Moroccan Modern

 

This fun garden design project called for a contemporary fell with inspiration from the home owners love of Moroccan culture and color.  The photos above feature a Navajo flagstone patio, blue pergola with 3"x3" slats on the back and roof to provide a respite from the sun and a small grill canopy of clear corrugated plastic to allow the grill master to stay dry in the rain.

Along the edge of the patio and decomposed granite walkway are two "L" shaped veggie boxes and a perennial garden just beyond the boxes.

To increase storage space a multi-use she-shed was incorporated into the design.  Suddenly bikes and camping gear have a place to be stored and easily accessed.  The steel lined dg path extends to a side gate that leads to the front of the house. 

'Orange Cross' Kangaroo Paw hang out along the back side of the pergola.  A great foil for the Moroccan Blue.

Straight and Narrow

This garden redesign posed us with the challenge of turning a narrow space into usable patio space that could accommodate a future ping pong table and a seating area that overlooks the garden space.

Working with concrete we designed a patio space that transitions into the ping pong area  Between each pad are 31/2" cut outs to accommodate wooly thyme ground cover.  The planting space along the fence contain Podocarpus screening trees.

The patio as seen from the house facing the 'casita'.

More to come this spring...

Material Girl

This garden redesign project in El Cerrito makes the most of all the wonderful landscape materials we have available to us.

Here you see the materials used in the garden: Steel containers on the deck and patio, south american hardwood deck, concrete stepping stones and landing, decomposed granite patio and cedar veggie box and hot tub.

The challenge in working with so many materials is blending them together so they look and feel coherent in the garden space.

The concrete stepping stones lead to the cedar hot tub.  In the distance is a mounded planting space with a dg path leading to a seating area.  The plants chosen for the mound are meant to draw birds, bees and butterflies that can be enjoyed from the small seating area in the corner.

A number of small trees were added to provide year round interest in the garden.

A succulent bowl inserted in the mound.

The small courtyard outside the home office offers a nice respite from the work to do inside.