Los Angeles is a beautifully diverse and complex place. Homes come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. Neighborhoods exist in baking hot valleys, cool coastal bluffs, flat urban expanses, and scrubby mountainsides. With all this diversity, it’s no wonder that landscape styles are equally diverse. You’ll find traditional hedge and lawn landscapes (though lawns are increasingly being replaced by a variety of different landscape treatments). You’ll also find eclectic desert-scapes, with technicolor succulents and mixed gravel ground-covering. Increasingly, you find modern designs leaning heavily on ornamental grasses and xerophytic drought warriors, framed in crisp concrete with decomposed granite to lend a little crunch. For the majority of yards, the style borrows a bit from all of the above, following homeowners’ whims. Across the board, however, drought tolerance is a priority, by necessity if not out of willingness.

With year-round gorgeous weather, Los Angeles is ideal for outdoor living. Landscape designs in L.A. make the most of these favorable conditions by incorporating infrastructure for taking the indoors to the outdoors: cooking, dining, lounging, and flexible work/entertaining areas are all landscape staples. Southern California sun can get intense, and shade features, from trees to pergolas, to shade sails, are accordingly popular. So are water features, from big pools to little pools, to prefab fountains, which are utilized not only to cool the air but to inject a little moment of Zen tranquillity within the bustle of city life. Drought-tolerant planting is a must. Well-shaded synthetic grass (it gets toasty in the sun) for play or picnic areas is also on the rise, especially among households with small children.

Climate-adapted plants from regions like Australia, South Africa, and the Mediterranean can play an important role in a water-wise landscape. Rosemary, lavender, emu bush, Leucadendron, rock purslane, and fruitless olive trees are some of our favorite climate-adapted species for Los Angeles landscapes, offering beauty and drought tolerance in equal measure. Having evolved to thrive in local conditions, plants native to the Los Angeles region are excellent choices for water savings. Native plants also go a step further, offering unbeatable habitat value. By including native plants in their landscape designs, homeowners can help in the broader effort to restore biodiversity. California buckwheat, California lilac, Canyon Prince wild rye, Channel Islands Tree Poppy, and a whole mess of sages, including white, black, hummingbird, and Cleveland sage, are all excellent natives available for Los Angeles landscapes. Looking to max out your bird and bee visitors? Include keystone native species like willow and oak trees, California sagebrush, or coyote bush (the low-growing Pigeon Point cultivar is a popular option).

Water conservation and fire safety are both important considerations when designing a Los Angeles landscape. Water conservation is crucial throughout Southern California. Minimizing or eliminating lawns is often the most impactful decision a homeowner can make to reduce their landscape water consumption, though choosing water-wise native and climate-adapted species is also crucial. Homeowners concerned about fire should work with their designers to incorporate defensible space into their designs. A good maintenance regime is also critical to fire safety – speak with your designer or look up local wildfire resources for guidance on fire-safe landscape maintenance. With such gorgeous natural beauty in the region, Los Angeles landscapes should capitalize on any views available from a property, especially for those yards in hilly neighborhoods, from Silverlake and Mt Washington all the way to Topanga and Malibu. At the same time, solar exposure should be accounted for – avoid blasting outdoor spaces with harsh late afternoon western light, unless shade trees or structures are being utilized.

We are happy to work with clients to develop designs that meet their level of comfort around fire safety. Choosing fire-resistant plant species and following best practices for fire-safe landscape design are options that we encourage our clients to consider, and something our designers are happy to employ at a client’s request. While careful design can help reduce the risk of fire damage, it’s important to note there are no fire-proof plants, and maintenance is the most important determinant of a landscape’s fire safety. Want to learn more? Check out the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s recommendations for fire-safe landscaping.

Now! Any time of year is great to begin work on a landscape project. When possible, we suggest utilizing the winter to work through the design phase – this sets you up to get on contractors’ books early in the build season, so you can have your design installed and ready to enjoy in time for summer. If winter has passed, don’t worry, it’s never too late in the year to begin work on a landscape design project.