house & home INSPIRING LANDSCAPE TRENDS EMBRACING THE LANDSCAPE


by michael douglas brennan


Michael Douglas Brennan is Principal Landscape Architect for Carson Douglas Landscape Architecture and is the ASLA President Elect San Diego Chapter.


For more information about Carson Douglas, to see their portfolio of work, check out their Instagram feed at cdladesign, or go tocd-la.com.


It is encouraging to know that people today are expecting much more from


their home landscapes than they did in the past. Standard home landscapes of yesteryear were dominated by big thirsty lawns and plantings, but these days, people are moving toward more thoughtful designs that extend their living and entertaining into the outdoors. With our temperate climate in southern California, it only makes sense to embrace outdoor living as a way of life. As landscapes move away from thirsty plant materials, they are also trending towards the inclusion of edibles as an integral part of the design. Providing food in your landscaping is a great added benefit that only requires a little extra effort depending on what you choose to grow. In terms of maintaining those plants, there are some innovative ways that technology can be adapted into the landscape as well. The use of a smart, weather-based controller is the standard, with lots of options for integrating whole home automation technology from there. Water-wise Design:The focus on low water use design has been at the forefront of the landscape industry, particularly with the extreme drought condi- tions over recent years. In some areas, there are even turf buyback programs that


SEPTEMBER 2017 | RAGE monthly 23


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