Mediterranean Landscaping
A Sloped Yard

This Mediterranean design idea uses some real simple methods and principles to get its successful combination of different elements. While the design does address and provide solutions for some problem areas, a lot of it is created to add curb appeal and to simply look cool. More on this design below...

The retaining walls in this design are created to soften a mild slope in the yard. While the slope wasn't necessarily bad enough to demand a retaining wall, the walls also add more design elements to work with.

Creating a second level most always helps add interest to any landscaping ideas or yard. In this case we were able to create terraces and level out the slight slope. This will actually help with run off and saturation problems in the lawn area when the automatic sprinkler system runs.

Another design element that the retaining wall added to the landscaping is that we used the same stucco surface as the rest of the home. This helped make the landscaping a perfect and natural looking extension of the home.

Besides the design style of the home itself, the other main design element responsible for the Mediterranean look is of course, the plant selection. This is true with a lot of gardens. Change the palm trees in this design to some varieties of Desert landscaping plants and Cactus, and you would have a beautiful Southwest Landscaping or Xeriscaping design.

The rest of the plants in this design are a simple selection of Lavenders, Paprika Yarrow, Feather Reed Grass, Verbena, and Dwarf Hawthorns. Also on the other side of the driveway there is a cut out with another Palm and plantings. This helped create balance to an otherwise massive and blank slab of concrete.

The lawn and bedding areas are edged with 4 inch wide pound in metal landscape edging. This type of edging will work fine in this project because we're using Fescue lawn sod which is a non agressive lawn type that doesn't invade flower beds. More agressive lawn grasses such as Bermuda would require deeper edging to keep the lawn in its place.

The lawn area is minimal which is mainly due to the clients request. Again, it is a hybrid Fescue sod which is a wonderful lawn grass that keeps most of its color through the Winter in this area of zone 7. And of course, the lawn area and all planting areas have an automatic sprinkler system for convenience and efficient watering.

The rock areas cover quite a bit of space which is a contributing reason to two colors of groundcover rock. In areas this large or larger, a second type of groundcover may just be the answer to a need for another design element.

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