Located in one on the country’s most desirable vacation destinations, this vacation home blends seamlessly into the natural landscape of this unique location. The property includes a crushed stone entry drive with cobble accents, guest house, tennis court, swimming pool with stone deck, pool house with exterior fireplace for those cool summer eves, putting green, lush gardens, and a meandering boardwalk access through the dunes to the beautiful sandy beach. Photography: Richard Mandelkorn Photography

Eichler in Marinwood - At the larger scale of the property existed a desire to soften and deepen the engagement between the house and the street frontage. As such, the landscaping palette consists of textures chosen for subtlety and granularity. Spaces are layered by way of planting, diaphanous fencing and lighting. The interior engages the front of the house by the insertion of a floor to ceiling glazing at the dining room. Jog-in path from street to house maintains a sense of privacy and sequential unveiling of interior/private spaces. This non-atrium model is invested with the best aspects of the iconic eichler configuration without compromise to the sense of order and orientation. photo: scott hargis

Timmerman Photography Sculpture by Mayme Kratz This is a home we initially built in 1995 and after it sold in 2014 we were commissioned to come back and remodel the interior of the home. We worked with internationally renowned architect Will Bruder on the initial design on the home. The goal of home was to build a modern hillside home which made the most of the vista upon which it sat. A few ways we were able to achieve this were the unique, floor-to-ceiling glass windows on the side of the property overlooking Scottsdale, a private courtyard off the master bedroom and bathroom, and a custom commissioned sculpture Mayme Kratz. Stonecreek's particular role in the project were to work alongside both the clients and the architect to make sure we were able to perfectly execute on the vision and design of the project. A very unique component of this house is how truly custom every feature is, all the way from the window systems and the bathtubs all the way down to the door handles and other features.

This shot by Marion Brenner has been the hit of this past year, appearing in several Sunset publications, as well as the soon-to-be released Fall edition of Garden Design Magazine. photo- Marion Brenner

Switchback paths were created and erosion was stopped by the use of native plants to make this beautiful and textured landscape on a steep bank down to Lake Michigan.

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 side entrance cuts through a planted hedgerow of deer resistant plants and allows a glimpse of the pool terrace on the hill beyond.

Photographer: Tom Crane

The installation of this native meadow allows for a seamless blending between yard and woodland while adding interest to the far-reaching corner of this property with the added bonus of less mowing and more pollinators.

We were asked to design and plant the driveway and gardens surrounding a substantial period property in Cobham. Our Scandinavian clients wanted a soft and natural look to the planting. We used long flowering shrubs and perennials to extend the season of flower, and combined them with a mix of beautifully textured evergreen plants to give year-round structure. We also mixed in a range of grasses for movement which also give a more contemporary look.

We took a very conventional hillside overlooking Folsom Lake, and turned it into something extraordinary.

With its classic American architecture, this Neo-Colonial residence makes a strong statement in its rural Northwest setting. Formal gardens and European-inspired details give way to natural forms and native plantings as you move away from the house, integrating the home into its environment.

After picture of berm that was created over a new septic tank. We installed a stone retaining wall and boulder accents, along with plantings. We also created a custom metal and cedar hammock stand. David Kopfmann

Fishel Pools is the number one custom pool builder in Springfield, Missouri and the surrounding area. Since 1976, Fishel designs have earned numerous design awards for creativity and craftsmanship. Whether it’s a backyard paradise or a large commercial project, every Fishel Pool is custom-designed and built with your specific needs in mind. No cookie-cutter pools. Ever! Over 1,000 unique Fishel designs can be found at residences, country clubs, hospitals, community and neighborhood’s, camps, resort’s, and multi-family residential complexes. Contact Fishel Pools today to find out more and remember “When it has to be the best, it’s a Fishel!”