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The central courtyard connects to a raised deck for socializing within easy access to the kitchen.

The courtyard lets the reimagined addition live as a "modernist ruin," with vines encouraged to grow and further blur the boundary between inside and out. The outdoor table and chairs are by Tait.

A wall of glazing across from the kitchen pod connects to a centrally located courtyard, with landscaping by Eckersley Garden Architecture.

Modern Perennial Plants

Sunken Garden

Water recirculates from a bench-level channel into a shallow pool bordered by succulents. Montalvo’s longtime landscape contractor Santiago Vasquez worked with her on the hardscaping.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

Russell-Clarke tends a small garden.

California pepper trees, grasses, and sage are low-maintenance, low-water plants that also are low-allergen.

Design, Bitches turns a typical Atwater Village home into a lush hideaway with a new, cedar-clad guesthouse.