Crescent

This client approached me with a rose garden and a lawn on one of Venice’s gorgeous walk streets. The garden was beautiful, but it wasn’t suited to the southern CA climate and required too much water and maintenance. The client wanted to remove her lawn, retain her fruit trees and some sort of pathway, and incorporate native plants.

The walk street caused some challenges when it came to installation and access, but it was well worth it for the location. Hundreds of people walk by every day, and they were able to see this project develop.

This inspired us to lean into the multi-sensory experience of this jewelbox garden. There are blooms of many colors throughout many seasons. There’s the softness of the foliage types contrasting with the more structural plants and boulders. There’s the crunch of the gravel as you walk through it. And there are the smells: salvias and mints—herbal scents that you’d be picking up on a local hike. The local plants created an ecosystem for native fauna, and this desert take on a cottage garden is alive with hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies.