Richmond Landscape Renovation

The Richmond house had a front garden and a back garden that behaved like two unrelated properties. The renovation treats them as one: a Belgard paver driveway and walk carry the same material language around the house, and a custom cedar arbor and gate mark the point where the public side becomes the private one.

Behind the gate, a gravel seating area gives the family somewhere to sit that does not need a deck, and new lawn and layered planting fill in what had been tired beds. A fresh sprinkler system underneath keeps all of it alive through a Tacoma August without anybody dragging a hose around.

It is the kind of project that shows why we draw the whole property before we start. Doing the driveway one year and the back garden three years later would have produced two good projects that never quite matched.