Decorating & Design
Stunning Outdoor Spaces From The New Book Architectural Gardens
Updated on November 28, 2023
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 feel that reminded them of where they grew up in Canada,” says Mike. A wood-and-wire fence keeps rabbits and other critters out of the garden, which is filled with vegetables and flowers and is connected to a small orchard of fruit trees that extends into the vineyard of productive grapevines.
Pick A Punchy Accent Plant
A traditional two-storey house with loads of charm was sited on this property in Healdsburg, California, but the garden left much to be desired. Luckily the homeowners saw beyond decaying wood retaining walls, an aging pool, rotting apple trees, and a dying oak. Mike’s main challenge was to create a garden plan based around the owners’ ambitious wish list: a garage, an art studio, a kitchen garden, a pool house, a bocce court, an outdoor kitchen and dining space with a fireplace, an updated pool, as well as an abundance of plants. The wraparound porch steps down to the landscape in several directions for easy access to outdoor entertaining spaces. Sorbet-colored roses add vibrancy to an otherwise monochromatic palette.
Add Warmth With A Fire Feature
A path around the house opens up to an outdoor kitchen and dining area fitted with a wide fireplace. Upright sycamore trees were chosen for their fast growth rate; an existing apple tree overlooks pink roses that add a pop of color.
Create Depth With Hardscaping
This path links the front yard and backyard as well as the vegetable garden and house. There were no natural views from the garden, so the scenery along this path was entirely constructed through the use of landscape structures, plants, and paving.
Use Leftover Materials
The kitchen garden beds were built with unused stone from the paving and walls. An informal wood-and-wire trellis supports espalier fruit trees and separates the kitchen garden from the rest of the garden. The owners’ art studio, which is connected to the garage, is visible beyond the raised beds.
Use Vines To Soften Structures
Under a towering canopy of olive trees, which are more than one hundred years old, is a lush landscape with an old-world Mediterranean feel that surrounds a French country-style home. A pergola covered in lush vines frames the front door to complete the fairytale effect.
Add Texture Through Plantings
Mike avoided introducing too much color in nearby plantings to maintain a feeling of serenity, but in this case the leaves of the plants and shrubbery inject interest.
Reprinted from Architectural Gardens: Inside the Landscapes of Lucas & Lucas by Thad Orr and Mike Lucas (C) 2022 Reproduced by permission of Princeton Architectural Press. All rights reserved.