Garden Design Elements

These elements are the building blocks of our garden projects. Browse our library and inspire your wildest outdoor dreams! To see these in context, make sure to look over our Garden Portfolio and Ecological Art Portfolio.

Artisanal Stone Work

All of our stonework is dry laid and set, meaning we do not use concrete or mortar. Instead, we use the traditional practice of working with the stones’ natural shapes and features to set them in sand in a patio, pathway, wall, and stairwell. With this technique, the stonework gets stronger as the earth shifts into place, instead of cracking and breaking like rigid concrete.  

Exterior of a modern house with a landscaped hillside backyard featuring desert plants, rocks, and brick stairs under a clear blue sky.
Backyard garden with stone pathway, Buddha statue, small water feature, lush bushes, trees, custom seating area and a wooden fence in the background.
A stone and slate fireplace with layered stones and flat slate pieces on top, with stone patio underneath.

Bathtub Moon Gardens

Oh my, wait ‘til you soak up the starry night sky in a moon garden! Created with repurposed bathtubs, moon gardens are the ultimate way to connect with nature while conserving: after each soak, your bath water drains into the surrounding plants. A great alternative to hot tubs, they don’t require constant maintenance, chemicals, or electricity. We like to place plants around the tub that reach peak fragrance at night to create a special ambiance.

A Bay Area backyard with a purple bathtub, surrounded by greenery, flowers, and a wooden shed with a mint-colored door, under a partially cloudy sky.
A rural landscape with a garden featuring a vintage bathtub on a stone pathway, surrounded by green plants and flowers. Trees and rolling hills are in the background, illuminated by warm sunset light.
A backyard garden area with a white bathtub turned into a garden feature, surrounded by potted plants, decorative lighting, and stepping stones, enclosed by weathered wooden fencing.

Edible Gardens

Edible gardens create opportunities to grow your own food and medicine, fueling culinary adventures and greater self-sufficiency. We can integrate edible gardens into our designs in multiple ways: mixing within other plants, creating separate raised veggies beds, or even creating dynamic food forests with fruit trees, berries, herbs, medicinals, and pollinators. 

A raised bed vegetable garden with multiple wooden beds filled with various organic, edible plants and some flowering plants, surrounded by a Decomposed Granite pathway and a grassy yard with trees and bushes in the background.
A circular brick planter filled with various green plants, with a stone edging, on a paved outdoor area in a suburban Bay Area neighborhood.
A lush California native garden with various plants, flowers, small trees, and a Sonoma Fieldstone retaining wall with outdoor pathway lights.

Drought-tolerant Meadows

Native meadows created with wildflowers and grasses are a wonderful alternative to traditional lawns that require tons of water, fertilizer, and maintenance. Besides using 30% less water than sod, native meadows can be evergreen, only need to be mowed once or twice a year, and are durable for foot traffic and play. Who doesn’t dream of a meadow for afternoon naps, lounges, and picnics?

A Bay Area front yard garden with lush, drought-tolerant grass, mature trees providing shade, a wooden fence, and a house with arched windows in the background.
A Bay Area front garden with a no-mow grassy meadow, flowering CA native plants, a small tree, and a stone pathway leading to a white park bench, enclosed by a wooden fence and a beige house in the background.
A backyard garden with a lush green lawn, colorful flowers, shrubs, and trees, adjacent to a house with a covered patio and outdoor furniture, during early evening.

Living Willow Fences + Sculptures

Willow is a quick-growing shrub/tree that can quickly root into the ground. We like it for its strength, durability, and tendency to leaf out into a cool green structure. Artistically woven fences, dome shelters, and sculptures can be better for outdoor spaces than traditional wood structures because they offer a sustainable alternative, create habitats for living creatures, and have a “coolness” factor that other materials can’t replicate. 

Backyard garden with a blue bench under a willow arch, surrounded by rocks and plants, and a wooden fence.
Residential Bay Area front yard with trees, bushes, and a grassy no-mow meadow, under a clear blue sky
A small willow bulb made of branches and twigs on a patch of cleared ground in a natural landscape with trees, grass, and a distant view of hills or a city skyline under a blue sky with clouds.

Living Walls

Living walls are functional design elements that can also stand as pieces of art. Created using vertical cell blocks, we curate a vibrant mixture of colorful plants, ferns, and grasses to create swathes of patterns and colors that complement your space. These are perfect in front of fences and large retaining walls or behind large fountain pieces and other focal areas. 

Aerial view of a cactus garden with a heart-shaped arrangement of white flowers intertwined with other plants.
Sonoma Fieldstone with various succulents, including an aloe plant, a trailing succulent, and rosette-shaped succulents, growing among the boulders.
A rectangular planter filled with various green and dark purple succulent plants placed on a wooden surface.

Greenhouses

Greenhouses offer a great place to start seeds and grow food + plants all year round, especially in coastal climates and the San Francisco Bay Area. More than just growing plants, they can also be magical building extensions, perfect for cozy afternoon book reading or morning coffee sits. We strive to reuse as many materials as possible in our buildings. 

Inside a greenhouse with plants on shelves and a small wooden platform at the end, with gardening supplies and a door leading outside.
A backyard garden with a small greenhouse, plants, flowers, and a stone retaining wall.
A partially built greenhouse with wooden framing, clear plastic panels, and a sliding glass door, with potted plants and exterior yard visible

Lighting

Illuminate your garden into a dynamic piece of night-time art with carefully placed lighting. We’ll design your lights to accentuate trees, shrubs, and sculptures—while safely lighting patios and pathways— creating incredible shadows and shapes after dark.  Extend your backyard time well into the evening and add a beautiful, welcoming glow to your front yard at night. We use low-voltage LED lights. 

A modern house with wooden exterior, large windows, and outdoor garden lighting at dusk.
Backyard built for entertaining: Night scene with illuminated blue spherical art installations hanging among trees, with a small plaza and pathway in the foreground.
Nighttime view of a Bay Area home with large arched windows and glass double doors, illuminated from inside, with outdoor lighting and decorative elements.

Pollinator Gardens

Pollinator gardens provide vital nectars and habitats for bees, butterflies, moths, and other insects. Besides providing colorful blooms all year round, gardens with pollinator plants are well-adapted to this climate, making them drought-tolerant. We specifically focus on creating gardens with native plants because they provide the food that native pollinators need to thrive.

A low water, naturalistic garden with yellow, white, purple, and red flowering plants, surrounded by green foliage and a bamboo fence background.
A garden bed filled with various green plants and vibrant purple, white, and pink flowers along a DG pathway.
Pink and yellow flowers with green leaves next to gray, intricately leafed plants in a garden.

Repurposed Materials

We strive to repurpose as many materials on-site as possible to benefit the earth, our clients, and ourselves. When we reuse materials, we save space in our landfills, save the cost of buying something new, and save on gas by cutting trips to the store or dump. We often break up old concrete patios or pathways and reshape the pieces into modern-looking flagstones, called “urbanite,” that we then set into new pathways. We can even stain the concrete pieces to create a specific look. Other materials we commonly reuse include wood, rocks, and stone, as well as existing structures and art. 

Well-maintained backyard garden with stone pathway, potted plants, blooming flowers, and a wooden fence and shed.
A backyard garden with a brick pathway, benches, potted plants, shrubs, and a cat walking on the path.
A stone pathway winding through a garden with soil and newly planted groundcovers