Neighborhood Garden Inspiration

We took a walk this morning (what a nice day it is) and noticed some of the gardens around the neighborhood. These front gardens in Venice are small and have used drought tolerant plants in place of lawns. We like it when even small gardens have a spot for sitting down and relaxing:

The last time we talked about our walks was when we noticed all of the yellow doors in the neighborhood. This time we just noticed a couple of gardens in the couple of blocks near where we live in Venice.
We love the little nook created with some gravel, a container garden full of succulents, and lavender and rosemary planted along the window.

This is our old apartment building--they ripped out the lawn a while back and filled it with a xeriscape garden that gets watered by a drip system rather than sprinklers.

This one is light on plants, but the chairs look like a comfy place to sit and drink coffee in the morning. We'd add a couple of containers for privacy and to fill out the little deck area.

The Flax planted in the front of this garden offers some texture and privacy for sitting back and relaxing. We also love the golden pop of the succulent (sedum adolphi Neoporteña ) in the background.