Client:
Dr. Jeffery and Tiina Garrison
Alexandria, LA
(318) 443-9191

Once construction was completed on their Mediterranean-style home, the Garrisions wanted to continue the tropical feel throughout their backyard. They contacted Moore Planning Group, LLC (MPG) to create a landscape design that would bring tropical flavor to this Alexandria, La. home.

In addition to solving the issue of slow drainage, the MPG design team created an overall layout of the plantings, arbors, and deck to create a series of distinct, yet visually-connected, outdoor rooms. These functional and inviting rooms provide the family with areas for specific activities such as sunning, cooking, and entertaining, as well as an area for the children to play. The sun area provides ample room for morning sunning on both a paved area and lawn section. Behind the sunning area, at the sauna house, lush vegetation adds privacy. Located directly across from the rear of the home, a deck cradles the spa and offers elevation. Made of redwood timber, an arbor shades the spa from the hot Louisiana sun, and creates an outdoor room for dining and cooking. Two porch swings, attached to the arbor, offer a relaxing conversation area. A second redwood arbor provides shade for the walkway leading to the home’s entrance, and serves as a doorway to the children’s play area. Pavers used in the design coordinate with the house’s stucco finish to give the entire home a more unified look. Medjool and canary palms at three corners of the site, lush plantings of day lilies, agapanthus and mandevilla under the arbor, and ferns in large bright planter pots flanking the deck compliment the Mediterranean architecture of the home.

The medjool palms and the redwood arbors produce a tropical flavor uncharacteristic of central Louisiana’s landscape. Guests to the Garrison’s home comment on the unexpected tropical atmosphere that provides a relaxing and tranquil setting for adults to converse while children play in the open area. The client remarked, “For several months after our home was complete, I deliberated over what type of art work to put on the living room walls. Soon after the landscaping was finished, I realized the large windows were now frames for the most beautiful living art work I could ever have.”