Landscape Architects & Designers Near Santa Barbara

This garden has amazing views up to the mountains and vistas down to the center of Santa Barbara, but the immediate garden had no focus. We transformed the flat planting areas around the pool with groupings of colored plants with texture, height and variety. The slopes along the sides of the property became terraced with rugged rockwork and elegantly planted. The old Pyracantha bush became the focal point of a steel arbor designed to hold up the branches and create a shaded area to lounge underneath.

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Nestled into the hillside of oak forested land, this property offered an opportunity to blend California native planting design, cottage garden design, and a tropical wildscape space. The entrance to the property is a steep driveway that drops from the street down to the house. Previously, the front area surrounding the steep driveway was mostly filled with overgrown, dated plants that looked like leftovers from Home Depot circa 1992: Ivey, daisies and Agapanthus. Our decision was to blend the space into the surroundings while preserving the productive citrus and stone fruit trees. We flanked the driveway with semiformal California native plantings. Below the driveway near the house, the parking area looks onto one of the few sunny spots on this north-facing property. With the client’s affinity for roses we used this space to create a cottage garden filled with a roses, herbs, blueberries and flowers for cutting. property A little trail cuts along the hillside on the far side of the property, crosses a rivulet, and leads to a level area. I immediately saw the magic in this space. We worked to create an almost prehistoric space where native oaks blend with bold tropical foliage to give an otherworldly feeling. A landscape where the sight of strutting peacocks, skittering iguanas and possibly some even more ethereal creatures would not be out of place.

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