We recently had the pleasure of photographing a Malibu garden design by landscape architect Wendy Harper.

Hidden in a canyon perched on a point overlooking the Pacific, the property owned by Harper’s clients is a perfect weekend getaway. The experience begins on the winding narrow road leading you around a bend where you get your first glimpse of the ocean. To enter the property you must then cross over a babbling creek on a beach cobble bridge. Harper used natural beach cobble and Santa Barbara stone to connect with the surrounding environment. Large Monterey Cypress and towering California Sycamores, planted when the home was built in the mid 1900s, create an inviting canopy over the site.

“The property is long and narrow with many constraints and challenges,” says Harper. “My goal was to make all of the spaces in the garden feel like living spaces, even the parking court, which is incorporated into the yard by introducing a weeping wall water feature, grass ribbons in the beach cobble paving, lush plantings with antique urns dripping with succulents and colorful blooms most of the year.”

The entertaining patio outside of the kitchen is warmed by an outdoor fireplace decorated with Eye of the Day’s Antique French mantel and surround. Select cut Santa Barbara stone set on sand paves this outdoor room. Eye of the Day’s containers planted with succulents and citrus decorate the space.

A curved stone staircase leads you up to the pool area. Tuscan-style molded brick columns support the long pavilion framing the pool. Taking a swim in the pool is a musical experience where you can listen to your favorite songs…underwater. Sigis cut glass tile compliments the spa and waterline, and colored pool lights transform the water into a kaleidoscope at night. The ipe hardwood deck ties to the railings which mimic the turned wood railings of the home’s balconies. Interestingly, the use of ipe was the only specification from the homeowner for this project. Everything else was left to Harper’s creativity and expertise.

“I wanted it to feel like it had all been here from the start, so bringing the turned railings onto the deck was a natural choice,” explains Harper.

Chisel-cut Santa Barbara Stone walls hold olive trees and sycamores on the upper slope as a lazy hammock swings between the trees. Three small ancient church windows from Eye of the Day’s antique collection inspired the changing room with outdoor shower. The pilaster planters are purposely understated with simple succulent plantings so as not to crowd or overshadow, just to compliment the space.

About the Designer:
Wendy Harper is a landscape architect based in Moorpark, California. To view more of her work, visit the Wendy Harper Landscape Architecture Facebook page. 

When Jane Abascal and her husband Manny moved into their home on a quiet, tree-lined street in Altadena, California, they noticed the garden across the street had a lovely, welcoming feel they wanted for their new space. After a reasonable amount of time, Jane approached her neighbor to ask if she would share the name of their landscape architect. Lucky for Jane, she was speaking with exactly that landscape architect, Sally Farnum of the eponymous SE Farnum Associates. Who could ask for more than a designer in the neighborhood? Sally and Jane hit it off as neighbors while their professional relationship flourished. As it happened, Sally had worked with the previous homeowners to renovate the back of their property, but the front was due for a serious update and overhaul.

Jane had some specific wishes and Sally, no shrinking violet, had some strong ideas as well.  At first, Jane wanted to keep the lovely lawn that the previous homeowners had so carefully tended.

Sally’s plan called for moving an existing, water impermeable asphalt driveway and removing the lawn. When she discussed this idea with Jane and described a courtyard plan using gravel, decomposed granite with brick accents, Jane was intrigued. Sally envisioned an allee of white crepe myrtles lining a long, narrow, shallow fountain, creating perspective. When the plans were finalized, they agreed that Sally’s vision would be excellent for water conservation, would accent the “French” feel of the Abascal home and would have a completely new look.

Ms. Farnum designed a low plastered wall and wrought iron gate to enclose the courtyard and the fountain constructed with poured concrete walls and a bluestone cap. French Anduze Vases at the gate on the courtyard side and a mature olive tree from Eye of the Day planted on the street side of the wall along with sage, lavender, and other Mediterranean plants create a water-efficient design that is a great fit with the French look of Jane and Manny’s home.

“Jane was a great client,” Farnum says, “she was open to new ideas while having plenty of her own.  We worked so well together to achieve what has become one of my favorite projects and I’m so happy to have been able to design a beautiful garden setting–without a lawn!–for my neighbors.”

In architecture, a folly is a building or part of a building built mainly for decoration, but its appearance suggests that it has some other purpose.  18th century English gardens and French landscape gardening often featured Roman temples, Chinese temples, Egyptian pyramids or ruined abbeys.   Part of a ruined building tucked in the corner of a lush garden became the most interesting garden element, sculptural and mysterious.

A few years ago, Eye of the Day became home to a 17^th century monastery façade that had languished  in a warehouse for decades.  Maybe it’s from France.  Maybe it’s from Spain.  Maybe it’s related to old abbey stones at one time found in Golden Gate Park.  Maybe it’s all part of a mystery to be spread among many gardens. Each unique stone piece could become equally unique garden statuary in a setting of any style.  At Eye of the Day we plan to put together a number of pieces of the monastery to construct our own French garden folly to inspire our customers.

In addition to the stone façade pieces, Eye of the Day has also collected other old stone items from Europe and China.  Chiseled stone troughs from France and China once used as feeding troughs are transformed into succulent gardens or a one-of-a-kind fountain.  Massive granite millstones stand on their sides, looking as if they are ready to roll through the garden.

You will find your garden inspiration with these distinctive old pieces, whether to form a folly or become a new sculptural garden component.

Congratulations to Bruce Bieri, Jay Graham, Jennifer Wait, and John Savallo for winning the $250 gift certificates Eye of the Day gave away at the recent ASLA Expo in San Diego!

• Bruce is a landscape architect out of Portland, OR
• Jay is a landscape architect out of Annapolis, MD ()
• Jennifer is a landscape architect in San Diego, CA
• John is with Terra Firma Landscape Co. in San Diego ()

Eye of the Day will be exhibiting at the Association for Landscape Architects (ASLA) Expo next Monday and Tuesday, October 31^st and November 1^st  at the San Diego Convention Center.  We are very excited to show everyone our beautiful handcrafted Italian terracotta from Terrecotte San Rocco.  We have planned long and hard to make this show a success, and we are excited to be there and see the outcome.

Brent Freitas, owner, and Megan Foster, Marketing and Sales Director, will be working the booth, along with Larry Walling, from Bellissimo Architectural Finishes, who has over 43 years of experience in the applied coatings industry, ranging from industrial/commercial to custom residential.

In our booth we will be showing the diversity and depth of the Terrecotte San Rocco product lines, with pieces ranging from contemporary shapes and forms in the standard terracotta and colored clay, to very classic Italian ornate pieces.  The broad range of product styles and colors that Terrecotte San Rocco produces is what makes it very unique, along with the fact that the clay quality is like none other.

We also look forward to showing our clients and the other expo attendees our various service capabilities.  We will have pieces on display that show the diversity of Eye of the Day’s services, such as the conversion of a contemporary terracotta pot that has been glazed in state-of-the-art acrylics and epoxys into a beautifully flowing fountain (see some of our fountain conversions on our website here).  In addition, we will have examples of our NEW “vintage finishes” which give an old, antiqued appearence to new containers, pots, statuary, etc.

We hope you will stop by our booth if you are at the show (Booth #3131)!  If you aren’t yet signed up to attend but would like to, please contact us at trade@ to get a FREE pass!

Below are some articles regarding the show that may be of interest:

“Biggest EXPO Ever Offers Wide World of Products and Services”

“Top Five Reasons to Register for the Annual Meeting and EXPO”

We have been busy getting ready to go down to Long Beach next week to exhibit at the 2011 Landscape Expo ().

The Expo is next Wednesday and Thursday, October 12^th and 13^th, from 9am – 3pm at the Long Beach Convention Center (300 East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802).

Eye of the Day will be exhibiting in a large booth (#118) and we will have lots of our beautiful Terrecotte San Rocco pieces to show off.

You can view our exhibitor profile on their website for more information.

We hope to see you there!