Early Summer at Green Seed Gardens
Inspiration for an expansive country backyard full sun xeriscape for summer in Portland with with flowerbed and gravel.

Equidistant treads create a visual rhythm for the eye. Boulders provide attractive grade control as needed. Crushed blue shale provide an accent color against the warm brown of the pressure treated stairs. Wider midway terrace, provides a view from the internal house hallway window. Includes beautiful and drought tolerant plantings and shade trees.

Side view of The Oval from surrounding perennial borders featuring long-lived herbaceous perennials and grasses
Photo of an expansive country backyard full sun xeriscape for summer in Philadelphia with with flowerbed and gravel.

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

APLD 2021 Silver Award Winning Landscape Design. Galvanized troughs used for vegetables in the side yard. An expansive back yard landscape with several mature oak trees and a stunning Golden Locust tree has been transformed into a welcoming outdoor retreat. The renovations include a wraparound deck, an expansive travertine natural stone patio, stairways and pathways along with concrete retaining walls and column accents with dramatic planters. The pathways meander throughout the landscape... some with travertine stepping stones and gravel and those below the majestic oaks left natural with fallen leaves. Raised vegetable beds and fruit trees occupy some of the sunniest areas of the landscape. A variety of low-water and low-maintenance plants for both sunny and shady areas include several succulents, grasses, CA natives and other site-appropriate Mediterranean plants complimented by a variety of boulders. Dramatic white pots provide architectural accents, filled with succulents and citrus trees. Design, Photos, Drawings © Eileen Kelly, Dig Your Garden Landscape Design

Strata Landscape Architecture Frank Paul Perez, Red Lily Studios
Expansive modern side yard full sun formal garden in San Francisco with a garden path and gravel for fall.

This is an example of an expansive traditional sloped full sun outdoor sport court for spring in San Francisco with a retaining wall and gravel.

Robert Reck
Design ideas for an expansive modern front yard full sun garden in Austin with a retaining wall and gravel.

William Ripley
Inspiration for an expansive traditional backyard partial sun formal garden in Cincinnati with a garden path and gravel.

The problem this Memorial-Houston homeowner faced was that her sumptuous contemporary home, an austere series of interconnected cubes of various sizes constructed from white stucco, black steel and glass, did not have the proper landscaping frame. It was out of scale. Imagine Robert Motherwell's "Black on White" painting without the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston's generous expanse of white walls surrounding it. It would still be magnificent but somehow...off. Intuitively, the homeowner realized this issue and started interviewing landscape designers. After talking to about 15 different designers, she finally went with one, only to be disappointed with the results. From the across-the-street neighbor, she was then introduced to Exterior Worlds and she hired us to correct the newly-created problems and more fully realize her hopes for the grounds. "It's not unusual for us to come in and deal with a mess. Sometimes a homeowner gets overwhelmed with managing everything. Other times it is like this project where the design misses the mark. Regardless, it is really important to listen for what a prospect or client means and not just what they say," says Jeff Halper, owner of Exterior Worlds. Since the sheer size of the house is so dominating, Exterior Worlds' overall job was to bring the garden up to scale to match the house. Likewise, it was important to stretch the house into the landscape, thereby softening some of its severity. The concept we devised entailed creating an interplay between the landscape and the house by astute placement of the black-and-white colors of the house into the yard using different materials and textures. Strategic plantings of greenery increased the interest, density, height and function of the design. First we installed a pathway of crushed white marble around the perimeter of the house, the white of the path in homage to the house’s white facade. At various intervals, 3/8-inch steel-plated metal strips, painted black to echo the bones of the house, were embedded and crisscrossed in the pathway to turn it into a loose maze. Along this metal bunting, we planted succulents whose other-worldly shapes and mild coloration juxtaposed nicely against the hard-edged steel. These plantings included Gulf Coast muhly, a native grass that produces a pink-purple plume when it blooms in the fall. A side benefit to the use of these plants is that they are low maintenance and hardy in Houston’s summertime heat. Next we brought in trees for scale. Without them, the impressive architecture becomes imposing. We placed them along the front at either corner of the house. For the left side, we found a multi-trunk live oak in a field, transported it to the property and placed it in a custom-made square of the crushed marble at a slight distance from the house. On the right side where the house makes a 90-degree alcove, we planted a mature mesquite tree. To finish off the front entry, we fashioned the black steel into large squares and planted grass to create islands of green, or giant lawn stepping pads. We echoed this look in the back off the master suite by turning concrete pads of black-stained concrete into stepping pads. We kept the foundational plantings of Japanese yews which add green, earthy mass, something the stark architecture needs for further balance. We contoured Japanese boxwoods into small spheres to enhance the play between shapes and textures. In the large, white planters at the front entrance, we repeated the plantings of succulents and Gulf Coast muhly to reinforce symmetry. Then we built an additional planter in the back out of the black metal, filled it with the crushed white marble and planted a Texas vitex, another hardy choice that adds a touch of color with its purple blooms. To finish off the landscaping, we needed to address the ravine behind the house. We built a retaining wall to contain erosion. Aesthetically, we crafted it so that the wall has a sharp upper edge, a modern motif right where the landscape meets the land.

Inspiration for an expansive traditional backyard shaded outdoor sport court in Louisville with gravel.

www.jacobelliott.com
This is an example of an expansive country side yard full sun formal garden in San Francisco with a vegetable garden and gravel.

Inspiration for an expansive asian backyard full sun formal garden for fall in Frankfurt with a garden path and gravel.

In a vast natural landscape, the formal design of intentionally landscaped beds often jars, visually. This Client came from Lake Forest, Illinois, the land of gentrified old world landscapes. Here in the Rockies, she left behind her corporate career to immerse herself in horses, art and a new life lived in connection with family and Nature. She wanted a simple landscape that spoke to these new desires. For this project, we crafted opportunities for Nature to weave its way back into the landscape. The circle drive is the first whiff of this. Designed around a gnarled cedar, the spirit of this entire ranch, we simplified the plant palette, bringing in native and regionally adapted grasses and wildflowers. And that's it! These colors burn against the silvers and tawny browns of Missouri Heights! Gigi

Eichler in Marinwood - At the larger scale of the property existed a desire to soften and deepen the engagement between the house and the street frontage. As such, the landscaping palette consists of textures chosen for subtlety and granularity. Spaces are layered by way of planting, diaphanous fencing and lighting. The interior engages the front of the house by the insertion of a floor to ceiling glazing at the dining room. Jog-in path from street to house maintains a sense of privacy and sequential unveiling of interior/private spaces. This non-atrium model is invested with the best aspects of the iconic eichler configuration without compromise to the sense of order and orientation. photo: scott hargis

Switchback paths were created and erosion was stopped by the use of native plants to make this beautiful and textured landscape on a steep bank down to Lake Michigan.

We took a very conventional hillside overlooking Folsom Lake, and turned it into something extraordinary.
Inspiration for an expansive modern sloped full sun xeriscape for spring in Sacramento with a water feature and gravel.

This shady gravel garden path takes one from the back of the property to the front garden. Crushed stone meandering path lined with shade-loving perennials with white flowers making an elegant white and green garden. Photo: Lisa Cullen

Kaplan Architects, AIA Location: Redwood City , CA, USA Landscape showing the dry creek meandering through the oak trees. The water collected from the roof and subdrain system around the house is diverted to a cistern and then spills out into this creek to a water retention pond. This provides a more environmentally sustainable way to deal with water run off.