Luciole Design - landscapes

Our chili pepper and basil garden is up and producing! Our chilis Jalapeño. They’re not coming in too hot for some reason, so we can grill them and use in salsa without undue risk. Not that they’re completely mild… Serrano. We’re getting a so-so yield but since these are rather hot, a little can do the job Thai. These are hot, just perfect for spicy Asian food (and a bit of Mexican,…

Au lieu de payer le chantage à l’état de Californie – $700 – Mike quitte son titre d’architecte-paysagiste. Au moins en Californie – pour la France…? Mike let his landscape architect’s license expire rather than paying the state the new, improved fee of $700 (instead of $400). Business is tough in California, and we’re cutting expenses. And if you fight the law, the law wins, as the song…

Because you just never know where people might look for ideas Use the link if you’re a fan of Facebook: Luciole Design Landscape Architects on Facebook! Social Media How “social” can this media be when you don’t sit around a table and talk, visit, entertain together? I can post all the outdoor cooking tips I want, too bad almost none of them will ever taste any of it! And although it’s fun to…

A digital control system coupled with adjustable color makes it easy to set the mood. For a Palm Springs inspired mid-century modern design, this brings a lot of glamour to the evening!

How we set up the landscape to feed and attract more birds

Our client had drainage issues in their front yard, along with a wish list: a fenced space for the dog, more outdoor living areas, places for vegetables, somewhere to park a small trailer, and a better entry to their home. The workflow We talk to the client about goals. One of us tends to get input and throw out ideas while the other runs around gathering data with a laser…

Did we become snotty tree huggers? Or just insist on designing for the future?

Matiljia Poppy, a dramatic California native plant California is in a drought, and it looks like this is not going to be a rare event going forward. So we’re getting selective. This means losing potential clients, who may not share these values. “I don’t want your values in my backyard!” anonymus caller No, that did not go well. Never mind that they’re not our values. They’re shared values,…

Glitz it up (c.2004)

Just plain concrete, a pool, nothing interesting. This needed a fix! So, pool remodel, add spa, outdoor fireplace, kitchen, raise three tier fountain so you can see it from the house, upgrade materials… et voilà! Luxurious outdoor rooms and better views from the house! Lessons There’s really very little (or nothing) that can’t be transformed in a landscape. The old design is gone, whatever it…

Retrospective: Mid-century patio gardens in Modesto, 2008.

Sometimes everything has to follow one theme. Sometimes, not so much. This design created transitions between outdoor rooms, each with its own character. Arrive, entertain, relax Arrival The entire front, including the home’s façade and garage door, got a redo. The biggest issue was that once you were in the entry patio, you were basically inside the house with floor to ceiling windows…

Australian garden by the sea, 2005.

A client moved from Sacramento to Oceano! Cause to rejoice! Sandy soil in a coastal zone! This means suddenly Mike could go back to his Santa Cruz Arboretum roots and design with Australian and South African plants! Since this was also a hummingbird garden, it was a perfect fit: hummingbirds love many of these plants. Flowers, forms, color… and universal access The plants: kangaroo paws,…

Patio garden with a view. 2002

“We want a WOW! when people look out of the house. We also want to show off the view.” A major low trough fountain and pond coming off an extended patio and walkway did the trick. Mix garden and patios Two patios for outdoor living: one off the dining room, another off the master bedroom. Concrete stepping pads with creeping thyme link the two, passing by a pond and two waterfalls. Instead of…

Revisiting a design from 2002 for a rural setting: pool area, fireplace and lots of stonework.

We used to do home and garden shows, where we picked up new clients. This project was one of the best from that era: a rural site in Loomis with large natural rock outcroppings, oak woodland and slopes. The fireplace was featured in Outdoor Fire, a book of landscape ideas. POOL AREA. WE DID NOT CHOOSE THE CHIMNEY COLOR! The concept The site is natural, woodsy, on rolling hills. It’s studded…

Retrospective: A design followed over two decades

Endings. Beginnings. New Year. Time to run a retrospective series, telling stories of design across a not-so-epic scale. Hopefully you’ll be amused, entertained and enlightened. THE ART GARDEN It started with a party We came into this project after meeting an architect at a party, who was working on a custom house, very clean, very chic. It was that kind of party, after all. His clients were…

So long, Houz2. It was fun.

Houz used to be a great design resource. They even wanted us to upload images and tell stories. We even got badges for good work. Then the badges became more and more scarce, the sales calls more frequent. There was less and less reward for adding content to their site and more demand for “upgrades”. Client inquiries became rarer and rarer, and that was the crux of the matter. These images will…

Four options for a new back yard

This is an example of why we get professional surveys. We sketched a pool that encroached on some rock outcroppings on the slope, not readily visible from the house. The survey also gave us the exact slope, useful for calculating retaining wall heights, steps, terracing… This was supposed to be four equal sized images, since no concept is more important than another until it’s chosen. The…

Finally! Irrigation AI that works well enough to use for plans!

Although it’s been a while that CAD programs were supposed to automate the creation of irrigation plans, it looks like they’re finally doing so in a usable way. We can create graphics that auto-calculate (mostly), pipe sizing (mostly), pressure loss calcs (mostly). Why “mostly”? Because the plan is schematic, so pressure loss won’t be what’s really there, line pressure varies over time, the…