When you have a beautiful home, your outdoor spaces are as important to maintain as the indoor ones–or at least they should be.  For Chuck and Ava Milbourne of Woodland Hills, California, it became clear that they’d need to update the landscaping on the front of their property.

“There were several reasons we wanted to do this project,” explains Chuck, not the least of which was to replace the ivy ground cover that they’d inherited from the original homeowners. “With our harsh summers, it would just get burned out by the sun.”  They also discovered that the Eucalyptus tree was a fire hazard.

Since he and Ava had a hard time agreeing on a plan, the Milbournes hired a landscape architect.  Chuck quickly determined that the entire space should feature California native plants. Originally, he wanted all natives of Southern California, particularly from the Santa Monica mountains where he hikes.  A few plants that normally grow in Northern California slipped into the plan, but that was only a minor disappointment.  “I suppose I should have been a little more assertive in what I wanted,” says Chuck. An unforeseen benefit of the plants that were chosen, however, is water conservation–even during the hottest period, the plants will require a minimum of watering.

While completely unrelated to the actual landscaping plan, a parking strip just to the side of the main driveway was born as an indirect result of the decomposed granite that had been chosen by the landscape architect to cover that part of the property. “It washes out, and with the first significant rain we had after that, not only did the material itself wash out, but the dirt behind it washed away too. ” So they paved it, and it has become a great extra space for guests to park on their narrow street.

The one other thing Chuck says he would have considered more carefully on this project is the budget. “You want to be sure that your budget is not self-limiting,” he offers to anyone committing to a sizable landscaping project. “We didn’t realize how expensive landscaping–particularly hardscaping–really is.”

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Author: Kelly Thacher

Kelly has been a writer since she was in grade school where she received early recognition for her Young Author's project. Magazines like Home Entertainment, Luxury Consumer Electronics, Vertical Living, Luxury Home and the Robb Report were happy to have Kelly's editing talents on various projects. A series of career twists and turns has offered her invaluable experience in journalism, magazine and book publishing, and fiction writing.

Kelly Thacher has written 30 articles for us.