The fearless use of color in this artistic pool garden in Arizona is really appealing to me.  It plays well to the environment, surrounding architecture and climate as well as being a fun and inviting space.

It feels to me like the home of an artist.  Artists seem to crave color and incorporate it into their spaces in an interesting and unexpected way.  I personally find the fake blue of some chlorinated pools highly unappealing and the antithesis of refreshing, but here it is part of the color scheme and I can look at the pool as a design element in a colorful environment rather than an unnatural chemical bath.

The fence treatment with the corten steel panels are also really drawing me in….only seeing the space from these pictures, I still have the desire to walk over to them, touch them and follow them around the corner to see where the fence leads and what it feels like to be surrounded by these interesting pieces.

This seems like a deeply personal space that can only be created by a designer who is partnered with  a homeowner who really got involved in the design and had a wonderful vision to add to the process.

Design by Sundrea Design Studio in Tuscon Arizona.

Perhaps you have already seen this awesome garden created by designer Olle Lundberg in Sonoma California?  It has made the internet rounds having first appeared on Apartment Therapy some time ago….but I find it so utterly inspiring, I simply must join on the bandwagon of re-posters and share it with you here.

Images: all from Lundberg Design, except Kim Komenich (Olle in pool)

I am preparing an article for Landscape Middle East about Natural Swimming Pools today (I am almost done — but as an epic procrastinator, instead of just finishing, here I am posting before and after shots of pools).

(does anything look natural and beautiful about this to you?)

Anyway, I am a Natural Swimming Pool/Pond convert.   Actually probably not so much a convert as merely a new champion, because I was never a fan of traditional pools in the first place.  I am not drawn to swimming in them. I think it is a slightly subconscious revolt against swimming in a chemical bath (makes me think of old batman and robin shows); I truly hate what it does to my skin and hair and I don’t find it all that refreshing.

Which, besides being better for your health and the environment is exactly why Natural Swimming Pools are gaining in popularity.   Natural Swimming pools replace chemicals and chlorine with plants and natural filtering systems so that you can enjoy fresh softer water, not spend so much time and money on sterilizing things, and generally feel much better about making an environmentally sound choice for this garden feature.

images from woodhouse.

The Heat!! The Heat!! — I melt just walking to the veg patch.  I can’t get my work boots on because I (stupidly) walked barefoot across my asphalt driveway and burnt the bottoms so badly that I even have a blister and two days and many Epsom salt baths later, they still ache.

I have been thinking about a better way to manage all the sorts of dirty but re-usable beach towels that end up draped across our cars so they can dry out.  Perhaps a garden feature of sorts?  But the heat also has me thinking that an outdoor shower would be lovely.  It is a place where the little people can shower off the beach sand.  Where I can wash my dirty gardening self before going inside and on a hot day, we can all cool down.

Images via Flickr, Dwell and Sunset, remodelista.

I have collected over 30 (31 to be precise) images of beautiful outdoor showers for our inspiration.  Each has something great ideas to borrow and re-create in your own garden.  (Click on the images above to see them bigger).  I wish mine were already in place — I think I am going to need it this weekend…I am finishing my cobblestone patio and starting on painting the house…and the heat is still on.  Are you working the garden this weekend? What are you creating?

By troymckaskle

I love what the Landscape Studio of Plano Texas did with these two different pool projects.  Each presented heartless and uninspiring spaces (if not also very dated) to start with but the after results are both bright vibrant moderns designs.

The addition of this eating area made a useless corner into an inviting place.  The Use of consistently colored plants and containers along with a relatively short list of different plant varieties keeps the whole thing cohesive and sharp looking.

My favorite though is this update.  The blue tiles on the pool are just heinous and fit has a serious lack of charm.  It looks so dry and sad, it makes me think of cattle on the prairie in a dried up mud puddle trying to keep cool.

But the after makes me feel cool without even getting wet.  I love how the design uses just purple (in big quantities) to unify the planting and the fresh green of the palms and the umbrella are very sophisticated.  Banishing the blue tile and red brick pool coping and changing the pool color also go along way towards a successful update don’t you think?

After viewing these pictures, I have a whole clutch of new obsessions. Stock Tank Pools, retro reused fireplaces outside,  rock pile gardens, bigBANG blog, and dune buggies.  Help me!  Joshua tree and the desert couldn’t be more different than where I cultivate, making my lust all the greater.

The inspiration here is endless, are you feeling it too?

for more of the same, check out the source – bigBANG blog.