From the street, a round rock pathway leads to a small seating area next to the water with a small fire pit. Low maintenance, drought resistant and salt tolerant plantings were used in mass and clumps. This garden has become the focus of the neighborhood with many visitors stopping and enjoying what has become a neighborhood landmark. Located on the shores of Puget Sound in Washington State. Photo by R. Scott Lankford

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.

The garden 3 weeks after planting, on a foggy day. Photo by Steve Masley
Traditional deck in San Francisco with a container garden.

Front yard gardening can be fun and functional! Add edibles into the mix, and enjoy nibbling your way through your yard!
Photo of a traditional front yard garden for summer in Minneapolis with natural stone pavers.

A small front garden built above a new basement and improved dramatically with bespoke, black planters and clipped Taxus balls - seasonal plants are planted between.

Not everyone wants a sea of grass for a front yard. This pocket garden provides a "living" room just steps away from the front door.
Eclectic backyard garden in Houston with natural stone pavers for summer.

Photo of a contemporary garden in London.

Garden makeovers by Shirley Bovshow in Los Angeles. This inviting edible front yard garden was designed for my "Garden Police" makeover show on Discovery. Along with partner, Michael Glassman we transformed a tired, weed infested lawn area into a Tudor style edible garden. All plants are edible including the espaliered apple tree used as a "living fence" between the neighbors. See the complete makeover at: http://edenmakersblog.com/?p=2549 Photo by Shirley Bovshow, EdenMakersBlog.com

Design ideas for a mid-sized contemporary backyard full sun garden in London with natural stone pavers.

Contemporary garden in London.

The front garden of this period Edwardian propertywas a large expanse of concrete hard standing, and overgrown planting. The aim of the garden design was to create a garden that combined space for off-street parking for one car, architectural soft landscaping as well as a spot in which to sit and enjoy the garden. The style of the new garden had to be sympathetic to the house and it was important that the end result was more contemporary front garden than everyday driveway. Additional screening to the neigbouring boundary wall was a key requirement, as was the need to keep an existing cherry tree.

Glencoe Residence Landscape. Brick Paver Driveway with Bluestone Motorcourt Border, Radiant Snow Melt Heat System, French Inspired Formal Entrance Landscape, Low Voltage Lighting, and Irrigation. Entire property Constructed by: Arrow. Designed by: Marco Romani, RLA - Landscape Architect.

design & photos by Jean Marsh
Mediterranean front yard garden in Orange County.

The front garden of this period Edwardian property in Acton, west London, was a large expanse of concrete hard standing, and overgrown planting. The aim of the garden design was to create a garden that combined space for off-street parking for one car, architectural soft landscaping as well as a spot in which to sit and enjoy the garden. The style of the new garden had to be sympathetic to the house and it was important that the end result was more contemporary front garden than everyday driveway. Additional screening to the neigbouring boundary wall was a key requirement, as was the need to keep an existing cherry tree.

The year-round front garden was designed to be welcoming and reflect the informal nature of the residents and to soften the lines of the raised foundation planter. Photo by Ralph Mercer (ralphmercer.com)

The front garden of this period Edwardian property in Acton, west London, was a large expanse of concrete hard standing, and overgrown planting. The aim of the garden design was to create a garden that combined space for off-street parking for one car, architectural soft landscaping as well as a spot in which to sit and enjoy the garden. The style of the new garden had to be sympathetic to the house and it was important that the end result was more contemporary front garden than everyday driveway. Additional screening to the neigbouring boundary wall was a key requirement, as was the need to keep an existing cherry tree.

The new lawn makes the garden seem bigger and deeper. It's a shallow garden with a point to the left, now concealed by trees and the swing seat. New planting contrasts purples, greys and greens. Jane Harries

For this garden residence in Stowe, Ambler Design, helped to conceive the home owner's every desire in the quest for the perfect garden. Once an underused sloped area of the front lawn, step stone pathways now connect the existing entry terraces to the yard and garden. A small terrace with garden gate provides a seating area to rest beneath the timber trellis.

The Garden Builders
Mid-sized contemporary backyard patio in London with a container garden.