Landscape design & build for Napa

Napa landscapes look best when they embrace the native character of the region’s woodlands and grasslands. Designs often feature crisp modern hardscaping with simple but elegant materials like stone, wood, and concrete. Clean hardscape edges are often blurred by planting arranged in loose, naturalistic drifts of grasses, perennials and shrubs. Key specimen trees offer focal points and coveted shade.

Being the home of Napa Valley, it comes as no surprise that landscapes in this region frequently feature outdoor cooking and dining amenities. Outdoor kitchens commonly go beyond a basic grill and counter surface, adding in pizza ovens, range tops, and small refrigerators – everything you’d need for full scale outdoor dining with family and friends.

Along these lines, vegetable and herb gardens are also popular in Napa landscapes (and happen to make excellent activity generators for those interested in social front yards).

Pergolas are immensely popular for establishing outdoor rooms that can be adapted to serve a broad range of functions. They also offer relief from blazing summer heat by casting dappled shade and welcoming in breezes.

Surprisingly, fire pits and hot tubs – also popular landscape elements – are great amenities for the summer heat, offering a fun activity for a cool outdoor evening. Both amenities work double-duty, providing a heat source to keep you outside when the weather gets chilly. One note of caution: be sure to use gas fire pits and avoid wood burning pits in this fire-prone region.

Drought is a major factor throughout California, and it is crucial that any landscape design in Napa do its utmost to conserve water.

Climate-adapted plants from regions like Australia, South Africa, and the Mediterranean can play an important role in a water-wise landscape, getting by with little to no additional irrigation once established. Lavender, Russian sage, and Santolina are a few of the many climate-adapted species we love to include in Napa landscapes.

Having evolved to thrive in local conditions, plants native to the Napa region are also 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. Yarrow, Ceanothus, coyote mint and Bouteloua ‘Blonde Ambition’ are just a few of the many fabulous natives available for Napa landscapes.

Looking to max out your bird and bee visitors? Include keystone native species like oak trees, California sagebrush, or wild strawberry groundcovers.

Water conservation and fire safety are both important considerations when designing a Napa landscape – work with your designer to make sure your design features water-wise plants and incorporates defensible space around the home and other structures.

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 (FireSafeMarin is one excellent resource).

With such gorgeous natural beauty in the region, Napa landscapes should capitalize on any views available from a property. 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.

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.