apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

How did you create it? When we bought the house, the only plant life that existed back there was the gorgeous old grape vine. It was the dead of winter and we weren't sure if it was alive, or if it would ever render leaves or grapes, but we were hopeful. Once spring came and the grape vine sprang to life, we knew we wanted to turn our flagstone and concrete backyard into a more plant filled space. We bought the two fig trees and planted them in the container boxes by the stairs, and went and bought a number of potted star jasmine plants to put between the retaining wall and the fence. We installed a handy drip line, so really the backyard requires little to no maintenance on our part. Hopefully by next summer the star jasmine will fill in more and my collection of potted plants will fill out the empty spaces.

Recommended store, site, product or resource? We love Sunset Nursery in Silverlake for plants (we purchased our fig trees there). Craigslist for furniture and gardening supplies. And we bought our couch from a small retailer in Burbank (Argentina Polo and Leather). Which turned out to be less expensive and more custom than if we had ordered it from a larger chain like Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel.

(Images: Beth Zeigler)