Western garden design awards: 15 winners offer a host of fresh landscaping ideas

Sunset, March, 2005 by Lauren Bonar Swezey

Last spring, seven landscape professionals gathered at Sunset's headquarters to select the very best examples of Western garden design from nearly 200 entries. They looked for excellence in five categories: renovation, outdoor living, regional, small space, and details (watch for that category in a future issue). No matter where in the West you live, the 15 winning landscapes offer a host of ideas to inspire your own garden's design.

SMALL SPACE

Designed for play

San Francisco. This Pacific Heights garden is so imaginative, it's in a class by itself. Its design is bold--and a clever solution for a difficult site. "A visual treat," remarked a juror.

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A zigzag ramp is edged with steel. From the bottom of the slope, it appears as three-dimensional layers of green, gold, and brown.

A tunnel of willow covers a slide. Spheres of willow boughs, 2 to 6 feet in diameter, dot the landscape. Two are moveable, designed for play, and another is stationary, wired for night lighting.

DESIGN: Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture, San Francisco (www.acochran.com or 415/503-0060); willow structures by the Willow Farm (www.thewillowfarm.com or 866/254-3521)

OUTDOOR LIVING

Modern miracle

Los Angeles. The ideal landscape reflects its region and takes advantage of the site's best features. This property overlooking the San Gabriel Mountains achieves both. When designer Mia Lehrer took on the project, much of the narrow backyard (with a steep drop-off at its rear) was occupied by a two-car garage and a huge expanse of concrete. Overgrown shrubs blocked the view.

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Inspired by the owner's collection of modernist indoor furniture, Lehrer developed a sleek design that pairs industrial materials with colors that reflect the region's blue skies and dramatic sunsets. The mottled blue wall visually connects the pool to the sky. Surrounding the 40-foot-long, angled pool is a lawn of fine-bladed fescue, which doesn't require mowing.

DESIGN: Mia Lehrer + Associates, Los Angeles (www.mlagreen.com or 213/384-3844)

RENOVATION

Gracious approach

Oakland, CA. Driveways are challenging features to integrate into a landscape. That's why the jurors were impressed with this project in which Mathew Henning, Heather Anderson, and Rose Keane turned an unappealing asphalt entryway into an elegant approach.

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In keeping with the contemporary style of the home, the designers overlapped granite, stained concrete, and multihued gravels for textural interest. A strip of white concrete works as a drainage channel. The stained concrete pad directs visitors to the front door. The retaining wall is wrapped in welded wire mesh and covered with morning glory. Three gingkos rise at the end of the driveway.

DESIGN: Henning-Anderson, Oakland, CA (510/531-3095)

SMALL SPACE

Stylish courtyard

Santa Fe. This downtown refuge brings a refreshing new twist to traditional adobe gardens. Using an earthy Southwest color scheme, Catherine Clemens and Elizabeth Robechek transformed a blank space into a contemporary retreat. All the elements are custom-built, from the black-bottom spa surrounded by stained concrete coping to the polished granite table with wood-and-metal chairs.

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The plantings are spare, in keeping with the area's minimal rainfall. A grove of aspens, set in "pools" of river rock, provides four seasons of interest. "A brilliant manipulation of a small space," noted a juror.

DESIGN: Clemens & Associates, Santa Fe (www.clemensandassociates.com or 505/982-4005)

SMALL SPACE

Urban sanctuary

Oakland, CA. To create a private oasis in a small backyard bordered by a four-story apartment building might sound like an impossible feat. But Mathew Henning, Heather Anderson, and Rose Keane used greenery on the surrounding walls and installed timber bamboo to screen out the building behind. Near the center of the stained concrete patio is a tiled water feature. The deck, installed at the interior floor level, provides a smooth transition to the outdoors. Much of the original concrete patio and terracotta-colored concrete pavers were salvaged to form a raised bed edging the back and one side wall of the garden. Sustainably harvested hardwood forms a bench along portions of the raised bed.

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DESIGN: Henning-Anderson, Oakland, CA (510/531-3095)

REGIONAL (BELOW)

Natural wonder

Geyserville, CA. This garden above Northern California's Russian River Valley flows seamlessly into its surroundings. As one juror pointed out, "There's no conflict between garden and nature."

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It wasn't always this way Before the renovation, a fence enclosed the garden, cutting off views, and a thirsty lawn grew too close to the native oaks. Landscape designers Diana Stratton and Brian Columbia removed the fence to open up views, then created terraces supported by retaining walls of local fieldstone. In place of lawn, Stratton planted native creeping red fescue grass; drifts of 'Thalia' daffodil bloom beneath the oaks. Both need very little water.