Landscaping Oak Park

This project is in Oak Park, California, a great little town right next to Thousand Oaks about thirty miles northwest of Los Angeles. The client interviewed several landscape contractors and decided that our company had the most helpful approach to what they were looking to achieve. They commented that we listened to their ideas before recommending a design.

Before and Afters

There were several challenges on this project. There were three separate neighbors involved with the fencing and the homeowner’s association had an opinion as well. The whole property had drainage issues and there was some evidence of first stage water damage to the house which needed to be addressed. The soil in this particular area has a large percentage of clay, which indicated a particularly thorough drainage handling since this type of soil does not allow water to drain naturally. The clay also requires additional amendment steps to be taken for the planting areas.

One corner of the back yard sloped away toward the neighbor’s property rendering it unusable unless it was addressed properly, an important point since the yard was not that large and all available space was needed.

The previous owner had not addressed any of these issues with the original landscape work (and obviously had not put much thought into the whole design as can be seen from the ‘before’ photograph).

The drainage was handled with a new pipe system that included about a dozen drain grates to carry the excess surface water away from the patio, lawn and garden areas. Additionally, an underground French drain was installed on three sides of the property to handle any water that moved underground and threatened to invade the foundation of the house (this is a perforated pipe system that allows the underground water to enter the pipe directly through a protective nylon cover that keeps debris out). Both systems now carry the water directly to the street.

The wall which adjoins the patio area was built at a comfortable seating level and capped with a Stepstone brand product which is easy to sit on and blends in perfectly with the colors of the texture stamped patio.

The patio is made of reinforced concrete (micro-fiber as well as steel reinforcing bar are used for maximum strength). It is texture stamped for a natural stone look and has several subtle earth-tone colors added on top at random as well as a base color which is mixed into the concrete itself. When dry, all the concrete surfaces were sealed to bring out the color and to protect the concrete from staining and water penetration. A non-skid additive is used with the sealer so it is not slippery when it gets wet.

Careful consideration was given to the color combinations of the wall surfaces, the wall caps, the fountain and the patio surface so they all blended together when it was done. This was doubly important since the client did not like reds or pinks and all the highlights had to blend without containing either of these (choosing concrete colors is not the same process as picking paint – there is only one chance to get it right and the charts are usually not very true to the actual colors achieved).

To wrap up the aesthetics of the job, a new fence was added to replace the old one, new plants and lawn were added and a fountain which accented all the light colors used in the masonry and concrete work. Of course outdoor brass lighting fixtures and a sprinkler system to keep all the living plants alive and happy were part of completing the project.

Bruce Larsen
Larsen Landscape
Simi Valley, CA

© LARSEN LANDSCAPE CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN INC