anyone else ready to bust out the patio chairs? It’s finally starting to feel a bit like spring, and to celebrate we are featuring inspiring garden shots from the new book: Architectural Gardens: inside the Landscapes of Lucas & Lucas, a portfolio of 10 lushly illustrated residential landscape projects in California’s wine country.

Designed by husband-and-wife duo Mike and Jennifer Lucas, each of the projects addresses the connections between home and land and include a site plan. readers will learn how to implement features such as landscape windows, breeze-catching grasses, cascading concrete waterfalls, and trees with thoughtfully cast shadows.

Scroll down and get inspired with these stunning outdoor spaces!

Architectural gardens includes a roundup of Mike Lucas’s favorite plants — those best suited to different types of properties and for different purposes (like drought tolerance or fast growth). The featured projects will appeal to garden designers, landscape architects, landscape contractors, architects, and home builders, as well as home gardeners looking for inspiration.

Put on your sunscreen and get ready for a tour of some sublime outdoor spaces, plus get tips for your own outdoor oasis!

Make the Walkways Wide

When Mike first encountered this hilltop estate just outside Santa Rosa, California, tall hedges blocked views of the surrounding hills. now the pathway from the driveway to the front door is fully paved with enough room for two people to walk on comfortably, side by side. The native basalt variety he chose has a variegated finish that coordinates with the mottled bark of the oak trees. He also chose basalt paving for a majority of the walkways and patios throughout the landscape. “I was careful to keep the material palette simple and understated,” says Mike.

Photographer: Caitlin Atkinson

Plot Focal Points

An old pear orchard had once stood in this Sonoma, California property, but it was overgrown and dilapidated and ringed with barbed-wire fences throughout the site. Mike’s design team found inspiration in the local mission San Francisco Solano, where courtyard walls provide refuge from the elements. The homeowners and designers also incorporated aspects of the mission’s spare aesthetic into the home’s design. Architectural elements such as the tower, courtyard walls, and shade structure, punctuate the otherwise flat site. “These features create focal points for outdoor entryways and spaces to entertain,” says Mike. “Trees were the only vertical visual elements on the otherwise flat site.”

Photographer: Marion Brenner Photography

Frame A View 

Due to regular afternoon winds and the noise of a nearby road, the client desired an enclosed space for dining, mingling, and cooking outdoors. To maintain a visual connection between the courtyard space and the landscape, windows and doors were punched through the walls to frame views; old-fashioned rolling shutters are deployed when the winds get too intense. To allow for large windows, the wall height was set at eight feet, which provided enough space around the window for structural support.

Photographer: Marion Brenner Photography

Carve Out seating Areas

Most of the seating and dining areas are tucked under the covered breezeway, and a few smaller seating areas are placed around the pool to capture some of the most stunning views.

Photographer: Marion Brenner Photography

Protect Veggies From Critters

For this 10-acre residence near downtown Sonoma, California, Mike developed a garden that would serve as a home base for a couple from Texas (although originally from Canada), who wanted to retire in an area known for its food and wine culture. “The owners fell in love with this big flat property because of the open sky and prairie-liKE POVOLENÝ, KTORÝMI PRIPRAVUJEME, KDE ZAPOJENÉ V Kanade, “hovorí Mike. Drevený a drôtový plot drží králiky a iné zvieratká zo záhrady, ktorá je naplnená zeleninou a kvetmi a je spojená s malým sadom ovocných stromov, ktoré sa rozprestierajú do vinice produktívnych viničov.

Fotograf: Caitlin atkinson

Vyberte si strúhanku

Tradičný dvojpodlažný dom s bremenami kúzla bol umiestnený na tejto nehnuteľnosti v Healdsburg, Kalifornii, ale záhrada bola vľavo, aby bola žiaduca. Našťastie majitelia domov videli za rozpadom zadržiavacích stien dreva, starnutého bazéna, hnijúceho jablkových stromov a umierajúci dub. Hlavnou výzvou Mike bolo vytvoriť záhradný plán založený na ambicióznom zozname želaní majitelia: garáž, umelecké štúdio, kuchynské záhradné, bazén, bocce court, vonkajšiu kuchyňu a jedálenský priestor s krbom, aktualizovaný bazén , ako aj hojnosť rastlín. Wraparound Porch kroky na krajinu v niekoľkých smeroch pre ľahký prístup k zábavným medzeram. Sorbet-farebné ruže pridávajú živosť do inak monochromatickej palety.

Fotograf: Marion Brenner Photography

Pridajte teplo s ohňou

Cesta okolo domu sa otvára do vonkajšej kuchyne a jedálenský kút s širokým krbom. Vzpriamené stromy SYCAMORE boli vybrané pre ich rýchlu rýchlosť rastu; Existujúci Apple Tree s výhľadom na ružové ruže, ktoré pridávajú pop farby.

Fotograf: Marion Brenner Photography

Vytvoriť hĺbku s hardcasingom

Táto cesta spája predný dvor a dvor, ako aj zeleninovú záhradu a dom. Z záhrady neexistovali prirodzené výhľady, takže scenéria pozdĺž tejto cesty bola úplne konštruovaná prostredníctvom využívania krajinných štruktúr, rastlín a dlažby.

Fotograf: Marion Brenner Photography

Použite zvyšky

Kuchynské záhradné postele boli postavené s nepoužitým kameňom z dlažby a stien. Neformálne drevené a-drôtené mreží podporuje espalier ovocné stromy a oddeľuje kuchyňu zo zvyšku záhrady. Štúdio umenia majiteľa, ktoré je spojené s garážou, je viditeľné za vyvýšenými lôžkami.

Fotograf: Cesar Rubio

Použite vinice na zmäkčenie štruktúr

Pod týždenou baldachýnom olivových stromov, ktoré sú viac ako sto rokov staré, je svieža krajina so starým svetom Stredomorským pocitom, ktorý obklopuje francúzsky domovský štýl. Pergola pokrytá sviežovými vinicami snímky predné dvere dokončiť rozprávkový efekt.

Fotograf: Caitlin atkinson

Pridajte textúru cez výsadby

Mike sa vyhýbalo tomu, aby sa príliš veľká farba v neďalekých výsadbách udržiavala pocit pokoj, ale v tomto prípade listy rastlín a kroviny injekciu.

Fotograf: Caitlin atkinson