This propery is situated on the south side of Centre Island at the edge of an oak and ash woodlands. orignally, it was three properties having one house and various out buildings. topographically, it more or less continually sloped to the water. Our task was to creat a series of terraces that were to house various functions such as the main house and forecourt, cottage, boat house and utility barns. The immediate landscape around the main house was largely masonry terraces and flower gardens. The outer landscape was comprised of heavily planted trails and intimate open spaces for the client to preamble through. As the site was largely an oak and ash woods infested with Norway maple and japanese honey suckle we essentially started with tall trees and open ground. Our planting intent was to introduce a variety of understory tree and a heavy shrub and herbaceous layer with an emphisis on planting native material. As a result the feel of the property is one of graciousness with a challenge to explore.

View of the stream and plantings 1 year after installation. Sunrise Landscape and Design created a recirculating stream in the clients front yard, installed new landscaping, and created a paver drive that tied into the front entrance.stone on the front of the house entrance.

Pond in Japanese garden
Expansive country side yard full sun formal garden in West Midlands with with pond for fall.

Villengarten in Bergisch- Gladbach Entwurf: Studio ASH
Expansive traditional backyard partial sun formal garden in Cologne for summer.

Melissa Clark Photography
Expansive beach style courtyard full sun formal garden in DC Metro with a garden path and brick pavers for summer.

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

This new pond provides a scenic destination for the farm. Robert Benson Photography
Inspiration for an expansive country backyard full sun formal garden for summer in New York with a water feature.

Design ideas for an expansive traditional backyard partial sun formal garden in Other with a garden path and decking.

Add interest to a sloping landscape with natural stacked stone retaining wall and flagstone steps. Photo: Randy & Ray's LLC
Design ideas for an expansive traditional sloped full sun formal garden for summer in Jacksonville with a retaining wall and natural stone pavers.

Rebecca Lindenmeyr
This is an example of an expansive country backyard full sun formal garden in Burlington with a garden path.

Marianne Lee Photography Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects Parker Construction TheBlueGarden.org
This is an example of an expansive traditional formal garden for summer in Boston.

LandSpaces
Design ideas for an expansive traditional sloped full sun formal garden for spring in New York with a garden path and brick pavers.

Nick Berger
Expansive mediterranean side yard full sun formal garden in Phoenix with a retaining wall and natural stone pavers for summer.

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.

This is an example of an expansive transitional partial sun formal garden in Sydney.

Duy Tran Photography
Design ideas for an expansive traditional front yard partial sun formal garden for spring in DC Metro with concrete pavers.

Landmark Historic Estate - Master plan being executed over several phases including: -Foundations -Gravel Parterre Terraces -Great Lawn Borders -Garden Rooms with themed plantings design -Riverfront landings -Native Meadows 4400 acre property in sub-tropical zone 7b 30 acres of formal gardens and parks Landscape and garden restoration and re-design

Bygone elegance was artfully renewed with this stately Lake Harriett renovation. The custom lion, fountain feature, and verandas are crafted from ORIJIN STONE's Ardeo™ Limestone. Our premium Bluestone Blue Select thermal paving provides a pretty contrast detail. Landscape Architecture & Install by Keenan & Sveiven. Photography by Alto Aerials

Country estate getaway with numerous "outdoor rooms" featuring exotic plants, cozy seating areas, fantastic views, water features, greenhouse, and woodland gardens.