A Shoreline Vacation at Home: Island-Style Garden on a Tiny Beach Lot

Maximizing Every Inch on a Narrow Coastal Lot

In Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, Bruno and Dawn Büchler created an intimate island-style patio with dining area, fireplace, pond, outdoor kitchen, and a Caribbean-inspired bar. Tiki torches glow among tropical plants, and a firepit extends the season. The entry courtyard features a waterfall and pond lined with black Mexican beach pebbles, planted in vertical layers with foliage-focused tropicals: palms underplanted with magenta bloodleaf (Iresine herbstii) and black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus), lacy tree ferns, bronze cannas, Blechnum ferns, and variegated coleus.

The patio's tropical plantings include a queen palm in a circular bed, shorter palms and tree ferns for a midstory, passion vines on walls, and cycads, Blechnum ferns, and baby's tears in beds. Even on chilly evenings, the fire and heater keep the party going.

Design: Debora Carl Landscape Design, Encinitas, CA (760/212-8819); Büchler Construction, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA (760/473-8039)