Architectural Gardens

A portfolio of ten lushly illustrated residential landscape projects in California's wine country, each a lesson in the alchemy of garden design, created by landscape architecture firm Lucas & Lucas.

The work of landscape architecture firm Lucas & Lucas extends the architecture of the house into the garden through carefully selected elements of design. Each of the ten projects in Architectural Gardens includes a design narrative that addresses the interconnections between home and land, detailed captions, and a site plan.

As Mike Lucas explains in his introduction, “Architectural gardens create a union between the land and home, the indoors and outdoors, the natural and constructed. The goal of any designer should be to create a landscape that balances these elements in a beautiful and useful way.”

Readers will learn how to implement features such as:

• Landscape windows
• Breeze-catching grasses
• Cascading concrete waterfalls
• Trees with thoughtfully cast shadows to transform their landscape

The book includes a roundup of Lucas's favorite plants—those best suited to different types of properties and for different purposes like drought tolerance or fast growth—and lists the specific plants used for each featured project.

Filled with gorgeous full-color photography, Architectural Gardens will appeal to garden designers, landscape architects, landscape contractors, architects, and home builders as well as home gardeners looking for inspiration.