Worn concrete, boring garage door, no focal point. New garage door, fountain & paving. The main view from the house lacks a focal point A new fountain & planting masks surrounding noises and is nice to view. Old gate provided no privacy The new gate encloses the new courtyard, but leaves room for the dog to check out neighborhood action. Lots of boring lawn, using too much water and overgrown shrubs Curb appeal, mostly native plants that attract birds & bees, places to sit and raised vegetable beds Nothing but an expanse of lawn, worn concrete and a path without appeal The new path's surface varies from concrete to pavers and wanders through a garden full of color and motion. Raised beds for seating, too. Before: Nothing special. This great mid-century modern home and landscape could use a face lift. After: New garage door, stucco, courtyard wall and plantings create curb appeal. During: Design sketch for façade and new walls Before: all these tools and nowhere to store them neatly. After: The tools are in the cabinets to the right. At left, a potting bench with lots of shelves This project in Rocklin needed an attractive path from the house to the patio. It also needed a nicer fence, working underground drainage and a better view from the house. The new path combined with a retaining wall and pot/firewood wall meets all the requirements. This was not what most people would call a useable space. Transformed into a level patio with cooking areas, seating and dramatic lighting, this area gets a lot of use. Another view of the space, seen from the entry point. A new livestock trough pond opens the ball to people entering through the garden gate, inviting them into the patio. The old stairway to the home was narrow, cramped and uninviting. There wasn't even a path to the garden gate. The path now leads to the garden gate - the house is accessed via a wide, inviting stairway (the former stairs passed between the rock-clad column and the wall). The deck was not level and worse, it wasn't too sound. New flagstone paving replaced the deck with useable, level spaces. This gate didn't invite anyone to pass into the patio area. A new custom gate raises the excitement level well before anyone even sees the patio. This beautiful cactus and succulent collection lacked focus. A new seat wall and fountain, cobbles and a logical hierarchy to the plantings completely transforms the space. The dining room view didn't have a main focus. Views from the dining room are now framed by a Butia palm and focus on a colorful pot fountain. Before: the backyard, as delivered by the developer After: A place to sit and growing plants. Before: Dirt and a fence. After: a patio with a fountain, trees and flowering plants Before: A cluttered, weedy patio with multiple kinds of irregular pavement, difficult to roll a suitcase over this! After: Pervious paving is neat, poses no problem for suitcase wheels and eliminates a flooding problem. Before: Although lush and green, this garden used a lot of water and required weekly maintenance. After: A reclaimed wood deck needs little maintenance and is a natural gathering place for entertaining. Before: A lot of weeds but not enough patio. The old fence is not attractive and a hodgepodge of trellises create a messy look. After: the patio extends to a seat wall at a raised planter backed by uniform attractive trellises. As the plants grow, the trellis will become a green wall. Before: This courtyard bakes in the afternoon sun. Instead of being a welcoming entry space, it's an oven. After: A wood trellis shelters the entry to create a cool, shady welcome to guests in summer. Before: Heavy clay. After: paths, places to sit, a fountain and main patio. With time, trees will shade the patio. Before: A wet, sloping lawn but not enough universal access patio or sitting space. After: Easy access everywhere, less maintenance and plants that attract hummingbirds. Before: an unstable slope, no usable spaces and no universal access. After: Hard, flat, level surfaces for easy walking, a seat wall for sitting and plants for color and wildlife interest. Before: looking from the back yard. After: a new pool & spa with a deck that floats over the slope. A curved seat wall also functions as a guard rail. Before: The foreground is a flood plain (it proved this by flooding the year after the garden was built). After: Grasses, sedges, a native wilow and flowering plants are interesting year round and don't mind a little flooding. This is the same meadow about a year later.