Mediterranean Garden

This fall, we had the fun project of creating a Mediterranean courtyard garden for a California Spanish house style in Richmond.

Our palette was an empty courtyard. We removed ugly azaleas, Japanese hollies and exposed the rectangular shape with the repeating rectangular and geometric motif using crushed gravel and lawn.

If you Google Mediterranean gardens, you see for the most part a predominant color like purple, with sparse plantings and large pots. Pathways like this, are usually tan and have crushed gravel as their medium.

The white stucco walls of the low perimeter walls were low so I chose the perennial Russian sage in 3 sunny areas. they would instill a purple bloom, gray foliage, and stand up growth habit. It was very simple. In the one shaded area, I put a mass of fall blooming, native blue cardinal flowers, which birds love.

The next garden feature was a 14’ by 16’ pergola, which will be painted white.

The client already had a wine and cheese party around the holidays and intends to add dinners and morning coffee as an experience.

We will add clematis and trumpet coral vines to the posts and 4 very large pots in the corners.

The wrought iron fence on the poolside of the courtyard should have followed the top of the low wall. It was really expensive to weld off the extra steel, so we hid it with Dee Runk boxwoods.

The authentic Gillette fountain, we repaired and set up. This is another garden feature and focal point of the garden.

Color, structure and the send of water all add to an outdoor garden room!