Isabelle Greene’s Iconic Hillside Dry Garden in Santa Barbara, California

Garden Design

September 11, 2024

An aerial view of Isabelle Greene's well-maintained Santa Barbara garden features neatly trimmed bushes, various types of plants, and a gravel pathway. A wooden bench sits under a shaded pergola with leafy vines. A staircase descends alongside the garden, bordered by flowers and greenery. — An aerial view of Isabelle Greene’s well-maintained Santa Barbara garden features neatly trimmed bushes, various types of plants, and a gravel pathway. A wooden bench sits under a shaded pergola with leafy vines. A staircase descends alongside the garden, bordered by flowers and greenery.

This iconic Santa Barbara Garden was designed by Isabelle Greene – a renowned landscape architect who primarily works near SantaBarbara, California. I’m working on getting to know her a little better (more to come here as I research further), but her website gives a sense of her, and I have been reading it like it was a juicy gossip column.

A minimalist two-story building with a smooth white facade and rectangular windows stands elegantly. Tall slender trees cast shadows on the wall, while Isabelle Greene's touch in the landscaping includes various desert plants and large rocks against a backdrop of greenery reminiscent of Santa Barbara. The sky is clear and blue. — The garden surrounds a minimalist multi-story building with a smooth white stucco-like facad. Tall, slender trees and succulents cast elegant shadows on the wall. Isabelle Greene’s special landscaping touch includes various desert plants and large rocks against a backdrop of the wild greenery of Santa Barbara.

In her own words, Isabelle says:

There are weighty elements to garden design: rough, craggy eternal things like rocks; earthy things like tractors and camaraderie with the workmen; imponderable things like regulatory bodies and boards of directors. And there are also thin gossamer overlays: frost, reflection, shadows, dew. The interplay along these spectrums of the experience creates a garden’s intense richness….To design with all this requires a sense of wholeness – a sense of connections – a serious intent with a lively play. The appearance of the finished garden is the outcome of the wholeness of the process, the pieces interpreted and stitched together properly. It cannot be programmed it must be felt – like a tune.
-Isabelle Greene

I find these words comforting because they help me with what I grapple with most in landscape design: perfectionism. These are the words of a very wise and talented woman – a woman who has learned what is worth fussing over and what is actually better if you let it come together in its own slightly more natural way.