Nestled in the center of the Santa Clara Valley and ringed with rolling hills, San Jose enjoys a pleasant Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and mild winters. The Bay brushes its northern border, while the Pacific Ocean lies just a short (and rather intimidating) drive over the adjacent Santa Cruz Mountains.

Whatever your landscape vision may be, Yardzen is ready to make it a reality, working with you to craft a landscape design that achieves the look, feel, and function you are dreaming of, then connecting you with a vetted contractor from Yardzen’s Pro Network to get your design built.

With a growth boom in full swing, San Jose’s landscape is evolving by the day.

New public spaces often favor a modern urban aesthetic, but San Jose’s residential landscapes continue to reflect the manifold tastes and backgrounds of the city’s diverse population.

Hybrid styles are becoming a new and exciting norm, merging hallmarks of the city’s modern landscapes - straight lines, minimal ornamentation, texture-forward plants and materials - with elements borrowed from landscape traditions from around the world.

The results are unique, beautiful, and deeply personal designs that honor cultural traditions while helping people get more from their outdoor spaces.

Opt for plants that thrive in San Jose’s Mediterranean climate.

As always, native species are a great place to start looking, as they tend to require the least care and will look at home within the regional landscape context (they also offer unbeatable habitat value). Ceanothus, Epilobium, and buckwheat are great options for color and drought tolerance, while toyon can provide shrubby structure.

If you’re looking for additional options, try plants from other Mediterranean biomes, including Australian, South African, and Italian species. Lavender, bay laurel, fruitless olives, Leucadendron, and the ever-popular Lomandra ‘Breeze’ grass are just a few examples of popular climate-adapted imports.

With steep real estate prices, San Jose landscape designs should seek to maximize function - if space is limited, you’ll want a design that makes the most of what you have. Designing for multi-functionality by minimizing barriers, utilizing adaptable paving and furnishings, and maximizing sight lines to amp up the perceived sense of space will all help to squeeze the most function and enjoyment from a tight space.

Faced with both a dry climate and an ongoing drought, water conservation should be a top priority when selecting plants. Go for low water species, favoring natives when possible. City ordinances already restrict lawn size, and for good reason: lawns require lots of water, are high maintenance, and offer little habitat value. Keep lawn size to a minimum.

Now! Any time of year is great to begin work on a landscape project.

Utilizing the winter to work through the design phase sets you up to get on contractors’ books early in the build season, so you can have your design installed and ready to enjoy in time for summer.

We are happy to work with clients to develop designs that meet their level of comfort around fire safety. Choosing fire-resistant plant species and following best practices for fire safe landscape design are options that our designers are happy to employ at a client’s request.

While design can help reduce your risk of fire damage, it’s important to note, there are no fire-proof plants, and maintenance is the most important determinant of a landscape’s fire safety.