Meanwhile, On Gardenista: Lean Into What You Have

Welcome to Meanwhile, on Gardenista, in which we take a look at the goings-on over on our sibling site. In this week’s edition: serene, lush, and downright magical outdoor spaces that work because they copy-paste what’s already there rather than trying to add new elements. Three examples we love:

Above: A trick of the eye: For a barge-turned-house on a harbor, the American beachgrass planted in the foreground “mimics the look of the native rushes in the surrounding wetlands, so your eye sees an almost uninterrupted swath of textured green.” See more of the project in Garden Visit: 10 Lessons from a Coastal Landcape Designed for Deer Resistance. Photograph by Neil Landino, courtesy of Hollander Design Landscape Architects. Above: The merits of adding a bird bath to your backyard are many (see 10 Things Nobody Tells You About Bird Baths)—and no need to buy one. Even a stone with a hollow on top will do. Photograph by Kendra Wilson. Above: Believe it or not, this stone wall in an Ojai landscape by Terremoto is made entirely of free materials. “Stone walls are a common and appropriate building vernacular you see everywhere as you drive around,” they say. “In excavating the pool, we ended up with a large quantity of rock that we then put to good use in building the site walls.” See more in Garden Visit: ‘A Cute One in Ojai’ from Terremoto. Photograph by Caitlin Atkinson.

For more garden glimpses and summer tips, head over to Gardenista.