FormLA Landscaping

Home Improvement Professionals , Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers
13 Reviews
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FormLA Landscaping
13 Reviews

Garden of the Setting Sun

The Spruce featured this artful, art-filled La Crescenta home and garden as an exemplar of Spanish Colonial architecture. The garden amplifies the architecture's distinctive charms, from the terra cotta tile roof and ironworks to the intricate tile of its stairways.

The homeowners generously opened the space for LA's iconic Native Plant Garden Tour in 2022.
Project Year: 2016
Country: United States
Others who worked on this project: Theodore Payne Foundation
Spanish Colonial Architecture
The neighborhood is free of sidewalks and parkways, so to add curb appeal outside the home's gates meant removing pavement. In addition to adding "curb" appeal and year-round fragrance, this thin strip of Hummingbird Sage allows stormwater to enter the groundwater table and attracts both...
Sage-Softened Parkway
Wrought fencing, a hallmark of Spanish Colonial design, would provide little privacy from the street. Now established trees are joined by California Lilac and Coffeeberry Ito give the meadow a secret garden feel.
Enchanting Garden Entry
The lush, leafy garden amplifies the most remarkable aspects of the architecture.
Art-Filled Spanish Colonial
The front garden's not only pays tribute to love birds, it gives the birds drawn by abundant native foliage a place to dip their beaks. The gurgling of water adds to the sense of peace felt amidst the birdsong and sunset hues.
A Fountain that Loves Birds
The terra cotta tile roof as well as the Spanish tile of the front stairs focused the color palette. In spring, the California Lilac behind the stairs mirrors the blue in the tile. In summer and fall, that service is provided by California native Oregon Grape.
Complements to the Architecture
The owner planted a rare California Lilac (ceanothus) near the home. It's blooms are particularly diaphanous. The more dense, robin's egg blue blooms of a second lilac, California Mountain Lilac (Ceanothus `Ray Hartman'), serves as a privacy screen near the fence.
Rare California Lilac
From late May to September, these delicate branches fill with magenta trumpet-like blooms. Like the California lilac, the blooms call the eyes to the home's distinctive roofline and create second story shading and privacy.
Desert Willow
California native Oregon Grape provides another perfect complement to the Spanish tile doorway.California lilac brings its soft blue blooms in early spring. Once they fade, Oregon grape steps in, producing otherworldly blue berries.
Oregon Grape in Summer
In addition to the blue, the tile of the doorway has pops of bright yellow.
Spanish Tile Entrance
Oregon grape draws the eye to these flashes of yellow too! In spring, its dense, dark green foliage fills with bright sun-yellow clusters of blooms.
Oregon Grape - Spring Color
In fall, Oregon Grape's foliage picks up the terra cotta and rust colors in the tile, adding the depth with fierce crimson, deep mahogany and bronze.
Oregon Grape - Fall Color
The front garden provides an amazing frame for spectacular LA sunsets.
A Private Sunset View
In summer, the reds and bronzes are provided by ripe Coffeeberries.
Coffeeberry - Summer+Fall Color
In back, well-established tree canopy on neighboring properties provides shade. This canopy ensures the sunrise over the back garden is as pleasant as the sunset in front.
Expansive Tree Canopy
Where there is direct sun, it is put to good use! Much of the home's roof contains solar panels, and an extra set works from the pergola behind the home, providing both shade and energy to assist the AC. Further support is provided by the depths of native shrubbery, shown to help cool spaces as...
Solar Pergola
An IdealMow meadow of hardy Carex pansa fills much of the expansive backyard. It maintains its lush color year round, despite needing only 20 percent of the water needed by the turf grass that once filled the space. A bevy of California native sages and other blooms wraps the meadow, softening the...
Lush, Verdant Native Meadow
The gardens belong to a relatively diminutively sized guard dog, who benefits from their ability to withstand play and the full range of his uses. As everything thrives without toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides, it also means he can play while maintaining freedom from itchy paws, upset...
Chemical Free Space
The owners' collection of local, joyful garden art anchors the space, playing among the blooms.
Joyful Garden Art
In addition to the shrubbery that wraps the meadow, California native Morning Glory covers the garden walls with lush greenery and delightful, trumpet-like blooms. By softening the hard wall, it adds to the garden's serenity while revealing the brick at the top of the wall.
California-Native Morning Glory
Lilac Verbena dances through the holes of the iron garden art.
Lilac Verbena
A winter bloomer, Lilac Verbena ensures the garden always has something to delight pollinators - and human eyes.
Lilac Verbena
In the back garden, yellow in the tile inspired the selection of Indian Mallow. Its silver foliage offers beautiful contrast to terra cotta tiles as well as the mural. A top performer, Indian Mallow blooms 10 months of the year.
Indian Mallow
An expansive mural by Erik Junker can be seen from both tiers of the garden just under the elevated canopies of trees. At the meadow's edge an ever-blooming and berrying array of native foliage softens the wall separating the two tiers. Blooms and berries once again complement the colors in the...
Boisterous Spring Blooms
Almost blue Cleveland Sage (Salvia Clevelandii) draws birds, butterflies and bees. It scents the air with an earthy mint scent and, like Indian Mallow, fills a space with silvery foliage to contrast with both the green of the meadow and tile-work.
Cleveland Sage
Throughout the garden, in sun and in shade, the buzz of hummingbird wings and the distinctive, fresh, sweet scent of Hummingbird Sage fills the air.
Hummingbird Sage
The poolside mural by Erik Junker references the owners' passion for Los Angeles and the nature that inhabits this beautiful city. It depicts LA's wildlife as well as California native oak trees and blooms.
Poolside Mural
Succulents so prevalent they are often thought to be native to Los Angeles sit in contained gardens at poolside. This allows them to be protected when the garden's temperatures drop below their preferred temperature or receive "too much" rain. They also add a nice pop of color!
Contained Fire Sticks
Before
Throughout the neighborhood, garden walls meet the street. The narrow planted space that now exists between the wall around the Garden of the Setting Sun serves two purposes. It absorbs runoff, taking pressure off stormwater systems, refueling groundwater, and slowing runoff. It also adds a feeling...
Hardened Spaces
An abundance of greenery grew near the entrance to the property. While lush, it was a monotonous true green.
Monotonous Greenery
In the front garden, spectacular sunset views were blocked tree. Small, straight edged planting beds contained tropical foliage that had a hard time bringing its best to the space.
Unhappy Foliage
By replacing low foliage near the home with more expansive greenery and removing hardscape at the far end of this space, we were able to open up a view of the sunset without subjecting the home to its heat.
Obscured View
In back a thirsty turf-grass lawn needed 80 percent more water than the present meadow while delivering far less joy and greenery.
Expansive Turf Lawn
The existing tree canopy on neighbboring properties adds great value to the space. The sun rises over these sentinels. While trumpet vine greened the wall, it came at the cost of hiding its brick edging, a complement to the architecture.
Borrowed Tree Canopy
The mural replaced by Erik Junkers "psychedelic nature pop" was more of a traditional, blue-toned landscape.
Expansive Mural