Water sinking and fire defensive garden evolves with the seasons
First featured on the Native Plant Garden Tour in 2022, the Forbes Mountain Retreat opened again for the rainy-day 2024 tour. The Certified Wildlife Habitat provides an abundance of wildlife-friendly foliage, including rare chaparral native plants. Its hyper-local plant palette is responsible for its ever-evolving, ever-blooming, lush and leafy year-round aesthetic.
Beyond the beauty, the Retreat is a powerfully water positive property. It actively slows, spreads and sinks stormwater to refuel LA’s groundwater. The features that do so offer pollinators and birds safe spaces to hydrate. We hope you’ll find it as restorative as they do!
Sunset Magazine included the property in a rundown of fire defensive actions homeowners can take to improve wildfire safety. It’s lush, leafy aesthetic impressed.
Designing for fire defense doesn’t mean you can’t still have an enjoyable entertaining paradise.
Sunset Magazine, 2024
Project Snapshot
Beyond the beauty, the Retreat is a powerfully water positive property. It actively slows, spreads and sinks stormwater to refuel LA’s groundwater. The features that do so offer pollinators and birds safe spaces to hydrate. We hope you’ll find it as restorative as they do!
See the gardens dramatic seasonal changes in the full project gallery in Houzz, where you can save your favorite ideas.
Plant Palettes
Want to create a powerfully water-positive garden? Beautifully retain slopes? Check out the plant palette of the Forbes Mountain Retreat, and save your favorite slope-saving ideas in Pinterest. For Gordon Ownby’s tips on capturing spectacular wildlife photos, see our Client Insights section.
