MICHELE’S GARDEN MAKEOVER

This yard was so much fun to work on! It had a lot of challenges with awkward angles to the walls, a lack of greenery, a few eyesores, a strange flow, but… a beautiful pool in the middle of it. I live for this kind of a project.

The main concern in this yard was flow. The seating area is on one side of the house and further to the left of it is the pool on the other. There is a small lounging area by the pool, but Michele’s existing sun loungers made a lot more sense there. And the seating area is located in the best spot as it’s under a pergola and is shaded. Both parts of the yard just felt very separate and detached so it was really important to figure out how to make the spaces feel like they were a part of one.

The paved area on the seating side of the house was really needed for this family, but it lacked greenery, function, and flow. Greenery was a pretty easy fix. Rather than filling the space with a bunch of pots, a few strategically placed planting beds with different heights would help enhance contrast and color. To create function and flow, it was necessary to divide the large space and design multiple functional spaces that one could move through. I wanted people to naturally move to the back of the space so that they could then be drawn to the pool and appreciate its beauty.

It was also important to me that one was greeted with warmth, a sense of openness, and beauty as soon as they walked in through the yard door. When I walked in for the first time, I immediately noticed the AC unit attached to the garage. I then saw the gorgeous tree in the middle. So I made it my mission to make sure that your eye was drawn to the tree or the seating area and not the ugly AC unit!

Yards can be tricky because there are a lot of uncontrollable elements to the space. You can’t dictate what’s on your neighbor’s home, where the street signs and street lamps are located as well as other factors that can affect your view of the space. However, I truly believe that if you can create and keep the focus on the pretty things, you’ll barely notice the not-so-pretty things…

| AFTER |

As soon as you enter the garden now, there are multiple pretty things to look at. I raised the planting bed around the tree and planted hundreds of white petunias to draw your eye to this beautiful old Banyan. I felt like the planting bed in front of it with Agaves was necessary for an additional pop of green against a lot of concrete on the floor. And if the tree doesn’t grab your attention when you walk in, you may be drawn to the warm and inviting seating area, dining space and fire pit with Adirondack chairs.

One of my favorite features of this yard has to be the raised planting bed against the wall by the dining area. It’s a monster, and I love it! The bed was elevated to fill a big empty wall. You could use trees to fill those walls, however, I wanted a larger variety of plants to choose from. Raising this planting bed gave me a chance to plant beautiful Ixoras that’ll give the wall a pop of color when in bloom. The best part is that you can see this planting bed from both parts of the yard!

This wooden wall is a close second to my favorite features in this yard. It not only hides the AC unit, it can even store items that you want to hide on a daily basis. It also just looks so pretty from the entrance!

The corner by the pool just needed a bit of variety. I wanted to highlight the Ponciana tree in the corner (especially when it blooms), so I gave it its own little planter. And the rest of the wall was filled with a lower planting bed with plants that will eventually add a bit of texture and visual interest to that corner. Some blue pots on the back wall of the pool give the space a much needed punch of color as well!

For lighting, we needed to mix up some wired lighting as well as solar as there were no electrical outlets by some of the areas in the yard. Luckily, those same areas get a lot of sun! Here are just a few of the nighttime shots as I have way more nighttime videos instead. I’ll be posting more of them on my IG.

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