See how a Hollywood set decorator created magic in her Altadena garden

The front yard is alive with California and Australian natives, neat rows of edibles, pretty ornamentals and abundant wildlife.

In the front yard, Casey is growing eggplant and Swiss chard, red celery, heirloom tomatoes and peppers, bicolored corn, cucumbers and fennel.

The gardens circle the house, which is on nearly 3/4 of an acre, and add a softness to the clean lines of the cabin-like 1950 Midcentury home. “I just planted what I loved,” Peggy Casey says.

A view of Hillard’s workspace from Casey’s garden shed.

Lavender from the garden hangs to dry next to garden tools in Peggy Casey’s garden shed.

Erik Hillard and Peggy Casey in their Altadena garden. “She doesn’t have green thumbs,” Hillard says of his wife with a laugh. “She has green arms.”

The hummingbirds are abundant in Peggy Casey and Erik Hillard’s Altadena garden.

Separate work spaces — a garden shed for her and a small dwelling for home brewing and mountain bike maintenance for him — also entice the couple outdoors.

Casey installed a tub from the Czech Republic in her garden shed.

The couple assembled two sheds and a chicken coop off-site with recycled materials from the Habitat for Humanity store, and then had a crane drop them on the property fully assembled.

The grounds are jampacked with colorful plants and flowers of all shapes and sizes, including drought-tolerant grevilleas, traditional white David Austin roses, hardy succulents and tall Pride of Madeira to attract bees, butterflies and birds.

A detail of the drought-tolerant Australian native Grevillea ‘Peaches and Cream.’

Drought-tolerant scabiosa in Peggy Casey and Erik Hillard’s garden in Altadena.

Kangaroo paw, an Australian native.

The couple say that wildlife, such as this Western Scrub-Jay, multiplied after they installed a Bauer oil jar water fountain from Potted.

Leonotis leonurus, also known as lion’s tail.

Quail bush.

Peggy Casey and Erik Hillard’s front yard in Altadena.

The drought-resistant South African native Cotula, ‘Tiffindell Gold.’

Detail of a poppy.

A white African iris.

A detail of a drought-tolerant Tower of Jewels plant, which attracts bees, butterflies and birds.

A close-up of a vibrant hollyhock.

Begonia Bellfire.

A native California milkweed plant serves as a host for caterpillars of the monarch butterfly.

A David Austin English rose.

Trailing Mayflower plant.

Colorful stems of the drought-tolerant plant Pride of Madeira.

An agave plant.

Flowering succulents.

A red Bauer oil jar water fountain from Potted brings wildlife to the yard.

Lamb’s-ears, a hardy perennial.

Scabiosa can handle full sun in Altadena.

Grevillea filoba, an Australian native.

A bowl filled with Echeveria succulents rests on the back patio

Kniphofia, also called red hot poker, which is native to South Africa, attracts hummingbirds in the Altadena garden.

When Casey and husband Erik Hillard bought the 1950 Norwood & Delonge-designed home four years ago, the sprawling property consisted of lawn, ivy and 16-foot-tall hedges. Today, the backyard is a lush retreat composed of gardens and outdoor lounge areas complemented by a beehive, a chicken coop and an 8-by-10-foot chicken run.