10 Ways to Transform Your Outdoor Space

Highlighting transition areas with short pillars, gates, or a change in paving announces that one area of the garden is ending and another beginning. Here, pea gravel underfoot leads to an oval of decorative hardscape flanked by short stucco pillars as you leave the enclosure of the formal courtyard. Two semicircles of granite blocks split into wedges fan out in a sunrise pattern around a half-moon piece. In between, bands of smooth river rock are mortared into place. This decorative interplay of materials encourages you to pause, then step down onto a curved path that points the way to sights yet to be discovered.