Oh it's sunny and hot and we broke in the sunburn season (we were caught off-guard with no sunscreen...bad, bad!) in our backyard dreamin' and a schemin' about our BIG plans for our BIG garden. We're a wee-bit overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be done but we've been finding incredible inspiration in the slew of magazines that arrived in our mailbox recently. We'll start with the much maligned green issue from Domino and share some more of our inspiration as we pull it all together over the next few weeks.
We thumbed through the March issue mildly amused by the usual fanfare of Domino, until we hit the jackpot with "Backyard Shangri-La". The transformation of this empty Hollywood Hills lot to an "oasis" is pretty amazing and it gives us hope for our own overgrown, sloping hillside.
We love the mix of native and climate-appropriate plants they chose for the space. We especially love the "stairway to heaven" leading nowhere but to an incredible quiet spot for enjoying the view.
Sure it's not exactly how we'll do it (no pond or pool for us...), but the article had some great tips about taking advantage of "hardscaping" (don't we sound pro?!) and the designer actually shopped *gasp* "off-the-rack" for the fencing and backyard steps. At Lowe's. What? We can actually afford that...what's going on here???
We've been planning out our own little nature trail on the hillside and we think this is going to be key inspiration in our own backyard transformation. We'll let you know what we actually use from this spread. Stay tuned for more garden plans and inspiration from other sources.
all images from Domino, March 2008
