Gardens in Transition

Transitional Landscapes Mix Styles for a Personalized Form and Function

 
You don’t like to be put in a box, and you may like to experiment and evolve your spaces. Not a problem! Some of the most compelling landscapes come from mixing styles. When done well, a transitional style garden will feel unified and distinctively delightful – even as it evolves.
 

 
 

A Lawn or Not a Lawn

That is the question. It’s unlikely you have a strong attachment to the traditional turf grass lawn. Still, picturing what else might work may feel like a chore. Swapping a turf grass for an IdealMow grass that will form a meadow when unmowed offers room for experimentation. Another alternative is to shrink the lawn, making room for outdoor living spaces, foliage beds, or edible gardens. In either direction, you can expect to save water, energy, time and money while enhancing your lifestyle.
 

 
 

Mix and Match

Planted areas can easily evolve. Patios, walks, and drives take more effort. This can make commitment to a particular aesthetic or definitive function more difficult. So, why not mix it up a bit?
 

 
This space unifies multiple walk and patio materials ideal to particular functions. Concrete patios allow furnishings to flow form space to space, while pavers with foliage and gravel joints facilitate the flow of both traffic and water.
 

 
Here, a brick drive and paths in sync with the architecture offer direct routes from the street to the home. They intermingle with meandering walks of decomposed granite hidden from the street by boisterous year round blooms.
 
 

Keep Current

While matching a landscape’s style to the architecture is one way to go, the landscape can also be used to update the aesthetic of a property or simply marry it to your personal style. For example, this Spanish-style home in Holmby Hills features clean, modern outdoor living spaces.
 

 
In another direction, the Aoyagi’s complement their streamlined mid-century architecture and outdoor living spaces with a satisfying maximalist riot of blooms and lush, leafy foliage.
 
Large concrete slabs with gravel joints sit under an abundant tree canopy.
 
 

Easy Evolution

Not too long ago, we fielded a lot of requests for streamlined landscapes to update more traditional architecture. Now we hear more requests to soften modern architecture with naturalistic forms. One of the easiest ways to evolve the aesthetic of a landscape and keep curb appeal current involves evolving the choice and arrangement of foliage. The more unbuilt planted spaces left on a property, the more flexibility you’ll have moving forward.
 
 

More Information

Houzz: See More of These Gardens
Houzz: See California Native Foliage
Houzz: See IdealMow Lawns and Meadows
Pinterest: Get Example Plant Palettes