A Tiny Backyard Haven

While I was a second-year student, a piano classmate asked me to design her small backyard. Being located by the ocean in a trailer-based 55+ community, she had very little privacy and very little space. I added a small raised garden to boost the height of her plantings against the neighboring wall and provide definition. I added a running fountain for noise masking – and to serve as an outdoor dog bowl – and string lights for enjoying the ocean breeze in the cool of night.

By use of recycled concrete and dry-adapted plants in the planted garden, we kept her little space as locally sustainable as possible. The dwarf Coyote bush was a special request: it’s foliage has a unique scent which can often be detected when one is hiking out in the hills of California.