Before and After: Transforming a Tangle into an Elegant Entry - Gardenista
The first time they saw the Spanish-style stucco house on a quiet side street, LA-based landscape designers Joel Lichtenwalter and Ryan Gates of Grow Outdoor Design didn’t really see it. Photographs by Katrina Coombs via Grow Outdoor Design. This week, they reveal how they turned a “tropical mess” into a welcoming front garden on a budget of about $10,000. Lichtenwalter and Gates favor using a muted color palette–typically limited to greens, browns, and silvers. 1: Agree on a good plan and stick to it. “You couldn’t even see the house,” says Lichtenwalter. On the stucco wall: a velvety cloak of creeping fig (salvaged from the overgrown front garden). It hugs the wall on which it grows. A money-saving suggestion: Rather than paving an entire path with flagstone, set individual pavers into a bed of decomposed stone to create a walkway. Periodically, it sends forth a sparse yellow flower. Euphorbia rigida ‘Gopher Spurge’ and Agave vilmoriniana (Octopus Agave) complement each other with different textures, sizes, and shapes of their leaves. A redbud tree and a native grass (Canyon Prince Wild Rye). It’s a hardy grass that needs minimal maintenance.