Patio Details: Good-bye Cracked Concrete, Hello Lush Garden

Not many amenities top private parking when it comes to city living. It seems like a bold move for a family in San Francisco to give up the private parking area behind their apartment. But they replaced it with the one thing many city dwellers would take over parking: a private outdoor living space.

Location: San Francisco
Size: Overall backyard is 25 feet (7.6 meters) by 60 feet (18.3 meters); deck is 20 feet (6.1 meters) by 15 feet (4.6 meters)
Budget: About $30,000
Designer: Beth Mullins of Growsgreen Landscape Design

Purpose: The homeowners wanted an outdoor space where they could lounge in private and be able to have dinner close to home. Landscape designer Beth Mullins converted their decrepit plot of concrete into a lush outdoor escape, providing plenty of space for them to eat, entertain and play with their young daughter.

The family lives in the two bottom floors of a three-story building. The residents on the third floor also have access to the backyard.


BEFORE: The existing outdoor space was nothing more than a rectangle of old concrete, surrounded on all sides by fencing and other buildings. But existing underground parking on the property provided a better place for cars and opened up this prime outdoor space for other uses.


The Nitty-Gritty

Deck: The new deck is made from ipe wood. Designer Beth Mullins chose this material because it’s warm, attractive and comfortable to walk barefoot on. She built the deck over the existing concrete, which saved money since she didn’t have to demolish the patio or pay to have it hauled away. The team only needed to pull up the concrete under the deck where they installed the posts and footings.

Built-in planters filled with succulents, grasses and other low-water planters frame the deck and serve as a boundary for the 3-foot drop.

Mullins considered turning the whole backyard into one big patio, but added the deck and built-in planters as a way to mix materials and heights. “I wanted to make them feel like it wasn’t just a long, open space,” she says. The deck also brings the ground plane up, reducing the perceived height difference between the floor and wall.

Sectional: Ikea; white dining set: vintage


Patio floor: Poured-in-place concrete pavers of various sizes create areas for outdoor dining and sitting, with a path of 6-foot by 3-foot slabs between them. The homeowners’ young daughter can use these concrete pieces in an informal hopscotch game. All of the concrete drains to the existing drains.

Dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Nana’, USDA zones 6 to 11), a slow-growing, clumping grasslike perennial, grows in between the pavers. It is easy to grow, doesn’t require too much soil and can handle foot traffic.


Other Features

Containers: Mullins planted a lot of the garden in containers, because there wasn’t much soil available for her to plant directly in the ground. She clustered containers around the yard’s perimeter, creating softer edges and adding emphasis to doors and other entryways. “I like to place the planters so they kind of envelop the garden,” she says.

When choosing the containers, she looked for textures and shapes that would complement one another, and avoided too much bold color. “I like putting things that harmonize and accent each other, but nothing is stealing the show,” she says. The containers are from Pottery & Beyond.

Lights: Step lights and uplights transform the garden at night.


Plants: Mullins followed a similar philosophy for the plant palette. For this somewhat shady, protected site, she chose a mix of textures and structures that would look good year-round. “You can have your layering of textures and colors,” she says, “but you’re not relying on flowers.” Everything is watered via drip irrigation.

Plants used in the ground and containers:
Rock purslane (Calandrinia spectabilis, zones 8 to 10)‘Golden Goddess’ bamboo (Bambusa multiplex ‘Golden Goddess’, zones 8 to 10)‘Elijah Blue’ blue fescue (Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’, zones 4 to 8)Foxtail agave (Agave attenuata, zones 10 to 12)‘Imbricata’ echeveria (Echeveria ‘Imbricata’, zones 8 to 11 or indoors)Pygmy date palm (Phoenix roebelenii, zones 9 to 11)‘Bruce’s Dwarf’ spurge (Euphorbia characias ‘Bruce’s Dwarf’, zones 7 to 10)Paperplant (Fatsia japonica, zones 8 to 11)Cape rush (Chondropetalum tectorum, zones 8 to 10)Canna (Canna ‘Tropicanna’ syn. C. ‘Phasion’, zones 8 to 10 but can be grown anywhere if bulbs are brought inside over winter)Grassland sedge (Carex divulsa, sometimes sold as C. tumulicola, zones 8 to 10)


Considerations: Space and scale drove this space, and Mullins suggests homeowners think about how they want to use their outdoor space before they think about materials. The proportions and how the outdoor spaces connect need to work first. This deck could have easily been redwood and the patio could have been all gravel, but determining their shape and size first ensured that they would work regardless of the material. The team decided to include concrete and not do a gravel patio, because the homeowners didn’t want a muddy floor for their young daughter.

Mulins chose materials that are attractive and contemporary and will hold up well for this family. The concrete could crack, and the ipe will need to be sanded and restained every year to maintain this color. Or it could be left as is and would eventually turn a weathered gray.

More: Pocket Gardens, Pint-Size Patios and Urban Backyards

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