Roll-Down Shades Provide Instant Sun Protection for Santa Fe Ramada

Trumpet vines and an iron grill werent enough to block intense afternoon sun on a Santa Fe ramada. The owners installed Awntex roll-down shades ($10/sq ft installed) that block 90% of sun rays and provide daytime privacy

5 Superstar Native Plants for Western Gardens

Yellow Bells (Tecoma stans) – Glossy green foliage, large yellow flower clusters spring through early winter. Evergreen shrub, can be trained as a tree to 25 ft. Zones 12, 13, 21–24; H1, H2. Firecracker Penstemon (Penste

Transforming a Barren Lot into a Private Woodland in Beverly Hills

Designers Mia Lehrer, Esther Margulies, and Sara Fairchild planted over 200 trees to screen a large contemporary home from the neighborhood, creating the illusion that the house was built in a park. Jurors called the tra

Gardening in Homer, Alaska: Raised Beds for Short Seasons

With summer highs averaging only 68°F, Gabriela Husmann and Konrad Schaad needed beds that warm quickly. They built 2-ft-tall beds with large rocks that absorb daytime heat and radiate it at night. The upper bed holds pe

Spot of Gold: Japanese Barberry Lights a Shade Garden

In Shelly and Bill Coglizers Northern California backyard, a single Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii Aurea) acts like a yellow headlight in a lush green shade garden. Designer Freeland Tanner complemented it with g

Design Tips from Sisters Specialty Gardens

Sisters Brenda Gousha and Barbara McFadden, with Patrice Longmire, run Sisters Specialty Gardens in Rancho Santa Fe. Their clients demand year-round color, lush greenery, and no bare spots. Here are their streamlined tec

Barrel Cactus Checkerboard: A Low-Maintenance Desert Garden

Escondido resident Peter Bailey replaced a thirsty lawn with a 700-sq-ft grid of 2-ft concrete squares, crushed rock, and golden barrel cacti. The goal: look good from ground level and second-story windows. After levelin

Small Garden Secrets: Making 600 Square Feet Feel Spacious

Dean Shibuya and Jeffrey Molloys San Francisco backyard uses every inch for multiple garden rooms. Designer Terry Mulrooney pushed features into corners: a hot tub in one, a pergola with built-in bar and bench in another

Desert Classic in Palm Springs: A 1920s Home Gets a Garden

Bud and Barbara Hoovers 1920s Palm Springs home originally had only sand—water was scarce, and stays were brief. When they renovated in 1989 to live there year-round, they added a pergola over an outdoor dining area. Lan

One Garden, Two Personalities: Formal Front, Whimsical Back

Jeff Lightbodys century-old Boise home has two distinct garden personalities. The front yard is classically formal: an entry path flanked by groundcovers, ferns, ornamental grasses, and shrubs around basalt boulders, wit

Mediterranean Meadow Garden Design in Menlo Park

Linda and Ted Schleins Spanish-style home in Menlo Park features a Mediterranean meadow front yard designed by landscape architect Rosemary Wells. The design complements the homes curves and colors, creating a sun-washed

Chilling in the Garden: A Mediterranean-Inspired Retreat

An existing retaining wall and a new elevated watercourse with spillway define a backyard entertaining space echoing Mediterranean gardens. Pigmented stucco walls and fountain (with built-in bench) in creamy yellow compl

Standards: Small Trees for Big Impact in Small Gardens

Standards—flowering shrubs or woody vines trained into tree forms—are booming. Patio trees with crowns at least 30 inches above the pot are especially popular. At Hines Nurseries in Irvine, 10 acres now grow patio trees

Raised-Bed Vegetable Garden: Four Quadrants of Productivity

You dont need acres to grow vegetables. At Sunsets test garden, coordinator Bud Stuckey built four 4x4-ft raised beds using Trex composite lumber. He double-dug to 22 inches and amended with compost. Heres the planting p

Simply Elegant: A Series of Garden Rooms

In Danville, California, Jack and Shelley Bays wanted variety, seasonal color, and foliage to soften stark walls. Landscape architect Mathew Henning and designer Heather Anderson removed the lawn and created a series of

The Railing as a Spillway: A Renaissance-Inspired Water Feature

Landscape architect Greg Trutza adapted a Renaissance garden idea for a Phoenix terrace: a water channel set into the top of a low wall, inspired by the Villa dEste at Tivoli. The channel wraps around an upper patio and

Design a Dazzling Low-Water Garden Bed

Create a stunning, drought-tolerant bed with these plants (numbers indicate quantity for a sample design): A. Cushion spurge (Euphorbia epithymoides); all zones (12) B. Lambs ears (Stachys byzantina Silver Carpet); all

Rooftop Garden in Livestock Troughs

Seattle condo owners with no ground space created a rooftop garden using galvanized steel livestock watering troughs. Purchased from a feed store, the troughs (oblong and round, 2-ft sides, up to 10 ft diameter) were pla

Celebrating the Onion: A Whimsical Garden Gate

Designers Cristie Thomas and Scott Lindberg of :L:M:N:O: Arts describe their style as eclectic and graceful. Their backyard fence, however, is delightfully silly—a steel gate inspired by Walla Walla onions theyve grown f

Ultimate Outdoor Entertainment Patio: Kitchen, Fire, Water, and Fireplace

A timeless patio integrates every comfort: state-of-the-art barbecue with tile counter and sink, firepit for marshmallows, water feature for serenity, outdoor fireplace for chilly evenings. Construction Details Large m