounded by Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) Lane Goodkind photo www.lanegoodkind.com

A quiet path through a California native meadow
На фото: засухоустойчивый сад на заднем дворе в средиземноморском стиле с местом для костра и покрытием из гравия

Стильный дизайн: солнечный садовый фонтан в средиземноморском стиле с хорошей освещенностью и покрытием из гравия - последний тренд

A gravel path winds through native drought-tolerant plantings
Свежая идея для дизайна: большой участок и сад на боковом дворе в средиземноморском стиле с садовой дорожкой или калиткой и покрытием из гравия - отличное фото интерьера

This garden design for the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show consisted of 9 regularly spaced reflective pools with planting surrounding each. Inspired by the Roman Baths in Bath, these perfect squares suggested the regularity of the Hypocaust columns and serve as a reminder of the city’s relationship with water. The concept for the planting is ‘A modern meadow’; the mix of forms and colours is intentionally unusual. Well defined flower heads and shrubs in the foreground contrast against a hazy ‘fluffy’ backdrop evocative of steam rising from the hot spring water. The use of plants such as euphorbia, lavender, santolina and rosemary combined with breedon gravel paths evoke a mediterranean feel.