A new stairway with Sonoma fieldstone walls and bluestone steps provide access from the side of the residence down to the hot tub. A variety of shade/part shade plants brighten this part of the landscape. They include dwarf Plumbago, Polygala Petite Butterflies, Dianella tasmanica variegata and Daphne odor marginata. And now with site-appropriate plants and no lawn, a lower water bill for the homewoners. Full color Blue stone and small mexican pebbles replace the lawn and pathways while offering a contemporary transformation. A variety of low-water plants including succulents offer year-round appeal and interest throughout the seasons. Photos and Design © Eileen Kelly, Dig Your Garden Landscape Design

Il fronte nord e l'uliveto

This photo is showing how the creeping fig and ferns are used to obscure the construction elements of the man-made creek. It is a section of a rock lined creek-stream water feature, that we built, which is over 200' long. It is located underneath a grove of oaks that provides plenty of shade and partial sun for the ferns and other shade loving plants. The landscape was designed by the homeowners and is meticulously maintained.

Photo credit Rob Moore

Antique Iron Gate Retrofit Custom Gate Projects by Dynamic Garage Door Project Consultations: (855) 343-3667 This authentic iron gate was purchased by our client at an antique bazaar without having a real direction as to how it would be incorporated on the construction of her new home in Long Beach, CA. We took the gate in for one of our in-house designer and iron-forge craftsman. Together they were able to develop a plan of action for the installation of the gate which included hand-forging authentic-looking posts and working hinges to attach to the gate leaving no trace of the modifications for a truly unique architectural appearance. The work we did around the house was meticulously thought out to evoke authentic European design that looks like it's been there forever. Dynamic Garage Door retrofitted a few gates surrounding the property and also designed and crafted a unique reclaimed barn wood garden gate you'll see in the other project pictures. Our designers strive to create the most astounding garage door, gate and shutter projects you'll find on Houzz.com!

Doric columnar dining pavilion with heated furnishings for year round use. Photographer: Matthew Millman

Intimate courtyard cast stone fountain and copper spigot

These beautiful Moroccan inspired tiles create the perfect focal point in this tiny urban garden. Cleverly lit and complete with water feature for a relaxing sensory experience.

Nicola Kamp

A relaxing, lush and extraordinary courtyard.

Nature's Realm

Custom designed and built using reclaimed driftwood glass table with Burl wood bowl filled with Succulents sitting. on a driftwood glass table.

A walkway connects two large area's of patio together. The sugar maple tree in the center provides welcome shade from the beating western sun and the leafy canopy creates a green ceiling making what is otherwise a large space feel cozy. Photo Credit: Mark Pinkerton, vi360

Thank you Alvin and Ginny for sharing the experience of building your swimming pool dreams

View from Bedroom

Weeds Hardscape by California Deck Builders

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.