3 Steps to Choosing the Right Plants for Your Patio

It’s challenging to design an urban garden, and planting one even more so. Plants, even in the smallest of contemporary gardens, are important structural building blocks, and the smaller the garden, the more pro

Recipe for Asian Edible Garden Style

Japanese, Asian, Zen. Gardens designed with an Eastern sensibility go by many names, but they all share recognizable traits. Those traits are typically aesthetic (artistically placed rocks), symbolic (statues of

See How to Turn a Small Outdoor Room Into a Peaceful Retreat

These days downsizing is as common as flies at a summer picnic. Whether it’s urban sprawl and long commutes that have tempted you to move closer to the city center, or you are an empty nester who has developed a

Backyard Ideas: Writers Studio and a Japanese-Inspired Garden

The Portland Japanese Garden, built to commemorate Sapporo, Japan, as Portland, Oregon’s first sister city, lies just across the Willamette River from this Laurelhurst home, and many of its details inspired its

Humble Corrugated Metal Brings Modern Style to the Garden

Corrugated metal is strong, lightweight and rustproof, and can be used in many ways to add a unique touch to the garden. Though there are many standard landscape building materials, metal is increasing in popula

Recipe for Modernist Edible Garden Style

Clean, unadorned lines and an open, spacious feel are the hallmarks of modernist garden design. Food gardens —with their exuberant growth and chaotic medley of species that can go from tiny seedlings to an overg

Should You Use Composite Timber in Your Landscape?

Composite timber can be a low-maintenance and sustainable alternative to wood in home landscaping projects. It has been manufactured to be stain and blemish resistant, without needing an annual sealant, and come

Garden Walls: Mortared Stone Adds Structure, Style and Permanence

Mortar has been used to build walls and structures for centuries, with the earliest known use dating back to 6,500 B.C. in Pakistan. While mortared natural stone garden walls are a practical choice for retaining

Recipe for Tropical Edible Garden Style

Lush foliage and exotic flowers are the two most important ingredients landscape designers use to create tropical ambience in the garden. I would argue that luscious fruits and exotic herbs should — or at least

Precast Concrete Pavers Make a Versatile Surface in the Garden

Precast concrete pavers are versatile and resilient, and give homeowners and professionals many possibilities for creating a fun and attractive outdoor paved surface. Pavers set with stones or gravel make a beau

10 Reasons to Love Outdoor Showers

You may think of an outdoor shower as belonging at a beach house, and while that’s certainly true (see No. 8 below), sand and salt aren’t the only things outdoor showers are good for. Here are 10 reasons to love

7 Ways to Use Drifts and Masses In Your Garden

Most gardeners, I think, want to bring a bit of the wilder natural world into their home landscapes. This doesn’t mean an unkempt look, but it does often mean imitating and interpreting the natural structure, fo

How to Use Local Stone in Your Landscape Design

Local stone is a great material for creating a landscape design that’s timeless and durable. When thinking about landscape materials for garden design projects, consider local stone based on the shapes, sizes an

Tour 7 Stunning New York Gardens

Most garden visitors probably wouldn’t expect to see a coastal-inspired landscape on the 15th story of an apartment building and a restored estate garden covered in the same tour, but this weekend and next, visi

New This Week: 3 Fire Pits Herald the Start of Summer

It seems like summer always arrives more quickly than you can toast a marshmallow. Which brings up the topic at hand: fire pits. With the first day of summer kicking off this Sunday, it’s a good time to celebrat

Outdoor Style: Creative Ways With Classic Concrete

Versatile, strong and readily available, concrete is one of the most widely used outdoor materials. Though it’s sometimes thought of as cold or even dull, its design potential for paths, patios, walls and other

A Restful London Retreat With Naturalistic Plantings

When faced with that London rarity, a large garden, the owners of this property in the city’s Crystal Palace area felt compelled to call for backup. They approached garden designer and landscape architect Kate E

Bring Reclaimed Wood to the Landscape

It’s hard to beat the lovely patina of aged wood. It brings warmth, texture and character to the home landscape. Used in the garden, reclaimed wood from historic structures brings history and charm to your plant

Problem Solving With the Pros: Sustainable Landscape Captures Runoff

For a newly rebuilt home outside Washington, D.C., landscape architect Sandra Youssef Clinton was tasked with tackling severe water runoff, creating spaces that speak to the homeowners’ environmental proclivitie

How to Use Scrim to Add a Seductive Quality to Your Garden

A great garden leaves something to the imagination. It unfolds through time and space, with new discoveries waiting at each turn. Such a garden has mystery, intrigue and depth. Perhaps you would describe your ga