Valley Village

About the project

This back yard had been demolished during a complete remodel of the home which included an extension and a deck build. The clients needed a small area of grass for their dogs to play on and were hoping to make the yard as visually large as possible. The space needed a complete re-think, so we started by creating a focal point with a water feature framed on both sides by vertical gardens. The garage wall was a perfect place to install this as it was easily viewed from the inside of the home, giving an indoor-outdoor feel to the living room. The clients expressed that they did not have green thumbs so we installed drip irrigation with a timer to each level of the living wall so the plants virtually took care of themselves, with the exception of a good trim-up every few months. To add more texture and dimension to the remaining part of the yard we built low retaining walls and back-filled them with soil and plants. The lawn was framed with metal edging and DG pathways were installed. Two, low concrete raised planter beds were added next to the house to grow veggies and low voltage lighting was installed. There was an alleyway at the far end of the yard, so for security we installed a lit woven fence topper with metal posts to raise the height of the wall. The wall had to be removed in sections and rebuilt as the roots from giant Podocarpus trees had fractured the cement blocks. The back walls and planters were stuccoed and painted white to make the yard appear larger. A wooden fence that was shared with a neighbor was replaced with a 6ft block wall and the same woven fence topper to raise the height. This wall was used to house an additional vertical garden that was installed several months later as the clients loved the first one so well!