Drought Tolerant Garden Design Ideas and Waterwise Garden Photos

Gardens that look lush on a fraction of the water — soil preparation, gravel mulch, planting in blocks and irrigation that only runs when needed. A waterwise garden is not a gravel yard with three succulents in it. The best examples are dense, layered and green, and they use a fraction of the water of a conventional garden because of decisions made below ground. Soil improved with compost holds moisture, deep mulch stops evaporation, plants grouped by water need stop the thirsty ones dictating the schedule, and irrigation delivers water slowly at the root zone rather than spraying it into the air. Soil comes first. Break up compaction, add organic matter generously, and create planting beds deep enough for roots to go looking for moisture instead of sitting in the top few centimetres. Then mulch — 75 millimetres of coarse bark, gravel or crushed stone depending on the look you want. Gravel mulch suits Mediterranean and native schemes, keeps foliage dry, reflects heat away from the soil surface and never needs topping up the way bark does. Plant in blocks and repeat. Three to five species massed together read as a designed garden and shade the soil between them, which...

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Home Designs

Architectural Home Design with Limestone Cladding and Poolside Cabana, Sun Deck and Evening Entertaining

Architectural Home Design with Limestone Cladding, Warm Oak Soffits and Slim Charcoal Aluminium Frames, Tropical Foliage, Frangipani and Screening Bamboo. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com — Architectural Home Design with Limestone Cladding, Warm Oak Soffits and Slim Charcoal Aluminium Frames, Tropical Foliage, Frangipani and Screening Bamboo, featuring a Poolside Cabana, Sun Deck and Evening Entertaining Zone, complemented by Durable Weatherproof Finishes and Low-Maintenance Detailing

Mediterranean is part of our Home Designs collection — one of 512 large-format widescreen concept visuals in this section. It is presented here at full size so you can study the layout, the planting, the surfaces and the way light falls across the design before you commit to building anything on your own block.

Front yards, backyards, side boundaries and complete house concepts, including the tiny home series. Use this concept as a starting point: note the proportions between built form and greenery, where shade and shelter sit, how paths and paved areas move people through the space, and which materials repeat to hold the whole scheme together.

Every visual on this site is a design idea created for Home Design Photos. Browse the rest of the Home Designs collection, or open the complete image catalogue to see every home, garden, pool, pergola, furniture, lighting and beach house concept in one place.

← Split-Level Modern Home Design with Recycled Brick and Spacious Rear Backyard and BBQ Grill Modern House Design with Rendered White Walls and Shaded Deck, Long Dining Table →

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Contemporary Family Home Design with Board-Formed Concrete and Wide Front Entry Court, Feature Water

Contemporary Family Home Design with Board-Formed Concrete, Spotted Gum Battens and Matte Black Steel Detailing, Mass-Planted Hedging, Feature Palms and Deep Mulched Garden Beds, featuring a Wide Front Entry Court, Feature Water Bowl and Garage Screening

Low-Line Courtyard Home Design with Textured Off-White Render and Covered Alfresco Dining Terrace

Low-Line Courtyard Home Design with Textured Off-White Render, Travertine Paving and Smoked Glass Balustrades, Layered Native Planting and a Clipped Buffalo Lawn, featuring a Covered Alfresco Dining Terrace and Built-In Outdoor Kitchen, finished with Sculptural Feature Planting and Inviting

Contemporary Family Home Design with Board-Formed Concrete and Wide Front Entry Court, Feature Water

Split-Level Modern Home Design with Recycled Brick and Spacious Rear Backyard and BBQ Grill

Split-Level Modern Home Design with Recycled Brick, Vertical Cedar Screening and Zinc Roof Sheeting, Espaliered Trees, Box Hedging and Fine-Leaf Groundcover, featuring a Spacious Rear Backyard and BBQ Grill Entertaining Area, balanced by Clean Sightlines, Shaded Retreats and Relaxed

Contemporary Family Home Design with Board-Formed Concrete and Wide Front Entry Court, Feature Water

Architectural Home Design with Limestone Cladding and Poolside Cabana, Sun Deck and Evening Entertaining

Architectural Home Design with Limestone Cladding, Warm Oak Soffits and Slim Charcoal Aluminium Frames, Tropical Foliage, Frangipani and Screening Bamboo, featuring a Poolside Cabana, Sun Deck and Evening Entertaining Zone, balanced by Clean Sightlines, Shaded Retreats and Relaxed Family

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Driveway and Entry Path Design Ideas and Photos

Materials, widths, jointing and drainage for driveways and entry paths that lift a facade instead of dominating it.

A driveway is usually the largest single surface on a property, so it has more influence on how a house looks than any other landscaping element. The goal is to make it recede. That means choosing a colour and texture close to the paving and render elsewhere, breaking the expanse with joints or planting strips, and keeping the width to what is genuinely needed rather than paving everything between the fences.

Materials each carry a trade off. Exposed aggregate concrete is durable, seamless and mid cost, but hard to patch invisibly. Large format pavers and bluestone look best and cost most, and they demand a properly compacted base. Permeable pavers and gravel handle stormwater brilliantly and suit rural and coastal properties, though gravel migrates and needs edging and topping up. Plain grey concrete is cheapest and looks it, unless it is saw cut into a considered grid.

Geometry and drainage decide whether it works. Allow three metres for a single driveway and five and a half for a double, add a turning or parking bay if visitors would otherwise reverse into the street, and keep the crossover aligned with the garage. Fall the surface away from the house and toward a grated drain or swale, never toward the garage door, and set a grate across the entry to the garage as insurance.

Front Yards design ideas photo from the Driveway and Entry Path Design Ideas and Photos feature. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Planting and edges make the difference. A crisp edge — steel, stone or a clipped hedge — holds the line and stops gravel and mulch mixing. A strip of groundcover or lawn between two wheel tracks softens a long drive dramatically. Trees set back from the surface give shade without lifting the pavement, and low bollard or recessed lighting along one side makes arriving at night feel considered rather than functional.

House Design Photos is a HUGE Library Gallery and Directory of Home Design Photos

Drought Tolerant Garden Design Ideas and Waterwise Garden Photos

Architectural Home Design with Limestone Cladding and Poolside Cabana, Sun Deck and Evening Entertaining

More Home Designs concepts

Driveway and Entry Path Design Ideas and Photos