Photography by Peter Reader
Photo of a contemporary partial sun garden in London with a water feature and natural stone pavers.

Inspiration for a mid-sized modern backyard partial sun garden for spring in San Diego.

This house was designed around a small courtyard. Photos by Casey Woods
This is an example of a mid-sized contemporary courtyard partial sun formal garden in Austin with a water feature and gravel.

Firma Grothe, Miquel Tres
Photo of a mid-sized contemporary partial sun xeriscape in Other with concrete pavers and a water feature.

Courtyard www.johnevansdesign.com (Photographed by Mike Swartz photography)
This is an example of a mid-sized contemporary courtyard partial sun formal garden for summer in West Midlands with a water feature and natural stone pavers.

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

Whole house remodel of a classic Mid-Century style beach bungalow into a modern beach villa. Architect: Neumann Mendro Andrulaitis General Contractor: Allen Construction Photographer: Ciro Coelho

This is an example of a mid-sized mediterranean backyard partial sun xeriscape for spring in Phoenix with a container garden.

This is an example of a mid-sized asian courtyard partial sun garden in San Francisco with a water feature and gravel.

This antique boy and goose fountain is surrounded by a European Hornbeam hedge at the edge of an arrival courtyard. During the Summer annual and tropical planters are placed in and around this feature to help animate it.

Design and Photo Credit to Melda Clark
Design ideas for a mid-sized traditional side yard partial sun formal garden for spring in Dallas with a water feature and natural stone pavers.

Fine House Photography
Photo of a large tropical backyard partial sun garden in London with a water feature.

This is an example of a mid-sized traditional front yard partial sun garden for spring in Melbourne with a garden path and concrete pavers.

Legacy Custom Homes, Inc. Newport Beach, CA
This is an example of a large tropical backyard partial sun garden for summer in Orange County with a water feature and natural stone pavers.

Aerial view of the Rich Residence in Brooklyn, NY. Winner of Silver award for Residential Garden Design, awarded by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, 2006. Featured in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Multiple hardscape media used: brick pavers, decking

1950’s mid century modern hillside home. full restoration | addition | modernization. board formed concrete | clear wood finishes | mid-mod style.
Design ideas for a mid-sized midcentury side yard partial sun garden for summer in Santa Barbara with a water feature and concrete pavers.

A Memorial-area art collector residing in a chic modern home wanted his house to be more visible from the street. His yard was full of trees, and he asked us to consider removing them and developing a more modern landscape design that would fully complement the exterior of his home. He was a personal friend of ours as well, and he understood that our policy is to preserve as many trees as possible whenever we undertake a project. However, we decided to make an exception in his case for two reasons. For one thing, he was a very close friend to many people in our company. Secondly, large trees simply would not work with a landscape reflective of the modern architecture that his house featured. The house had been built as story structure that was formed around a blend of unique curves and angles very reminiscent of the geometric patterns common in modern sculpture and art. The windows had been built deliberately large, so that visitors driving up to the house could have a lighted glimpse into the interior, where many sculptures and works of modern art were showcased. The entire residence, in fact, was meant to showcase the eclectic diversity of his artistic tastes, and provide a glimpse at the elegant contents within the home. He asked us to create more modern look to the landscape that would complement the residence with patterns in vegetation, ornamentation, and a new lighted water fountain that would act like a mirror-image of the home. He also wanted us to sculpt the features we created in such a way as to center the eye of the viewer and draw it up and over the landscape to focus on the house itself. The challenge was to develop a truly sophisticated modern landscaping design that would compliment, but in no way overpower the façade of the home. In order to do this, we had to focus very carefully on the geometric appearance of the planting areas first. Since the vegetation would be surrounding a very large, circular stone drive, we took advantage of the contours and created a sense of flowing perspective. We were then very careful to plant vegetation that could be maintained at a very low growth height. This was to prevent vegetation from behaving like the previous trees which had blocked the view of the house. Small hedges, ferns, and flowers were planted in winding rows that followed the course of the circular stone driveway that surrounded the fountain. We then centered this new modern landscape plan with a very sophisticated contemporary fountain. We chose a circular shape for the fountain both to center the eye and to work as a compliment to the curved elements in the home’s exterior design. We selected black granite as the building material, partly because granite speaks to the monumental, and partly because it is a very common material for modern architecture and outdoor contemporary sculpture. We placed the fountain in the very center of the driveway as well, which had the effect of making the entire landscape appear to converge toward the middle of the home’s façade. To add a sense of eclectic refinement to the fountain, we then polished the granite so that anyone driving or walking up to the fountain would see a reflection of the home in the base. To maintain consistency of the circular shape, we radius cut all of the coping around the fountain was all radius cut from polished limestone. The lighter color of the limestone created an archetypal contrast of light and darkness, further contributing to the modern theme of the landscape design, and providing a surface for illumination so the fountain would remain an established keynote on the landscape during the night.

Riviera garden
Photo of a large eclectic backyard partial sun formal garden for summer in Nice with gravel and a garden path.

Lush back garden planting, with flowering perennials, grasses and evergreen ground covers. The tree is a mature Amelanchier (Serviceberry). A large boulder that was found on site sits in a bed of Irish Moss (Sagina) and Japanese Acorus Grass.