How to landscape with pavers that are low on water, high on appeal

Agave, ice plant and palms are featured in a 2–acre garden in Brentwood designed by Nancy Goslee Power.

The backyard of this Santa Monica house is divided into four areas; a new garage at back left, an outdoor lounge, a dining room (not pictured) and pool. Garden designer Mimi Kahn installed a low-mow festuca rubra (creeping red fescue), at right, because the family wanted to avoid unnecessary watering and noisy lawn mowers. “It is a little clumpy and fun,” Kahn says of the grass. “You really only need to mow it a few times a year.”

“I always push my clients to get rid of their lawn if they are willing,” Mimi Kahn says. She also installed repeating plantings of Mexican sage, low-growing lavender, sagebrush, ceanothus, flax and the colorful Australian native Kangaroo Paw, pictured at left. “A lot of people don’t think of drought-tolerant landscapes as romantic,” Kahn says. “But these plants have flair.”

Annette Gutierrez transformed a long driveway by planting Alphonse Karr bamboo along the fence for privacy and cutting the concrete into strips - modern pavers that “have a rhythm” and are interplanted with the ground cover dymondia for texture and warmth. Tip: Gutierrez installed a grid of soaker hoses so the long rooted dymondia can be watered from underneath.

Filmmaker and KCET producer Juan Devis and artist Laura Purdy worked with architects Linda Taalman, Alan Koch and Rebecca Rudolph to update their 2,000-square-foot home, shown here from the back. Behind the house, the patio was extended to provide more outdoor living space, and wood rounds cut from a diseased eucalyptus tree were set in gravel.

Large pavers line the walkway that leads to the front door of the Costa Mesa home of designers Laura Haskell and Andrew Stoneman.

Laura Haskell, Laird Stoneman and Andrew Stoneman stand under a Japanese maple at the front of their 1960 house iin 2012. The couple created an elegantly spare courtyard in front of the 1,500 square-foot home using patterned cinder blocks. “I liked the motif,” Haskell says of the blocks, though she adds that there aren’t as many options as one might think.

Paul Bricault walks past a series of swivel doors that lead to the main patio area of his home in Venice. The massive doors pivot open, leading to a terrazzo ledge that floats above the tiny garden, where flowering shrubs and vines attract hummingbirds and other pollinators.

Homeowner Jan Brilliot, left, strolls through her Venice garden with the landscape designer Jay Griffith in 2004.

Elias Hernandez on the landscape maintenance team with FormLA Landscaping in Tujunga, sweeps rather than blow or sprays the drought-resistant garden they planted in 2010.

This Santa Monica garden, designed by Susanne Jett, is a study of unusual groupings of plants, textures, colors and sizes of plants from other parts of the world that share Southern California’s climate.

At a time when people are serious about responsible gardening, James Duell’s small-scale garden, essentially a path next to his rented back house in Culver City, is a reminder that you don’t need a lot of space or water to create a wonderful garden experience. The scale is small, but the effect is inspiring and surprising, given his unusual plant choices.

A house and guest house in Santa Monica are integrated by a powerful open landscape that includes a saltwater pool, a wood deck that serves as an arresting bridge between the two structures and the new outdoor dining terrace, which is topped with photovoltaic panels.

Shadows of plants are cast against square cement pavers in this Naomi Sanders design in Venice.

Peg Rahn’s pocket side yard garden composed of artificial turf and concrete pavers in a checkerboard pattern. The small garden replaced grass and is a positive drought tolerant step in cutting water usage.

Square cement pavers and a concrete fountain, that doubles as a bench, reside in the Naomi Sanders-designed garden in Venice. The landscape showcases low maintenance, drought tolerant design solutions with only a few plants: Mexican Feather Grass, Cape Red Lead Kangaroo Paw, Pygmy Palms and a Japanese Maple tree.

Instead of poured concrete, precast pavers set in sand line parts of the garden at Jay Griffith’s studio. “I like being able to change my mind, and this way, everything can be recycled later,” the designer said. Here and there, a paver is missing, and in its place you’ll see an aloe or a small agave.

This Mt. Washington garden was originally a carport. Stephanie Bartron cut the concrete slab to create the pavers grid, moved the strips of concrete, and stacked them to create the koi pond and bench.

Two large areas were cut out to create the planter beds, and the empty strips were planted with dymondia, a low-growing, heat-tolerant and un-thirsty ground cover.

Drought tolerant dymondia margaretae ground cover grows in between pavers.

An English garden composed of blue flowers is surrounded by a cut stone walkway.

Iris line a cut stone walkway in Holmby Hills.

Red clay tiles pave the floor in this courtyard in La Habra Heights.