Shade Gardening
Shade Gardening The days are getting shorter, the sun is low in the sky, and sunlight is a little harder to come by. The change reminds us of something we consider at any time of year when designing landscapes - those parts of the landscape where sun is always hard to come [...]
FALL GARDEN CLOSE-UP: SEEDS, ROOTS AND BULBS
Fall Garden Close-Up: Seeds, Roots, & Bulbs This time of year, it may seem like things are drawing to a close in the garden. You’ve already harvested vegetables and fruits, and many of the flowers are giving one last show before it gets cold. So what else could possibly need [...]
Traditional Landscape Architecture
Traditional Landscape Architecture We like to think we’re at least sort of worldly, and so we realize that “Traditional” is kind of a misnomer. After all, designed landscapes have been created worldwide for millennia, and we acknowledge the influence of Egyptian, Greek, Moorish, Chinese, Japanese, and many other Landscape Traditions [...]
Featured On Casual Living: On A Mission For Style
On A Mission For Style When the design team at J. Montgomery Designs in Alamo, California was tasked with reviving a home for her central California client, there was one big request: restore the house and property to its Spanish Mission-style roots. We would like to thank Casual Living for [...]
Color In The Garden
COLOR IN THE GARDEN Color is an incredibly powerful element in any form of design. When we plan a landscape of any style, it is one of the first things on our minds! Of course color preferences are not the same for everyone, as liking or disliking different colors varies from person [...]
Featured On Houzz: 8 Secrets of People With Beautifully Organized Homes
We were recently featured in an article for Houzz.com! Should you want to read the full article, click here. They Aren’t Afraid to Outsource Tasks Many of my organized clients outsource their yard work or housecleaning so they can focus on keeping their home decluttered and organized. They also aren’t afraid to hire a [...]
FEATURING FIRE
FEATURING FIRE There is something instinctively wonderful about relaxing around a fire, and as a result we find ourselves incorporating fire into most of our outdoor living spaces. Fire features, as we Landscape Architects call them, can take on infinite forms and aesthetic styles to fit seamlessly into a designed space. Here [...]
HOW TO HIRE A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT (OR DESIGNER)
HOW TO HIRE A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT (OR DESIGNER) You’ve decided you want to hire a professional to design your landscape, but how do you decide who to call? If it’s your first time hiring a design professional of any sort, it can be an especially daunting idea. There are many services available [...]
LOW-WATER, HIGH-FASHION GARDENING
LOW-WATER, HIGH-FASHION GARDENING Alright, it is now officially hot. We’re feeling it, and our gardens are feeling it too! The long summers here are always a bit of a reminder that we should be savvy with our water use. Maybe you’re interested in lowering your water bill, but what if [...]
We’re Thrilled To Be A Winner!
Excellence in Outdoor Room Design J. Montgomery Designs has been deemed a winner in Hearth and Home Magazine's Excellence in Outdoor Room Design Competition for our creation in Mt. Diablo, CA. There are 27 winning projects out of 138 project entries from 28 states and 3 Canadian provinces, which are [...]
The Dog Days of Summer
The Dog Days of Summer If you have a canine companion in your life, or expect to have one in the future, dog-friendly landscaping may pique your interest. Like all of our clients, each dog is unique, and while many are the easygoing sorts when it comes to the landscape, others [...]
Embellishments For The Landscape
Embellishments For The Landscape In creating outdoor living spaces, design is often in the details! Whether designing a landscape from scratch or adding to the existing landscape, stylistic embellishments can completely change the overall effect of the space. Embellishments personalize the home landscape and reflect your unique style, for a fun, relaxing [...]
The Night Garden
The Night Garden It’s easy to imagine a landscape only by the light of the sun. After all, that’s when we can best see it! But what about the experience of the landscape at night, and the many experiences that are unique to those special hours after the sun has set? We [...]
Summer Solstice
Summer Solstice Last year around this time, our blog focused on Summer gatherings. We look forward once again to a season of outdoor living at its finest – Fresh garden vegetables and flowers on the table, swimming to beat the heat, and warm nights, candle-lit dinners, and stories around the fire. This [...]
Design for Play
Design for Play For so many of our clients, play is an important part of relaxation, and summer is the perfect time to embrace outdoor play-spaces! Having a place to unwind outdoors is something we all need, whatever form your leisure activities take. For some of us, it’s sports – golf, sand [...]
Planting Principles
Planting Principles As Landscape Architects, we have the privilege of working not only with building materials, but also with living things! Plants bring life and energy to the landscape, and the incredible variety of aesthetic choices they offer makes designing with them a blast. What goes into a successful planting design? Beyond [...]
Flower-Cutting Gardens
Flower Cutting Gardens A garden can serve many purposes. It can be a place of beauty and contemplative relaxation, a draw for birds, butterflies, and other wildlife, and a productive space for growing food and flowers. With Mother’s Day around the corner, we couldn’t help but write about flowers, the time-honored traditional [...]
California Casual
California Casual Landscape Architecture has seen many movements and style trends that influence the aesthetic of designed outdoor space. The variety of definitions of beauty is one thing we love about our work, and we are always looking forward to what is coming next. Northern California has always had its own [...]
Ornamental Grasses
Ornamental Grasses Ornamental grasses have stolen our hearts. The grace and movement of grasses can enliven any garden style, from the most traditional to the most contemporary. Here in California, the trend towards drought-tolerant and native-style gardening is highlighting the usefulness of grasses in our designed landscapes - their incredible variety of [...]
Landscape Lighting
Landscape Lighting As the weather warms up here in the Bay, we have the joy of spending more and more time outside in the landscape. Evenings outside are one of our favorite times. Whether late-night entertaining or sitting alone on a hot summer night after the kids have gone to [...]
Spring Celebration
Spring Celebration Can you feel it? Spring is in the air! As designers of outdoor living spaces, we feel the rush of Spring fever with an onslaught of exciting new projects. In our busiest season, we like to stop to take time for the little things, and to inspire our clients [...]
Flowering Vines for Spring
Flowering Vines For Spring Twining gracefully up a trellis or covering an entire wall, vines are the vertical planting element that take foliage and flower in the landscape to new heights! There are myriad vines that we use in our designs, each with a different purpose in mind. Vines [...]
Designing Tiny Spaces
Designing Tiny Landscape design is an interesting challenge at any scale – to incorporate all of the important elements in a practical and aesthetic way, at the highest level of comfort and with the right style and mood, designers have a lot to think about. But when we are working with [...]
Featured On Houzz: 10 Times To Hire A Landscape Architect
Check out this article on Houzz.com that we are featured on! If you want to add a retaining wall or terrace to your property, as in this project by J. Montgomery Designs, you may need to have a landscape architect submit sealed drawings to get approval to build. Regardless of whether they are legally required in [...]
Pathways In The Landscape
Pathways In The Landscape In a landscape of any scale, the experience of moving through it is as important as the experience of resting within it. Imagine a destination point – a tranquil gathering space surrounded by garden some distance from the house – and imagine if the path that led there [...]
Oh, Deer… Deer-Resistant Plantings
Oh, Deer… Deer-Resistant Plantings Beautiful and graceful deer are a gem of Northern California’s wildlife, but when they are feasting on your garden, they can be voracious enough to drive a gardener crazy! So how do you prevent deer from mowing down anything they can reach? While not always totally untouched, these [...]
Ruth Bancroft Inspiration
Ruth Bancroft Inspiration From The Bold Dry Garden, Photo: Marion Brenner At the age of 63, Ruth began to develop her spectacular collection of rare dry garden plants on 3 acres of former walnut orchard. At the age of 109, she died leaving behind a masterpiece unlike any other [...]
Contemporary Elements
Contemporary Elements We are always excited about new things, especially when they relate to Landscape Architecture, so Contemporary style in the landscape has stolen our hearts. Here are a few of our favorite contemporary elements we have begun to integrate into our designed landscapes so far. Contemporary Aesthetic [...]
The Winter Garden
The Winter Garden Here in the Bay Area, we enjoy a climate that makes outdoor living possible in every season. The coldest weeks of winter might be spent inside, true, but even on the shortest days of the year your garden can be enjoyed! Is it possible to have a [...]
Planting Under Oaks
Planting Under Oaks Of the many icons of the Northern California landscape, the oak is both a beautiful and impressive individual. Both inland Valley Oaks and the Coast Live Oak can live to hundreds of years, grow into beautiful gravity-defying specimens, and support entire habitats within their surroundings. If such [...]