Grant Garden Design — native gardens, Santa Barbara

gardens that belong here

Native, drought-tolerant and fire-smart gardens for Santa Barbara — designed around the sages, oaks and bunch grasses that already know this coast.

all work

What a native garden can look like

Garden types we design — illustrated

Native meadow garden replacing a front lawn in front of a craftsman bungalow — **Meadow instead of lawn**Front yard

Fire-smart hillside planting with spaced natives and a stone retaining wall — **Fire-smart slope**Hillside

Dry creek of river cobbles through a front-yard rain garden after winter rain — **Rain garden**Front yard, dry creek

Home entry framed by toyon, sage and bunch grass — **Front entry**Entry planting

Courtyard with a native planting bed under a coast live oak — **Shaded courtyard**Courtyard

Backyard edge planted with manzanita, monkeyflower and buckwheat at golden hour — **Patio edge**Backyard

Planting under mature coast live oaks with coffeeberry and hummingbird sage — **Oak understory**Under mature oaks

Blue ceanothus hedge along a wooden fence with bunch grasses — **Ceanothus hedge**Boundary planting

Close view of purple salvia and ceanothus blooms with a bee — **Pollinator border**Detail

The garden walk

How a project starts — and what you walk away with before committing to anything.

A plain front lawn before planting — Illustration — a typical lawn…

The same kind of yard as a native meadow — …and what it can become

1 · We walk the garden together

What you have, what the water bill says, which rooms look onto what, and what you want to see out of the window.

2 · You get plain-language notes

Which plants stay, which go, where the water should run, and a planting direction suited to this coast and this slope.

3 · Then a plan, if you want one

Native and drought-tolerant design, plant sourcing from the right nurseries, fire-smart spacing, and arborist reports for the oaks.

Arborist reports on their own

ISA-certified assessments for mature trees — available without the rest.

Looking up into the canopy of a coast live oak

Colin Grant

From the first walk-through to the last plant in the ground. A garden that evolved for this coast needs less water, less fuss and fewer chemicals — and feeds the birds and pollinators a lawn never will.

Credentials, in the open

ISA Certified Arborist: WE-15221A
Certified California Native Plant Landscaper: Santa Barbara Botanic Garden program
Referral listing: SB Botanic Garden professional landscaper list

Native, fire-smart gardens for Santa Barbara hillsides — replace the lawn, keep the view