Garden By Design

Walkway from the house to the back patio

Sherman Oaks Stepping Path:

This home had a small back garden area with a very narrow passage between the garage and the house leading to it. The design plan here was to give the impression of the garden being larger and greener. I designed a poured-in-place stepping path and patio area for this garden. We set up the path by laying out the forms in random squares and rectangles, leading from the new patio at the house between the buildings and off into the garden, all the way to the pool and the new Fire Pit. Once the forms were done, we poured the concrete in the selected color and acid washed it to give a great finish.

A large pot water feature was placed at the end of the path to create a focus point and draw you out into the garden. The Fire Pit was finished to match the new patio and paths. The garden was planted out with complement the new paint colors of the house and the owners preferred colors. Then we put in grass to tie all the areas together. The grass is laid between the stepping path concrete and patio and out into the small lawn area.

Lattice was installed on the low property wall to give more privacy and low voltage lighting installed to highlight plants and features of the space at night.

Before We Got In...

Stepping Patio Form Work

Pouring the concrete

Ready For Plants and Grass

Plants and Grass Going In

All done and ready for fun

Main Driveway Parking Area

Its All About The Driveway's:

This property way up in the Hollywood Hills, had a previous visit from Garden By Design. We had cleaned and planted the hillside behind the house, built a deck off the back of the house and at the pool area and installed a lawn. Now it was all about the driveway and parking areas.
The homeowners wanter the long driveway and parking area to be as "green" as possible but still provide for the vehicle access and turn around space required.
For the Parking Court area we installed a poured in place driveway consisting of large squares set on the diagonal. We left 5" between the squares to install drip irrigation and plant out the drive with a mixture of low growing ground covers and taller grass plants.
The mid section of the driveway was turned into a stream feature. We set up a stream to run down the center of this section of the driveway. We set it up with rocks and plants.
The lower section of the driveway was also planted out with a mixture of ground covers and grasses. The basic principle here was to have the cars prune any plants that got to tall.
The finished drive way and parking area blend in perfectly with the very natural surrounds of the home and take what cold have been a huge concrete area make it more landscape than hardscape.

Setting up the form for the driveway parking court area

After the concrete pour

Installaing the Soaker and Drip Irrigation system

Planting out the Driveway

Planted out and growing in

View from the deck, Planted out and growing in

Installing the driveway stream liner and basin

Installing the rocks and plants into the stream

The stream up and running

Planting out the lower driveway area

Ready for cars

New Patio, Deck, Fire Pit and Privacy Screen

Santa Monica Serenity

This homes small saltillo patio and old deck were in very poor condition and the fences screened the views out of the property. The small planter area had become the dogs digging spot. The Homeowners wanted to change out the paved area, rebuild the deck, change out the fence and create a more intimate gathering area. Also they wanted planting areas the dog would not destroy.
We ripped out all of the old patio and deck areas and remove the fence. A new poured in place, acid finished concrete patio are was poured as well as a raised patio area and a fire pit. The same concrete finish was applied to all areas to make the area feel more unified and larger.
We rebuilt the deck from the ground up and constructed a new horizontal slatted fence. The design allows privacy but also allows views out and makes the area feel less enclosed. The Deck and Fence were sealed with Penofin wood oil, and other sections were whitewashed to give the "beach" feel.
The Fire Pit area was raised above the rest of the patio to define it and new redwood benches were built using the fence as the back rest.
A raised planter was constructed to raise the planting up off the ground to make it impossible for the dog to get in and dig.
A speaker system and low voltage lighting system were also installed.