Structures

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Concrete walkways, steps and retaining walls Compliment this Mid-Century Modern home. A design of meandering geometry and textural plantings create a lively journey to the front door.

Fencing can be more than a privacy screen. A low fence enclosing the entry of an infill home gives added outdoor space for relaxing in the sun and conversing with the neighbors.

Japanese Style privacy screens create a sense of enclosure yet leave a view to the front door of this Mid-Century Modern home.

Cedar double gates allow the owners to open up this entry courtyard to visitors. The fence design is Asian inspired with copper pipe mimicking bamboo.

Stamped concrete and boulders step down to the home’s main entry that is below the street grade. The principles of Landscape Architecture determine the safest step rise for the deep stair treads.

Basalt stepping stones cross a dry stream bed that mitigates a disconnected downspout. A restful spot awaits in this lawn free front yard garden.

Concrete aggregate steps meander to the front door through curved basalt stone retaining walls.

Basalt stone steps meander through this casual drought-tolerant garden.

Concrete aggregate steps and a curving faux-stone wall create a courtyard entry that is completely accessible (ADA) from the driveway to the front door and the sunny patio.

Arbors

A stamped concrete landing and arbor work together to create a front porch look for this 1980’s home.

This Contemporary Style home is transformed with a landscape plan. Paver parking, an arbor, boulders and plantings evoke an Asian Style.

Stone walls and a cedar arbor create a new entry for this Ranch Style home. The owners’ desire for an Arts and Crafts Style change has driven the design.

Patios

This small backyard provides the homeowners space to cook, dine, lounge and entertain. Maintenance is low and there is no lawn.

A variety of materials create this Asian inspired courtyard. It’s all in the details.

This family was in need of a new deck and a backyard makeover. A useless muddy lawn was just wasted space. A new deck design off the kitchen offers an immediate dining space while a covered pergola provides a dry and more intimate setting down at the garden level. Pavers spill out from the deck area into the back yard where a concrete and stone firepit entice guests to gather, visit and relax.

Surrounded by dense plantings a variegated dimensional bluestone patio offers a restful place. Brick facing on the arbor steps reflects the high brick wall surrounding this garden and patio.

Plantings and a vegetable garden area surround this sunken courtyard garden. An elevated patio embedded with boulders is surrounded by a garden. A wall fountain and ferns soften a new back porch created to match the existing Tudor style home. Applied stone and antiqued bricks mimic an old masonry style used on the home’s front walls.

Hillsides

Boulders and a variety of trees and shrubs retain what once was a weedy, muddy erosional mess. The previously hidden storm-drain is now protected by boulders and runoff is filtered by native sedge. Once the plantings fill in, erosion will cease in this landscape.

In a sloped area that was previously wasted space, stone wall terracing retains a flagstone patio, garden and steps.

Water Features

A Modern water feature of formed and dyed concrete, was designed for the owner’s grandchildren to play in. Their rock collection covers the bottom.

Wood, metal and stone create a unique water feature through collaboration of the client, a skilled craftsman and the designer.

The owner’s selected this Green Man for spouting water into a cooling basin. The Green man is a symbol of rebirth, the cycle of growth being re-born each spring. The fountain back mimics the lines of the historical home’s unusual windows.

This front entrance fountain provides a welcoming surprise to birds and other visitors in the garden and a pleasant sound for passersby.

In a dry pond a stone fountain provides the sound of water yet is safe for children.

Fences, walls, gates and decks

A composite and cedar deck in a Transitional Style has several multi-purpose platforms for sitting, serving food or for potted plants.

A pergola with rolling gates camouflage a storage container and large van from view but provide access when needed.

A glass paneled screen creates night-time color and focus in the garden.

At the boundary of a steeply sloping yard a stepped fence follows the contour. An open mesh of heavy wire defines the space while retaining the view of the surrounding landscape.

A circular element in a contemporary wood gate is counterpoint to the vertical structure of the surrounding fence and as such becomes a garden focal point.

A wrought iron gate is in keeping with the Spanish style wall surrounding the garden.

In a design of the Spanish wall note that not only do the sections have a pleasing curve but the tile surface also slopes inward to reflect the general curve of the wall around the garden.

Our native cedar lends itself well to Japanese garden design elements.

What was once just the side area of a house becomes a focal point with the addition of a custom fence and gate.