Turn off your phone and come sit. So simple. Yet so hard to do sometimes. Your landscape can be your sanctuary space away from the craziness of the day.

This is an example of a small traditional backyard partial sun formal garden for spring in Houston with mulch.

Courtyard with stainless steel water feature. Bay trees and Box balls to provide structure with some lavender to soften the scheme and to provide additional colour and fragrance. Photo - Courtesy of KFH Ealing

a group of tropical foliage and shrubs make a great backdrop to this pool six months from planting
Design ideas for a small tropical side yard formal garden.

Bare soil areas that were disturbed during construction were seeded with a Northeast native wildflower mix. Photo: Rebecca Lindenmeyr
Inspiration for a small transitional backyard full sun formal garden for summer in Burlington with a vegetable garden and natural stone pavers.

This is an example of a small contemporary courtyard partial sun formal garden in Sydney with a water feature.

Small transitional backyard partial sun formal garden in Denver with a garden path and natural stone pavers for summer.

A unique free standing lean-to to capture the most amount of available sun per day.
Design ideas for a small traditional backyard full sun formal garden for spring in Vancouver with a container garden and gravel.

Ian Moore
Inspiration for a small modern backyard partial sun formal garden for summer in San Francisco with gravel and a retaining wall.

Custom colored Luna Fountain (urn) with matching bench set on granite pavers with gravel mulch. Photo taken by Barbara Wilson, RLA A small residential, seaside property located on Saugatuck Island in Wesport was rebuilt after devastating damage by a hurricane. All that remained from the original property was the pool and pool terrace. The house was raised approximately 5 feet to meet new FEMA codes and rebuilt under the design team of the owner, a well-known interior designer. Barbara was part of the landscape architectural team that helped create a sense of place for the new house. The landscape design included the addition of new walls and steps to the front door, new custom fencing surrounding the pool, an outdoor shower, landscape lighting, a custom fountain in the back yard, a sandbox (used as a relief area for the dog) and all new plantings. She coordinating obtaining bids and then supervised installation of the project.

The gates were painted black to coordinate with the house. Joe Wainwright Photography
Design ideas for a small modern front yard partial sun formal garden for summer in Cheshire with natural stone pavers.

This is an example of a small modern backyard partial sun formal garden in Denver with a water feature and natural stone pavers.

Roberto silva
Inspiration for a small traditional backyard formal garden in London with a container garden and decking.

Inspiration for a small transitional backyard full sun formal garden in London with decking.

Isola Garden Design
Inspiration for a small contemporary backyard formal garden in West Midlands with a water feature.

After removing an old wooden deck and re-sealing the roof membrane, we installed a low maintenance porcelain paver floor on a pedestal system to increase drainage, air circulation and overall weight dispersion of the garden elements. We fabricated custom cedar planter boxes with a cedar and steel railing to add height for increased safety. As you enter the space, the focal point of the garden is a sleek, modern water feature with a pretty Mexican pebble and tigerwood base. The unique outdoor kitchen is comprised of Tigerwood, cedar and stainless hardware. Tigerwood cladding on the door of an existing stand alone grill, creates the illusion of a built in grill, with beautiful cedar countertops on either side. Landscape lighting and an irrigation system keep the garden stunning day and night. Jenn LassaJenn Lassa

Newly built vegetable garden. Beds are 4 inch cedar, pathways are river stone, contained on the perimeter by steel edging. Critterfence deters rabbits without obscuring the architecture of the garden. In the rear, support posts contain raspberries.

Chelsea Creek is the pinnacle of sophisticated living, these penthouse collection gardens, featuring stunning contemporary exteriors are London’s most elegant new dockside development, by St George Central London, they are due to be built in Autumn 2014 Following on from the success of her stunning contemporary Rooftop Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2012, Patricia Fox was commissioned by St George to design a series of rooftop gardens for their Penthouse Collection in London. Working alongside Tara Bernerd who has designed the interiors, and Broadway Malyon Architects, Patricia and her team have designed a series of London rooftop gardens, which although individually unique, have an underlying design thread, which runs throughout the whole series, providing a unified scheme across the development. Inspiration was taken from both the architecture of the building, and from the interiors, and Aralia working as Landscape Architects developed a series of Mood Boards depicting materials, features, art and planting. This groundbreaking series of London rooftop gardens embraces the very latest in garden design, encompassing quality natural materials such as corten steel, granite and shot blasted glass, whilst introducing contemporary state of the art outdoor kitchens, outdoor fireplaces, water features and green walls. Garden Art also has a key focus within these London gardens, with the introduction of specially commissioned pieces for stone sculptures and unique glass art. The linear hard landscape design, with fluid rivers of under lit glass, relate beautifully to the linearity of the canals below. The design for the soft landscaping schemes were challenging – the gardens needed to be relatively low maintenance, they needed to stand up to the harsh environment of a London rooftop location, whilst also still providing seasonality and all year interest. The planting scheme is linear, and highly contemporary in nature, evergreen planting provides all year structure and form, with warm rusts and burnt orange flower head’s providing a splash of seasonal colour, complementary to the features throughout. Finally, an exquisite lighting scheme has been designed by Lighting IQ to define and enhance the rooftop spaces, and to provide beautiful night time lighting which provides the perfect ambiance for entertaining and relaxing in. Aralia worked as Landscape Architects working within a multi-disciplinary consultant team which included Architects, Structural Engineers, Cost Consultants and a range of sub-contractors.

Inspiration for a small traditional front yard shaded formal garden in Chicago with brick pavers.