West Los Angeles
Landscape design for West Los Angeles homes, from compact lots in Westwood, Beverlywood and Santa Monica to canyon gardens in Brentwood, Bel-Air and the Palisades. We plan the planting with the privacy, drainage and hardscape it depends on, for the marine layer, the watering rules and the fire zones, 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 Westside homeowners ask for most. The photos come from our wider Greater Los Angeles portfolio, including the Lantern Courtyard Escape garden in Mid-Wilshire.
01 Privacy without walling the yard in Layered hedges, small trees and trellis that screen the pool and dining from the second-story windows next door without making a compact yard feel smaller. See privacy planting 
02 A lawn replaced, not just removed Groundcovers, gravel and low-water planting graded and irrigated properly, so the new garden reads as full instead of looking sparse for years. See drought-tolerant gardens 
03 A courtyard that feels like a room Paving, planting and a wall fountain in a side yard or courtyard, so the space beside the house becomes the best room on the lot. See small-space gardens 
04 An entry ready for a fire zone Stone steps, concrete and gravel close to the house, with planting set back and spaced, so the zone around the walls gives embers little to catch. See steps and entries 
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 for the Westside: the palette was made for a dry-summer coast, and the Spanish and Mediterranean houses of Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and the Palisades already speak its language. Olive, rosemary and lavender take the marine layer and the onshore breeze in stride.
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 Does better on the Westside than almost anywhere else in Los Angeles, because the marine layer keeps roses and perennials from scorching. Hydrozone the thirstier beds on their own to stay inside the watering-day limits, and let the hedging do the structural work.
Best for Classic and Mediterranean-adjacent homes, and anyone who wants a familiar, symmetrical look with year-round color.
On your property Suits the 1920s character homes near Westwood Village, the 1940s and 1950s houses of Beverlywood and Cheviot Hills and the estates of Holmby Hills. On a street where an association reviews the front yard, a traditional plan reads well to the board.
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 contemporary rebuilds in the Palisades and the modern houses on the Brentwood and Bel-Air hillsides, and its stone, concrete and gravel suit the zone closest to the house in a fire area. Near the beach, specify corrosion-resistant fixtures and hardware.
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 on the Westside, and for canyon slopes. A coastal sage scrub palette of toyon, coffeeberry, ceanothus and sages reads as full and layered, and on a hillside it holds the ground once it roots.
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 Well suited to the cool, sheltered courtyards and side yards of the Westside flats, where the marine layer is kind to maples and moss. On any lot in a fire zone, keep bamboo and dense conifers well 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 Westside condition: compact lots in Westwood, Ocean Park and Beverlywood, and the side yards and courtyards beside the house. Decide the one main use first, and plan access, staging and any rear alley before anything else.
Before We assess sun, shade and the marine layer on each side of the house, drainage, slope, existing trees and soil. On the Westside that also means access: rear alleys, street parking and canyon roads decide how the work reaches the yard.
Design Your designer lays out the garden with the hardscape and privacy 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 Coastal natives, Mediterranean shrubs and grasses chosen for your exposure and your distance from the ocean, sized for maturity rather than the nursery pot, and listed on one specification sheet.
Installation Grading, soil preparation and drip irrigation zoned by exposure and set to the watering rules, then planting. 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 dry season.
Things worth knowing before a first consultation.
A yard a few blocks from the sand behaves differently from one in Westwood or Cheviot Hills. Marine layer, onshore breeze and salt air set the palette near the beach, and plants that need summer heat to bloom often disappoint there.
LADWP limits sprinkler irrigation to set days and times, and Beverly Hills emphasizes drip irrigation, weather-based controllers and turf alternatives. Drip, hydrozoning and smart controllers keep a full garden inside the rules.
Canyon Brentwood, Bel-Air and most of the Palisades sit in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. LAFD brush clearance rules set spacing and shrub height, and the first five feet around the house stay non-combustible.
Second-story windows, a neighbor's deck and a canyon view all shape where screening goes. Layered hedges and small trees screen the pool and dining without blocking the view you bought the house for.
Coast live oak, valley oak, western sycamore and California black walnut are protected in the City of Los Angeles. Grading, trenching and new irrigation stay out of the root zone, and work close to a protected tree needs city review.
Santa Monica's landmarks and historic districts, Coastal Zone parcels near the beach, the Beverlywood Homes Association and Culver City's parkway guidelines can each have a say in what is planted where people can see it.
Santa Monica Mountains slopes shed water fast, and slopes that burned in the Palisades can erode faster until new planting takes hold. Drainage and erosion control are part of the planting plan, not added after the first storm.
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.
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.
The added privacy hedges and paving-stone driveway made the home look completely different, and the result was easy to recommend. The transformation exceeded our expectations, and we immediately noticed the improved curb appeal and privacy. We've already referred several neighbors to them.
Other companies struggled with the steep hillside, but Pacific Outdoor Living transformed it into a three-tier patio space with thoughtful design and execution. Their expertise in handling difficult terrain made all the difference. The final result is stunning and has completely changed how we use our property.
Coastal natives, Mediterranean shrubs, ornamental grasses and many succulents handle the marine layer and salt air well. A coastal sage scrub palette of toyon, coffeeberry, ceanothus and sages reads as full and layered, while plants that need summer heat to bloom often disappoint near the beach. We build the palette around your exposure, because a yard a few blocks from the sand behaves differently from one further inland.
Yes. LADWP limits sprinkler irrigation to set days and times, which pushes the design toward drip, hydrozoning and planting that holds up on less water. Done that way, the garden reads as full and layered rather than sparse.
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 planting in the next band, and trees thinned and kept clear of the roof further out, following LAFD brush clearance rules and current CAL FIRE defensible-space guidance. For Palisades rebuilds, we plan it alongside the new house.
Layers rather than a wall: a clipped hedge along the boundary, small trees placed where they block the view from a neighbor's window, and trellis or screens where there is no room for planting. Done well, the yard feels enclosed without feeling smaller.
Sometimes. The Beverlywood Homes Association reviews front-yard changes and fencing, Santa Monica landmark properties can need Landmarks Commission review, Culver City has residential parkway guidelines, and some parcels near the beach are in the Coastal Zone. We confirm what applies to your property before the design is final.
Fall, with spring a close second. The mild coastal climate is forgiving, but new planting still does best when it can root in through the cooler, wetter months before its first dry season.
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 design and build landscapes in Brentwood, Bel-Air, Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Cheviot Hills, Beverlywood and Culver City. 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.
