Lanscaping Ideas

[pd417]

Recently discovered TFP and from the short time I've been here, I've found this site to be invlauable for the new pool owner, like
me.

We are in the final phase of building our inground pool, with the plastering going in later this week. The project has gone surprisingly smooth and our contractor has been great to work with. One of last things we need to do is the landscaping. Our contractor recommended a landscape designer who did a tropical design for us, which looked quite nice. The plant list alone (not including install and lighting) was $7000. I don't want to sound cheap, but I thought that was a bit steep. So before I go back to him, I'd like to know if anyone has any good tropical landscape plans (with plant lists) they are willing to share. We live in Southern Calif., adjacent to the high desert, so we are in zone 10. Any help / advice will be greatly appreciated.

Photos attached.


Thanks....

 

[pd417]

Landscaping Ideas #2

Since we're limited to attaching three photos, here are two shots of our side yard that wern't included in my original post.

Thanks again!

 

[CraigMW]

The tropical look is nice, but water rates here in SoCal are getting ridiculous. You will pay to maintain that "tropicality." You have a really beautiful view of the hills behind your house, so I'd suggest trying to plant foliage that has a better match for that. For trees, pines and oaks would make sense. I'd also suggest some nice local, drought tolerant flowers and bushes put in raised planter beds. A nice Melalucca (sp?) or pepper tree would be perfect for the rear right corner, and then some sort of hedging plants along the right fence to block the view into your neighbor's yard. Try to add some color with plants such as drought tolerant lavender, poppies, etc. Also, add some night-time drama with uplighting of trees, bushes, etc.

You should check out Descanso Gardens in the LaCanada Flintridge area, or the LA Arboretum in Arcadia, as both have excellent and inspiring displays of drought tolerant landscaping. In our case, we have a large backyard, but no view. We bought the house fully landscaped with lots of grass and tropical plants and trees. Unfortunately, our water bill can reach around $400 a month! And water bills are likely to continue going up, so we'll probably be redoing our landscaping in the near future.