San Gabriel Valley
Landscape design for San Gabriel Valley homes, from Craftsman and Spanish Colonial gardens in Pasadena, San Marino and South Pasadena to foothill lots in Altadena, Sierra Madre and Monrovia. We plan the planting with the shade, drainage and hardscape it depends on, around the mature trees, the design review many of these streets carry and the heat of an inland summer, and our own crews build it.
Start here
Start with what you want the garden to do; the plants and materials mostly follow from it. These are the four things San Gabriel Valley homeowners ask for most, shown in gardens we built in Altadena and Pasadena.
01 A garden that suits the house Roses, clipped boxwood, flagstone and stucco chosen to read as original to a Spanish Colonial, Craftsman or traditional house rather than added to it. See garden paths 
02 Shade and planting under mature trees Beds, seating and paths placed outside the root zones of the oaks and camphors you already have, with planting that takes dry shade. See estate gardens 
03 Low-water planting that still looks full Salvias, grasses, succulents and Mediterranean shrubs on drip, so an inland summer does not mean a thirsty garden or a bare one. See drought-tolerant gardens 
04 Level ground on a sloping lot Retaining walls, steps and planted terraces that turn a foothill grade into ground you can use, with the drainage built in. See retaining walls and terraces 
Best for Spanish Colonial, Tuscan, Mission Revival and other stucco-and-tile homes, and anyone who wants a shaded courtyard built for outdoor entertaining.
On your property A natural fit across the valley: the Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean Revival houses of Pasadena, San Marino and Arcadia already speak its language, and olive, rosemary and lavender take an inland summer in stride. Give the seating real shade, because the afternoons here are hot.
Best for Homeowners who want a true garden to tend, not just a yard to maintain, especially on a property with brick, stone or cottage-style architecture.
On your property Roses do beautifully here; the perennial borders are the part to plan for the heat, with afternoon shade and an irrigation zone of their own. A natural fit for the Tudor and traditional houses of San Marino, South Pasadena and the older Pasadena neighborhoods.
Best for Classic and Mediterranean-adjacent homes, and anyone who wants a familiar, symmetrical look with year-round color.
On your property Suits the Colonial, Tudor and traditional estates of San Marino, Arcadia and Pasadena, and reads well to a design review committee. Camellias and azaleas, long a part of gardens in this valley, do best in the shade of the mature trees.
Best for Modern and mid-century homes, and anyone who wants clean lines and architectural planting over a traditional garden look.
On your property Fits the mid-century houses of Pasadena and Altadena and the rebuilds going up in the foothills, and its stone, concrete and gravel suit the zone closest to the house in a fire area. Pair the paving with shade trees: in an inland summer, pale hardscape throws the heat back at the house.
Best for Anyone who wants to cut water use and maintenance without the yard looking bare, and a strong fit for slopes, parkways and full-sun front yards.
On your property The strongest match for lawn replacement anywhere in the valley, and for foothill slopes. Ceanothus, sages, toyon, coffeeberry and deer grass look at home against the San Gabriels and hold a slope once they root. In a fire zone, the denser shrubs stay well back from the house.
Best for Homeowners who want a garden to look at and sit beside as much as gather in, and a natural fit for shaded, smaller or courtyard-style side yards.
On your property Has deep roots here: Pasadena and San Marino are home to some of the best-known Japanese gardens in Southern California. Maples and moss want afternoon shade in this heat, so a courtyard or a spot under mature trees suits them best. On a foothill lot in a fire zone, keep bamboo and dense conifers back from the house.
Best for Side yards, courtyards and compact city lots, anyone who assumes their yard is too small to do much with.
On your property The everyday condition on the bungalow lots of Pasadena, South Pasadena and Alhambra, and in the side yards and courtyards beside the house. Decide the one main use first, then plan the shade, because a small yard with no shade sits empty from June to September.
Before We assess sun and shade through an inland summer, drainage, slope, soil and every mature tree, mapping the root zones before anything is drawn. On older lots that also means decades of patios, irrigation and drainage that were added rather than planned.
Design Your designer lays out the garden with the hardscape and shade it depends on and presents it in plan and 3D, in whichever style suits the house: Mediterranean, English Garden, Traditional, Modern, Drought-Tolerant, Japanese Zen or Small-Space.
Selection Natives, Mediterranean shrubs, roses and grasses chosen for your exposure and for the heat, sized for maturity rather than the nursery pot, and listed on one specification sheet.
Installation Grading, soil preparation and drip irrigation zoned by sun and shade, then planting. Foothill ground of decomposed granite and cobble drains fast in one spot and not at all in the next, so we check before we plant. On slopes, erosion control holds the ground until the roots take over.
Established First-season watering, mulching and pruning, with care instructions, so the garden is established before its first summer.
Things worth knowing before a first consultation.
Inland summers run far hotter than the coast, so shade decides whether a garden gets used. Trees placed for afternoon shade, and plants matched to full sun or dry shade, matter here more than the style does.
Pasadena Water and Power and the other local water agencies set their own outdoor watering rules. Drip, hydrozoning and smart controllers keep a full garden inside them.
San Marino requires City Council approval to remove an oak, even from a rear yard, and Pasadena and other cities protect established trees too. Grading, trenching and new irrigation stay out of the root zone.
San Marino sends most visible exterior work, landscaping included, through its Design Review Committee, South Pasadena has five historic districts, and Pasadena has landmark districts such as Bungalow Heaven. What the street sees gets planned with that review in mind.
Foothill streets in Altadena, Sierra Madre, Monrovia and Glendora sit in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones. The first five feet around the house stay non-combustible, and planting further out is low, spaced and irrigated.
Lots below the San Gabriels and along the Arroyo Seco take water from above, and slopes below a burned watershed can shed debris in a hard storm. Drainage and erosion control are part of the planting plan, not added after the first storm.
Foothill ground is decomposed granite and cobble washed out of the canyons, while older neighborhoods closer in can carry heavier soil and decades of compaction. Soil preparation is matched to what is actually there.
Planting should soften patios, steps and walls, not fight them, and leave room for a mature canopy without roots lifting the paving.
No quote written off a photograph can account for what your property is like.
Decking, drainage, utilities, planting, shade and lighting all bear on where a feature goes and how it gets built. Settling them on one set of drawings is what keeps conduit out of the wrong trench and stops paving being cut to fit afterward.
Access, engineering, permits, finishes and scope vary a lot from one property to the next, so the investment and the schedule for your project are set once we have seen the site and the design is settled.
Tell us about the property and what you want the space to do. We will walk through the design, site and permitting factors likely to shape it.
We used Pacific Outdoor to do paver work along with hardscaping, landscaping, and a pond installation. The results are gorgeous, and the teams worked together to solve problems as they came up.
Pacific Outdoor Living replaced the original landscaping with drought-tolerant plants, making the yard look like a completely different home. The transformation was stunning and immediately improved our curb appeal. We were thrilled with how they handled the planting design and modern aesthetic choices.
Several years before the Eaton Fire, Pacific Outdoor Living completed our front and backyard landscaping. Their pavers and retaining walls held up so well that the quality became clear even after tragedy. When everything was tested by nature's worst, their work proved itself. That's the kind of craftsmanship and durability you can count on.
Mediterranean shrubs, California natives, roses, citrus and most succulents and grasses handle the heat well. Camellias, azaleas and ferns do best in the shade of mature trees, and anything that wants a cool summer struggles. We build the palette around your exposure, because the shaded side of a Pasadena lot and a south-facing foothill slope are two different gardens.
Yes, with care. Coast live oaks do not tolerate regrading inside the root zone, a bed dug tight to the trunk or summer water at the base. We keep the ground under the canopy to mulch and planting that needs little summer water, and keep new paving and trenching outside the root zone. In San Marino, removing an oak needs City Council approval, so the plan works with the tree.
By planning it as a garden, not a removal. Grading, soil preparation and drip irrigation are set up first, then groundcovers, gravel and low-water planting go in at a density that fills in quickly. A smaller lawn or artificial turf can stay where the kids and dogs actually play.
In zones. Non-combustible surfaces right next to the house, low and well-spaced irrigated planting in the next band, and trees thinned and kept clear of the roof further out, following current CAL FIRE defensible-space guidance. If your property was affected by the Eaton Fire, call us at (818) 275-8271 to ask about the special rates we are offering.
It shapes it more than it limits it. San Marino reviews most visible exterior work, landscaping included, South Pasadena has a Cultural Heritage Commission and five historic districts, and Pasadena has landmark districts of its own. We choose plants and materials that read as original to the house, and confirm what review applies before the design is final.
Fall, with spring a close second. Planting in fall lets the roots establish through the cooler, wetter months before the first hot summer, which matters more here than it does near the coast.
It depends on the size of the planting area, the plant sizes specified, how much lawn, old hardscape or slope work is involved, and site access. Your designer sets the design fee at the first meeting, once the site analysis has measured the property.
Very likely. We have worked in Pasadena for more than two decades, including with the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, and we design and build landscapes in Altadena, San Marino, South Pasadena, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Monrovia and Alhambra, and east through Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Claremont. Each community has its own page with an address checker.
Schedule a consultation with one of our designers to discuss your project goals and explore what's possible on your property.
What happens next: we set up a visit, measure the property and talk through what you want the space to do. Then you get a design to look at before you commit to anything.
