Landscaping a Mediterranean Home

By Teresa Firelight

The Mediterranean theme turned out to be hard for me to landscape – harder than any other theme to date. I must have tried about a dozen different approaches before I found one that worked for me. Just about everything I put down in the yard got picked back up – it either did not look right for this theme or it did not look attractive to me.

I suspect I am not the only person who finds it a challenge to landscape the Mediterranean Homes. That is why I have decided to blog it – I hope that maybe my experience will give folks some ideas for their own places.

FRONT YARD:

The parcels are so large, and the homes are centered in the middle of them, so it was very much like decorating two separate yards with two different design considerations. The trick was to keep the front and the back compatible styles, but to deal with different challenges for both.

My front yard has a different fence and a substantially different view than the back. The fence was continuous with the only opening being the fancy entry way. The front fence was short, where you could easily see over it, but the sides scaled up to become quite tall. That is why I put tall cypress trees (or are they bushes??) along the sides. Then I put a mixture of desert and tropical plants along the corners and front of the fence (pictured below). I got the majority of these corner plants from .:TM Creation:., and I got the Cypress plants from Love.

The front yard grass was dried out and very spotty with a lot of bare ground. I must have tried at least 25 different types of plants (ground covers and flowers) to find one that looked nice on it. Most of the ones I tried looked extremely unnatural on that terrain. I even put down a prim and textured it to cover the bare spots and be a solid dried out grass. It matched perfectly thanks to the textures in the content creation pack, but the effect did not appeal to me. I mean, who wants a giant dried out lawn that looks like it is about to die?

I decided that I would make a large tile front patio and entrance way. As it turned out, the entryway from the street was centered on the property, but the front door was off to the right side. That meant I couldn't do symmetric walkways. After struggling with it for a bit, I decided to use something called “Asymmetric Symmetry” where things are balanced ... one walkway to right of the patio center, the other to the left of center.

I used potted plants to accentuate the concept. Each corner of the patio has 1 potted plant on it, but on the grass beside it, one corner has 4 potted flowers and the other has a single larger potted plant. I also intentionally used different pots for the front Cypress -- one bucket shaped and the other round. They complement each other and are placed symmetrically but they are not the same.

The patio and walkways are very simple to make. The patio is two prims at the same location… one is 95% hollow and is textured with the cement texture from the content creation pack. The other is solid and uses the broken tile texture. I used planar with 0.35x0.30 vertical and horizontal scales. The sidewalks are simple prims that are textured with the broken tile texture and the same scaling as the patio.

I used a simple trick to visually tie the front and back yards together. I made planters that are under both front windows and also under the back window. The planters use the cement texture and are filled with the same plants that I put in the corners of the front yard.

BACK YARD:

The back yard presented a different set of challenges to the front yard. It was mostly open with just a bit of fence in each of the two back corners. There was a view (a lake) behind the house, but the ground was raised up so high you couldn't see it unless you were near the edge of the property.

The first thing I did was to put a planter under the back window that was identical to the planters in front. That provided a continuity and ties the back yard to the front. (It is pictured below.)

I used the Primavera house, which comes with a curvy patio that spans the majority of the width of the house. It is a shape that would be difficult to build over with prims, although I suspect someone will eventually make a mesh patio cover for it. The problem with this patio is that the trim is tinted similar to the color of the house but doesn't actually match the house. Overall, the moles do outstanding builds, but I think this patio trim tinting was a serious mistake. The only color that looked tolerable to me was the white, which sort of matches the cement. Thus, I found myself forced to the white exterior walls. I choose a brown trim to go with it.

I wanted patio furniture that matched the color scheme of the house but made of wicker with big cushions. I chose Maya’s Bella Patio Set because it was pretty, and because I love her animations. It comes with several texture choices. I used the white wood and white umbrella and tinted them to match the house trim.

I did not like the potted palms that came with the Bella Patio set, so I substituted one from Dreamland Designs. I also tinted the wood on it to match the rest of the set.

Next, I had to tackle the biggest problem of the back yard. The property was raised up a few meters, and the lake was substantially below it. This meant I could not see the lake from the back yard unless I walked almost to the edge of the parcel. I wanted to be able to enjoy the view from my back yard. I discovered that if I built a platform about 3/4 of a meter above ground level, then I could see the lake. 

The hard part was figuring out what platform to build. I tried a few different designs, and they turned out to be too big for the house, looking out of proportion. Then I decided to make a long walkway with a raised patio. The proportions were fine, and I could see the scenic view -- but it did not make sense to have a second patio so close to the one built-in to the house. Then an idea occurred to me. I could build a little cement pond in the center. That way it became a walkway around the pond instead of being a second patio. 

The walkway seemed a bit plain, so I put a bench and some planters on the left and right sides. This made a sitting area around the pond. I used ones from the Newbrook Content Creation Pack for this.  It is pictured below.

That left a fair amount of bare ground to decorate, but I had the same problem as in the front – I did not like how any of my flowers and plants looked on it. So, I decided to go with the “Less is More” strategy. I lightly scattered a bit of HPMD wildgrass here and there over the terrain. The color Khaki3 seemed to work well with the landscape, so that is what I used. It gave a rugged natural look as opposed to a cultivated or manicured look, but that seemed OK with the Mediterranean terrain.

To Recap, I found this theme harder to landscape than the others. I struggled with it quite a bit before I came up with a design that I felt was adequate. That is why I shared my process and my final result – in hopes that it might help others who also find the Mediterranean theme challenging to landscape.

Comments

[Deborah]

Thank you for your article and the inspiration. This is beautiful!

[Ayesha Honey]

I live in Spain and so hope I get one of these new homes love them

[Dulcinea Andretti]

Another beautiful landscaping job, T. Brava! (I'm a big fan of 'Less is more' and asymetric symetry, myself.)

[Harmony Evergarden]

Thank you for this article. I just got a Mediterranean home and I am struggling, not gonna lie. I am inspired, now!