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Rudbeckia grandiflora amidst Calamagrostis, Eupatorium, Liatris, and Schyzicharium.

Stunning view of the lush garden from the kitchen Garden Club London | Tony Woods

An antique iron gate marks the entrance to the front walk. Westhauser Photography

Olivia Atherton

This planter had previously been several feet lower and was raised to help create an edge to the new stairs and deck. Planted with Heavenly Bamboo and a trailing succulent type plant, it adds another level of privacy to the garden.

Natural gas fireplaces provide convenient, year round enjoyment. This fire pit is built of natural siloam stone.

This is how Ross NW Watergardens conquers steep slopes. Wood steps with boulders and gravel. This property in Lake Oswego, Oregon has a backyard that is almost all steep hillside. Using wood timbers and stones we are able to create winding pathways that make the space walkable. The boulders hold the steps in place and retain the slope at the same time. Check out our design philosophy at http://www.rossnwwatergardens.com/portland-landscaping-blog/ By Ben Bowen of Ross NW Watergardens, a Portland landscaping firm.

Repurposed broken concrete surrounded by Kurapia ground cover and loads of drought tolerant plants. No lawn!

Landscape Designer by Josh Ward Landscape Design Landscape Designer, Josh Ward Landscape Design, was asked to create a landscape design that was low maintenance, in keeping with this old country train station cottage in Spennithorne, tucked deep in the North Yorkshire Dales, whilst incorporating a contemporary core to the overall design. The train station had just received a beautiful high-spec restoration, inside and out. Located on top of a hill, overlooking some of the most spectacular landscapes, with a working local train line running behind the cottage, this garden design project demanded careful and sensitive design to its local environment. Wind, rabbits, chickens, low maintenance, and a holiday cottage with year round visitors were all important considerations too. The landscape design needed to champion the stunning views and not compete with them! The rolling views were outwards, upwards and all-around! Josh wanted to design a comfortable outside space that acted as a sympathetic viewing platform for the amazing views whilst also grounding the house into its landscape. Firstly the dry stone walling was extended, to enclose and divide the garden, whilst underlining and framing the view beyond. A built-in dry stone barbecue was reinvented from an old dry stone flower bed, for those balmy summer days, with lots of serving space and in close proximity to the evening dining area. In front of the sun-room double doors a gap was left in the dry stone wall to allow people to look straight into the field and onwards to the view, whilst lounging inside in comfort in the winter months. Randomly sized Indian sandstone was chosen for the main area in front of the house. The colours and random sizes worked well with the dry stone walls and a warmer tonal dimension to the whole area. To break the paved area, a low square lavender bed was incorporated, which also masked the barbecue area slightly (so as not to interfere with the view) whilst offering scent and movement too. Two further beds were created in the paved area. One along the front corner of the station house and the other on the side of the main platform steps. These grounded and softened these areas beautifully. A final, rectangular, cut-out hedging bed between the paving and gravel parking area was designed to act as a hub and divider for the west end of the garden. The hornbeam hedge was to act as a screen fro the cars and a windbreak also. In time, it will be pruned to mimick the stepped chimney pots when it reaches a suitable size. A breakfast/coffee area behind the hornbeam hedge was a second seating dining area for six people, which offered amazing morning views. The landscape design leading up to the platform included restoring the steps, fencing and installing a lengthy, stepped raised bed, from brick with a sandstone coping. The planting design for this area had to allow for snatched views of the passing steam trains and had to be drought and wind tolerant, whilst offering all year interest. Swathes of large grasses were incorporated so as to mimick the crops in the nearby field, on the opposite side of the garden and to bed the garden into the landscape more. Great winter interest from the miscanthus grasses, especially as the sun sets! The other side of the car-park/turning area became a vast curving winter bed. Both east and west ends of the garden were hedged with hornbeam. The west side of the garden was a stunning place in which to eat, play boule or just sit on the benches on the upper level, staring out at the best view in the garden. Self-binding gravel was used a the surface here, to break up the amount of paving, to keep costs down and mainly to warm the whole space up with its deep golden colour. A handful of cor-ten style steel rings punched holes though the self-binding gravel to act as beds for box balls, a weeping pear and a crab apple. The box balls mirrored the tree shapes in the distance, whilst playing with perspective, whilst offering punctuation, grounding the viewer and softening the wall slightly. The platform was re-paved and the picket fence reinstated. The final touch was adding a shelter belt of English trees such as blackthorn.

This property was covered with pink rock when our client called us. In an effort to be gentle on the environment, and to save money, the client took our suggestion to work with what they had by incorporating more contrasting rock to bring the property together in a cohesive design. The clients are active birders and wanted to grow their own food including vegetables and fruits. We worked with interior designer, Nikki Klugh, to select gorgeous furniture to compliment the design.

Early planting of front yard walkway with yellow poker plant Photo: Billy Goodnick

Riviera garden

Each of the materials was chosen for a balance of richness and simplicity. The Kebony decking continues the rich color tone set by the oiled Cedar shingle and traditional Japanese Shou Sugi Ban siding on the rear facade of the house. The California Gold Slate for the rear yard patio adds additional texture and depth to the ground plane. The powder-coated metal railings enclose the deck and partition the dog run and bike parking area from the main rear yard. The eclectic plant mix blends California natives with other Mediterranean plants for a variety of color, texture and seasonality.