San Diego Landscape Design Embracing Your Coastal Surroundings
Tucked away in the southwestern corner of the United States, San Diego landscape design captivates visitors who encounter laid back, coastal living with garden styles offering tropical getaways to contemporary Zen creations. Home to miles of beach land, San Diego is blanketed by mild Mediterranean weather that produces dry summers and for the most part wet winters.
This means that creating fine outdoor settings that additionally complements the climate requires knowledge regarding suitable plants for the coastal wonderland of San Diego.
The Landscape Design Advisor has teamed up with the areas highest quality landscape professionals who can bring years of experience to your landscape project. To receive
free consultations
from local area landscape architects, designers and contractors simply fill in the form located on our
Free Referrals
page.
Some of the best inspiration for San Diego landscape design is seen in the styles decorating upscale communities, such as La Jolla with Mount Soledad offering some of the most spectacular views spanning northern San Diego to Mexico. Coronado and Point Loma Peninsulas separate San Diego Bay from the ocean, where you'll find Coronado Shores, a luxury condo complex that uses outdoor lighting and
tropical landscaping
to create an oasis.
Embrace Your Surroundings
San Diego is a location where Tuscany-style residences mingle with heavily Mediterranean-styled homes amidst breathtaking coastal bluffs.
Lying just north of Mexico, the city shares a border with Tijuana, which constantly influences some of the architecture and design styles of gardens in the area.
Landscape designers have also found ingenious ways of incorporating naturally rocky terrain with exquisite sitting areas, benches, boulders, birdbaths, patios, and bridges.
However, a great deal of San Diego landscape design success lies in choosing the flowers and plants that best thrive in the Southern California climate.
Flowers and Plants Ideal for San Diego
The type of plants you select for your San Diego landscape dreams becomes an important investment. For example, the hillsides of Carlsbad have become quite a tourist attraction, offering visions of some of the best flowering bulbs for
Mediterranean styled gardens
and climate, including:
Babiana African flowering plant
Freesia produces funnel shaped flowers in white, yellow, pink, red and blue-mauve
Watsonia South African native and relative of gladiolus
Oxalis easy to control plant with purple leaves and pale pink flowers
Anemones perennial herbs that come in shades of yellow, red, pink, blue, purple, and white
Of course, this doesnt mean count traditional bulbs out. Early blooming tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils (Jonquilla and tazetta) are still favorites of the region.
San Diego Garden Styles
Embracing a particular
garden style
in San Diego is also quite common, as the following selections allow you to explore possibilities that still manage to please the climate of the region and the latest
San Diego garden trends:
Shade Garden: Situated in northern San Diego County, the hidden gem of Escondido provides a shining example of a shade garden, a type of
specialty garden
which takes advantage of full shade with collections of pink Ribes (currant), the Pacific Coast iris, and blue Ceanothus (wild lilac).
Desert Garden: As you brainstorm for ideas that mirror the laid back yet sophisticated atmosphere of San Diego, allow the artistic display of the Desert Garden at Balboa Park spark your imagination with the more than 1,300 plants that stretch across 2 ½ acres. While the peak blooming worldwide period is observed from January to March, the unique shapes give way to interesting succulents and drought-resistant plants.
Southwestern Flair: Southwestern style landscape is quite popular in San Diego landscape design where yellow Encelia (brittlebush) and orange Sphaeralcea (apricot mallow) make great companions to local desert shrubs. Why not couple a corner adobe fireplace with surrounding Spanish wrought-iron accents and soft outdoor lighting?
Exotic Appeal: Perhaps you'd like to reflect the spirit of the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego by installing a koi pond dotted with lilies and vibrantly colored fish. Weave a relaxing path throughout your yard that leads to an herb garden, tea pavilion, or majestic waterfall. Consider a cherry tree grove simply for the scent of blossoms wafting in the air. Keep in mind that juniper, snowberry, azaleas, coffeeberry, manzanitas, and irises also channel the Far East.
From worldwide masterpieces to remarkable installations in Southern California, let Landscape Design Advisor help you harness the beauty of San Diego landscape design and create the outdoor space of your dreams.
To receive
complementary consultations
with top landscape architects, designers and contractors in the San Diego area, go to our
Free Referrals
page and fill out the Locale Area Request Form.
Free Landscape Architect and Contractor Referrals for La Jolla, Point Loma, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Escondido, Rancho Santa Fe, Mission Beach, Coronado, Hill Crest, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Rancho Bernardo and Encinitas
Lying just north of Mexico, the city shares a border with Tijuana, which constantly influences some of the architecture and design styles of gardens in the area. 
Babiana African flowering plant 
Shade Garden: Situated in northern San Diego County, the hidden gem of Escondido provides a shining example of a shade garden, a type of
Desert Garden: As you brainstorm for ideas that mirror the laid back yet sophisticated atmosphere of San Diego, allow the artistic display of the Desert Garden at Balboa Park spark your imagination with the more than 1,300 plants that stretch across 2 ½ acres. While the peak blooming worldwide period is observed from January to March, the unique shapes give way to interesting succulents and drought-resistant plants.
Southwestern Flair: Southwestern style landscape is quite popular in San Diego landscape design where yellow Encelia (brittlebush) and orange Sphaeralcea (apricot mallow) make great companions to local desert shrubs. Why not couple a corner adobe fireplace with surrounding Spanish wrought-iron accents and soft outdoor lighting? 
Exotic Appeal: Perhaps you'd like to reflect the spirit of the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego by installing a koi pond dotted with lilies and vibrantly colored fish. Weave a relaxing path throughout your yard that leads to an herb garden, tea pavilion, or majestic waterfall. Consider a cherry tree grove simply for the scent of blossoms wafting in the air. Keep in mind that juniper, snowberry, azaleas, coffeeberry, manzanitas, and irises also channel the Far East. 
