When I need inspiration for our yard I often search the web for landscape design firms and browse their portfolio pages. We're not in the position to hire any of these firms. And, I'm not sure I'd want to, even if we had the money to do so. I'm really loving everything I'm learning in the process of designing a better landscape for our home.
Besides plant knowledge I'm also learning about all the materials one needs to make a great landscape: rocks, decomposed granite, gravel, wood, fencing, etc. Designing with plants is a whole other challenge I find fascinating. There's so many elements to consider: color, leaf shape and size, height, bloom time of the year and flower color, soil, sun and water needs. There's so much to consider but often just random things that pop up out of the ground work beautifully. It's a living puzzle.
There is a landscape design firm in Los Angeles whose work I love. They would be who I'd hire. I know nothing about them. I only know their photographs. They are Orange Street Studio and these are some of the reasons why I like them so much:
All photographs are from Orange Street Studios.
I like the color of this house. Particularly because the framing of the windows is a dark brown just like ours. We need to reconsider color choices for our home. I also love the rectangular concrete slabs. I'd like to do a smaller scale version of that in our front yard and for it to extend past our median to the street.
I love the slender lines of grass in this back yard. Ours is a giant slab of concrete. I like it because the kids can ride their toys on it. I hate it because it looks so barren and it gets so hot. The lines take away the starkness of the concrete without taking away its use.
Love the bench.
I really like the trees and grasses in this landscape. I'd like something similar in our front entrance.
I'm very impressed how this company does drought tolerant so well.
Ah...there's the slabs running all the way to the street. I also like the gravel and grasses in this picture. I'd like to incorporate some of these ideas, mixed in with some of mine into our home.
Labels: inspiration
