This sleek Santa Clara, California garden was installed six years ago with the intention of creating an ideal drought tolerant, low water and low maintenance living space. The design transformed a somewhat narrow, unimpressive yard into a wonderful backyard retreat. Clean lines, low-contrast colors, modern Asian influences and useful spaces are perfectly fit for regular meals & small social events, completed by a short, meandering pathway of cut-stone pavers leading to perfectly proportioned vegetable beds.
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| Back garden patio with 'Charcoal' Idaho Quartz Slate pavers |
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Pittosporum tenuifolium screens both fences and neighbors' back yards, gives the homeowner's privacy, and provides shade in the late afternoon. Pittosporum tenuifolium is drought tolerant, low water (once established), non-invasive and, with some skillful regular pruning, can be maintained in a 'light & airy' form at 15 feet tall in a two foot wide bed, making it the ideal shrub for screening.
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The stabilized grey decomposed granite pathway with inlaid 'Charcoal' Idaho Quartz Slate pavers allows for foot traffic and water drainage to plants nearby.
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| Pinus thundbergii 'Thunderhead' (Japanese Black Pine), Gardenia jasminoides 'August Beauty', Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Kohuhu', Pittosorum tobira 'Wheeler's Dwarf', and a Clementine Mandarin Orange tree share this space. |
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| A Pinus thundbergii 'Thunderhead' (Japanese Black Pine) and other shrubs are kept small with regular once-a-year pruning. |
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| Japanese Black Pine |
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| Garden Lantern |
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| Front garden plants match back garden plants for continuity. |
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| A small lantern statue sits in a shaded corner with Sonoma fieldstone boulders in the front garden. |
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| The Design |
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| BEFORE: Uneven formed concrete patio surface and full sun exposure made this garden hot and visually unappealing. Fixed! |
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| BEFORE: Odd plantings, and no sense of space or privacy. |
