View from driveway of green wall and mahogany deck stair Kyle Born

Golightly Landscape Architecture was commissioned to reimagine the gardens of this beautiful, modern French country home in Birmingham. GLA wiped the slate clean in redesigning the pool garden, updating the exterior to match the gorgeous interior. After finishing the pool garden, we were commissioned to design a terrace and water feature off the home's living room. The resulting reflection pool and surrounding boxwood hedges creates a calm, modern outdoor room the client enjoys throughout all seasons of the year.

Brian Vanden Brink

Front entry gate, window ironwork and entry door iron grills. See more at http://www.facebook.com/GrizzlyIron

An English style Georgian home with walled courtyard garden. Photographer: John Howard.

Sweet Bottom Plantation - No. 13 The Battery This is one of two Charleston style homes that Greg Mix designed in the Sweet Bottom Plantation subdivision north of Atlanta in Duluth, Georgia. This red brick home is a reproduction of number 13 on The Battery, right on Charleston Bay. However in this case the plan has been flipped and laid out inside to suit the modern lifestyle. As you can see in the photos it contains a double spiral stairway. The three car garage is on the ground floor as well as the front entry, study, guest room and a pool bath which exist directly onto the pool area in the back yard. The main living areas are on the next level up or the first floor. This level includes the family room, living room, dining room, breakfast room and kitchen. The third level or second floor contains the master suite and two additional bedrooms. The current owners have furnished the house beautifully and built private Charleston style gardens to the side and rear.

This small tract home backyard was transformed into a lively breathable garden. A new outdoor living room was created, with silver-grey brazilian slate flooring, and a smooth integral pewter colored concrete wall defining and retaining earth around it. A water feature is the backdrop to this outdoor room extending the flooring material (slate) into the vertical plane covering a wall that houses three playful stainless steel spouts that spill water into a large basin. Koi Fish, Gold fish and water plants bring a new mini ecosystem of life, and provide a focal point and meditational environment. The integral colored concrete wall begins at the main water feature and weaves to the south west corner of the yard where water once again emerges out of a 4” stainless steel channel; reinforcing the notion that this garden backs up against a natural spring. The stainless steel channel also provides children with an opportunity to safely play with water by floating toy boats down the channel. At the north eastern end of the integral colored concrete wall, a warm western red cedar bench extends perpendicular out from the water feature on the outside of the slate patio maximizing seating space in the limited size garden. Natural rusting Cor-ten steel fencing adds a layer of interest throughout the garden softening the 6’ high surrounding fencing and helping to carry the users eye from the ground plane up past the fence lines into the horizon; the cor-ten steel also acts as a ribbon, tie-ing the multiple spaces together in this garden. The plant palette uses grasses and rushes to further establish in the subconscious that a natural water source does exist. Planting was performed outside of the wire fence to connect the new landscape to the existing open space; this was successfully done by using perennials and grasses whose foliage matches that of the native hillside, blurring the boundary line of the garden and aesthetically extending the backyard up into the adjacent open space.

Prachi Damle Photography

Photo: Alex Maguire

Camilla Quiddington