Surrounding this beautiful historic home in Palo Alto was a serene garden consisting of perimeter garden beds that surrounded the lawn and pool.  In the center of the lawn, however, was a giant island of agapanthus (Lily of the Nile) that dominated the garden, taking up considerable space.

The homeowners both have full-time careers, and currently have plenty in the garden to maintain, so they wanted something very low-maintenance.

The solution was to extend the existing entertainment area by replacing the agapanthus island with pea gravel, a gas firepit, and plenty of casual seating.  We needed to delineate the new firepit area from the lawn, so in keeping with the semi-formal style of the existing garden, we separated the two spaces with Westringea ‘Gray Box’.  In the surrounding beds, we added white ‘Iceberg’ roses, ‘Meerlo’ lavender, and ‘Golf Ball’ pittosporum.