Our 2003 western garden design awards: 15 winners offer planting, paving, and problem-solving inspiration

Sunset, Feb, 2003 by Lauren Bonar Swezey

As the winners in Sunset's contest prove, a garden with a great design not only presents plants beautifully, it extends a home into the outdoors and expresses its owner's taste and personality. Our panel of six judges (see page 67) selected the best gardens from several hundred entries submitted by landscape architects and designers across the West. Each garden is ripe with ideas you can use.

A park of one's own

Beverly Hills. Mole than 200 trees turned this formerly barren lot into a woodland. "The transformation from bare lot to verdant forest is amazing," one juror remarked. "That's why we love plants."

The goal for designers Mia Lehrer, Esther Margulies, and Sara Fairchild was to screen the neighborhood from the large contemporary home. In the process, they created the illusion that the house had been built in a park.

An irregular stone path meanders through the grounds, connecting the various gardens: a square thicket containing nine crape myrtles in rows of three; a circular fountain surrounded by tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipfera 'Arnold'); and an amphitheater with a firepit. Bands of blue fescue ornamental grass interspersed with sections of lawn are among the most striking elements. This garden is all about fabulous textures, one juror noted.

DESIGN: Mia Lehrer Associates, Los Angeles (213/384-3844)

Winding ways

Santa Monica Canyon, CA. Gardening on an incline is always a challenge. But finding usable space on tilted ground for growing herbs and vegetables and for dining and outdoor living is a true accomplishment.

The first challenge for the Dry Design team--Maria Denegri, John Jennings, Sasha Tarnopolsky, and Jeny Williams--was to develop more garden area while providing easy access around the property. Switchback paths and "zipper" stairs (a series of zigzagging 6-foot squares that mimic the paving grid below it) connect terraces up and down the slope, To expand the areas where the hillside falls away, Dry Design added decks made of sustainable wood. Bold succulents span the front entry and can be viewed from high windows, strengthening the indoor-outdoor relationship. Jurors were particularly excited by the beautifully crafted and well-organized spaces. "It looks like a garden that would be fun to walk through," noted one juror.

DESIGN: Dry Design, Los Angeles (323/954-9084 ext. 22). The firm also won in Renovation category for Jennifer and Patrick Chol's Los Angeles garden.

OUTDOOR LIVING

Patio pleasures

Paradise Valley, AZ. It takes amazing vision to transform a crumbling, almost lifeless garden into a series of vibrant outdoor rooms that become both gathering spaces and exterior focal points. Landscape architect Steve Martino met the challenge by opening up the indoor/outdoor views with large sliding glass doors, cutting back light-blocking overhangs, creating a series of terraces around the house, and using vivid color on the surrounding walls and fountains.

In front, bold desert plants frame the taupe walls. Inside those walls is a courtyard alive with color and the sound of water splashing from a fountain. Lights both overhead and around the periphery make the courtyard magical at night.

The living room looks south to an intensely colored wall fountain, which underscores a mountaintop view while it obscures the neighbor's roof. To the west, a dining terrace opens up to an arroyo and offers glimpses of the desert. "The change to the garden is so dramatic," a juror remarked. "The dazzling spaces look very livable."

DESIGN: Steve Martino & Associates, Phoenix (602/957-6150)

* OUTDOOR LIVING

A house within a garden

Santa Monica. Elevation changes within a landscape can present both challenges and opportunities. Before Bill and Debbi Wisher remodeled their Southern California garden, the ground sloped down to the house from the garage at the back of their property. There were no plants to screen the yard from the street, and passersby could easily see over the 5-foot wall.

But landscape architect Pamela Palmer and landscape designer Miriam Rainville were able to completely transform the garden into what Palmer calls "a house within a garden," a private backyard retreat suitable for entertaining or relaxing. They carved out a 16-by 27-foot rectangle of soil in the center of the existing lawn, then added retaining walls around three sides to maintain the original level.

On one side of the garden, the designers created an intimate flagstone terrace backed by a thick screen of podocarpus trees. On the street side is a lush perennial-and-shrub garden accented by a bubbling urn, with black bamboo and king palms behind it to provide privacy from the street.

Extending directly off the house at the same level as the lawn is a new dining area for small gatherings. "Now the garden works for one person or 50 people," Palmer says. "It's a great use of a small space," noted a juror. "The sunken area makes the garden feel much more extensive."

DESIGN: Artecho Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Venice, CA (370/399-4794)

Geometry lesson