Friend Shaped LogoBook My Consultation

Elevated Nativescape Design for Joyful Outdoor Living

At Friend Shaped Designs, we're ushering in a new era of butterflies and joy. Our approach is different. We push beyond the stock and standard lawn to create colorful, living landscapes that work with Mother Nature, not against her. The result: more time with loved ones, less of the maintenance tasks you dread. Also butterflies. So many butterflies.

Butterflies? Yes Please
a monarch butterfly perches on a cluster of small milkweed flowers, the host plant for monarch caterpillars, in a verdant outdoor place.
a mostly decorative illustration and logo. The logo features a daisy-like flower with a yellow center and white flowing petals in a shape loosely resembling the letter F. To the right are the words 'FRIEND SHAPED' in large white font. Underneath that, 'GARDEN DESIGN' in slightly smaller white font. Behind the logo there is a wildflower field in silhouette colored in with a green gradient in a style resembling wood block printing techniques.

Case Study

Before

BEFORE photograph: a very sparse lawn on a hill with visible signs of erosion. An existing built-in cement flower bed sits vacant except for one agave on the right side of the image.

Photo provided by client during design consult.

After

AFTER photograph: railway tie terracing system with new flower beds on the left side rise up the hill. The practically empty existing flower beds have been replanted. The lawn area, now surrounded by fleshly planted flower beds, has been replaced with healthy turfgrass.

As installed by Earthwise Industries. Photo by Christian Payne.

BEFORE landscape design illustration: a digital landscape design drawing made from a birds-eye view illustrating the state of the backyard at the time of the consult. There is a large hardscaped pool and grill connected to the house. Beyond the hardscaped pool area, there is a large lawn area. Between the lawn and the pool is a thin strip of built in flower-beds following the long side of the pool.

The Problem

The first landscaping company this homeowner hired installed turfgrass, but didn't address the site's erosion issue. Water from rain and irrigation flowed too quickly down this steep slope, washing away what little remained of the site's natural 2" of soil. When drought came, summer heat, watering restrictions, and the homeowner's 3 high-energy dogs quickly destroyed the recently installed lawn through normal (though intense) use.

a digital landscape design drawing made from a birds-eye view illustrating how to improve the space through landscape design. Approximately 1000 sqft of the lawn area has been converted to flower beds along the perimeter of the property. These flower beds are drawn with a balanced arrangement of colorful flowering plants, leafy shrubs, and small trees. A railway tie terracing system running perpindicular to the known slope spans the whole lawn area. There are a few call-outs typed on the drawing to briefly explain certain features. The callouts are: Mulched shade for dogs (shown bottom left of drawing, under a tree), dog 'play mound'(in the lawn area near the pool), climing rose trellis (along the fenceline on the left side of the drawing), veggie garden (on the bottom right corner of the drawing at the propertyline), 8x10 privacy trellis (on the top right side of the drawing at the fenceline), 2 existing shrubs are noted (upper left side of drawing abutting the house).

The Solution

Friend Shaped addressed the underlying erosion issue by designing an upcycled railway tie terracing system to improve the ability of this sloped site to hold on to water and soil. To further reduce the site's need for supplemental irrigation, we also reduced the size of the lawn by 1000 sqft. Replacing it instead with native and adapted plants better able to survive only on natural rainfall when needed. Dedicating some space to plants rather than turf allowed us to address secondary issues like screening views to neighbors and creating wind breaks. Best of all, the dogs still had plenty of room to run and play.

Your Outdoor 'Hoppy' Place Starts Here

Book My Consult, Now
a cute green toad seems quite content on his waterfront perch. His front toes relax into a carpet of wet moss glistening in the sunlight. A hind leg rests on a sun-warmed boulder.