Do you ever go to open houses just to peak around and see how other people live? Yeah, Me Too.   I just discovered a garden that extends from a house that is for sale, yes you can buy this gem….but I feature it here because it is so full of lovely design ideas.   What do I love about this garden?… (OK so the Realtor’s photography is not the best) — This little garden is in Hermosa Beach, CA (a little LA beach town that I happen to know a bit about since my hubby lived there for a time) and it is completely of it’s place.  Do you know what I am saying?…I mean it looks like a garden that belongs in Hermosa Beach and I love that.

Here are my 5 little things to learn from this inspirational garden.

1).  Use place appropriate materials. Here, RR tie timbers are used vertically to retain beds and terracotta pots hold seashells – it all has a casual beachy vibe.

2).  Repeat colors…or as one of my design school instructors would say — “don’t make fruit cocktail”.  The silvery blue  succulents tie this all together — repeated from bed to bed and then…the color again is repeated in the decoration of the fire pit.

images from keithtkyle

3).  This garden is not terribly big, but the whole things moves well…why?  That staircase.   It’s openness and angle keep the whole space usable and flowing.  Don’t always think everything has to be at 90 degree angles to each other.  This is the great outdoors…go free.

4). Take something and make it more surprising… To me the fact that this garden has used cactus as trees (vertical elements) is a bit different.  The actual trees are serving a great purpose (tucked up against the fence and providing screening from a neighbor) but they really take a backseat to the surprise trees.

5).  See everything as an opportunity to become a feature. Take the fence for example…there is a lot going on in this garden, but adding the decorative trellis to the fence kicks it up another notch.  It works with the pattern created by the trees, it makes that whole side of the garden so much more visually interesting — How clever to paint the fence in a complimentary grid pattern on the tree side to tie in with the actual trellis pattern closer to the house.  Who ever created this garden had a good eye.

So our little tour of the house for sale concludes…but if you want to see more of this property (because say you are moving to Hermosa Beach – you can click here to get in touch with the realtor).