What types of gardens are you drawn to? The gardens that resonate most with me are those that are (or were) deeply personal for their owners. An exhilarating example here in Southern California is Ganna Walska Lotusland, a 37-acre nonprofit botanical garden located in Montecito, near Santa Barbara. The unique and exquisite plants of Lotusland...Read More

We often have the pleasure of being invited back by clients to review the landscape we’ve designed, especially in the first few years. Usually on our visits, the plants are thriving, and all is well. We have designed your garden to be in harmony with our climate, using trees, shrubs, perennials and succulents either native...Read More

Throughout Los Angeles, many of the trees that shade our streets and absorb carbon are nearing the end of their lifespans. Urban trees can often have shorter than usual lifespans, and in Southern California, many are succumbing to disease after years of drought. As an example, all of the beautiful mature camphor trees on the...Read More

Fusing architecture and landscape, Casa Prieto-López was designed from 1947-1951 by Mexican architect and Pritzker Prize winner Luis Barragán. On a recent visit to Mexico City, I toured this iconic project, now renamed Casa Pedregal by businessman and collector César Cervantes, who from 2013 to 2016 restored the home with architect Jorge Covarrubias.  The landscape too,...Read More

Furnishings play an important role in the way your outdoor spaces look, feel and most importantly, how they work. Designing environments that satisfy your needs requires understanding your space’s current and future uses. In this post, we’ll share the considerations we work through with clients when designing built-in or purchasing freestanding outdoor furniture for them....Read More