Gardenista Considered Design Awards: 5 Winning Garden Spaces

If you’ve ever stood in your yard holding a hose like it’s a microphone and announced, “I now declare this… a garden,”
you already understand the spirit of the Gardenista Considered Design Awards. These awards don’t celebrate
the biggest budgets or the most dramatic before-and-after glow-ups. They celebrate considered choicesspaces that feel
intentional, livable, and (quietly) brilliant.

In the 2013 awards, Gardenista spotlighted five winners that still feel fresh today because the ideas are timeless:
open your home to the outdoors, design with restraint, solve real problems (privacy! circulation! maintenance!),
and let plants do the heavy emotional lifting.

What the Considered Design Awards Actually Celebrate

“Considered design” is a fancy way of saying: nothing is random. Every hardscape choice supports how people
move, gather, cook, lounge, or simply exist outside without tripping over a hose reel. Gardenista’s awards have been running
since 2013 and are known for welcoming everyonefrom design pros to renters with small spacesbecause great outdoor living is
more about decisions than square footage.

The winners below aren’t five versions of the same “perfect garden.” They’re five different answers to the same question:
How do we make outdoor space feel better to be in?

The 5 Winning Garden Spaces (2013) at a Glance

• Best Outdoor Room: A light-filled Irish cottage courtyard that turns “small” into “luxurious.”
• Best Architectural Garden Feature: A modern Connecticut home where landscape and structure share the spotlight.
• Best Indoor Garden: A Brooklyn plant-styling masterclassproof that “garden” can be a corner of your living room.
• Best Urban Garden: A Los Angeles front yard redo that makes a tiny lot feel composed, calm, and grown-up.
• Best Edible Garden: A Palo Alto garden that treats vegetables like design objects (in the best way).

Winner #1: Best Outdoor Room Wall Morris Interior Design’s Irish Cottage Courtyard

This winner is a reminder that an outdoor room doesn’t need a roof to feel like a room. In Blackrock (near Dublin),
designer Gail Wall Morris reworked a century-old workman’s cottage so the interior spaces open onto a courtyard that functions
like a shared “living room” for the entire house.

Why it won

• Every room connects to the courtyard. That single decision makes the home feel larger and brighter.
• Old materials, new purpose. Salvaged bricks preserve history while the layout feels modern.
• A “boundary ledge” trick. A designed ledge visually extends the interior floor line outdoors and doubles as planter space.
• Nighttime magic. Concealed lighting makes elements appear to floatlike your courtyard learned stagecraft.

Design moves you can steal

Want an outdoor room that feels intentional even if your “courtyard” is a patio plus optimism? Copy the logic:
define the perimeter, add a surface that’s comfortable underfoot, and create one strong “spine” element (a ledge, bench,
or planter edge) that holds the whole composition together.

• Use a ledge as a multitool: display, seating overflow, planter shelf, and visual “frame.”
• Keep the palette tight: two main materials + one accent is often enough.
• Pick furniture like you’re furnishing indoors: one table, repeatable chairs, and a focal point that invites people to stay.

Winner #2: Best Architectural Garden Feature Specht Harpman Architects in New Canaan, Connecticut

This winner flips the usual script. Instead of the house being the main event and the landscaping being “nice around it,”
the landscape becomes the experience. The home sits on a hilltop with old-growth trees and is designed to feel immersed in
the forestlike you’re living in a tree canopy, minus the squirrels holding neighborhood meetings on your roof.

Why it won

• Arrival is a narrative. A driveway winds through the woods before you reach a dramatic glass entry.
• Transparency on purpose. Floor-to-ceiling windows keep the surrounding trees visually present from almost everywhere.
• Outdoor rooms are built-in. Multiple seating zones, a fireplace, and pool areas support real entertaining.
• Contrast creates drama. A neatly groomed landscape sits right against the “wild” forestclean lines meeting chaos (politely).

Design moves you can steal

You don’t need a glass pavilion to borrow the principle: design the transitions. If your yard feels “meh,”
it’s often because everything happens at oncelawn, patio, plants, furnitureno sequencing.

• Create an arrival moment: a curved path, a gate, or a change in paving signals “you’re entering a place.”
• Frame views: use tall planting, trellises, or slatted screens to reveal the best parts gradually.
• Balance wild and tidy: keep one area clipped and structured, and let another area be looser and more natural.

Winner #3: Best Indoor Garden Liz Tan’s Brooklyn Plant Vignettes

Some people collect plants. Liz Tan curates them. Her winning indoor garden is about arrangement and careplants
staged in sunlit nooks, on windowsills, and even trained onto unexpected supports (yes, a mannequin becomes a trellis).
It’s a great example of how indoor gardening is part botany, part interior design, part “why is my pothos thriving while my
basil is having a dramatic personal crisis?”

Why it won

• Plants are grouped like décor, not clutter. Collections feel deliberate because they’re styled in “vignettes.”
• Space constraints become a feature. Odd-sized nooks become plant shelters (especially in winter).
• Care is built into the layout. Easy access makes watering and cleaning realisticso the system survives real life.

Design moves you can steal

Indoor gardens thrive when they’re treated like a tiny ecosystem with furniture. Match plants to light first, then worry about
style. And if you’re tempted to buy a plant because it’s “cute,” just remember: plants are living things, not throw pillows.
(Though they do both improve a room.)

• Create plant “stations”: one bright window nook, one shelf cluster, one trailing-vine zone.
• Use vertical supports: stakes, trellises, wall hooks, or a sturdy object that can act as a living sculpture.
• Be honest about maintenance: choose easy-care varieties if your schedule is chaos with a calendar app.

Winner #4: Best Urban Garden Alexandra Tasker Marx’s Los Angeles Front Yard

Urban gardens often have two big problems: not enough space and too much “stuff” competing for attention. This Los Angeles
bungalow garden shows how a small front yard can feel larger when it’s composed like a series of clean, confident choices.
The renovation relied on smart hardscape, restrained planting, and a calm layout that makes the yard feel welcoming rather than busy.

Why it won

• Pathing is clear. A walkway guides you from sidewalk to porch without awkward zigzags.
• Materials do the organizing. River stones, pavers, and a defined patio area create order.
• Privacy without fortress vibes. A low wall and planting strategy keep the space friendly but not exposed.
• Plants are chosen for structure. The greenery supports the architecture instead of fighting it.

Design moves you can steal

If your small yard feels smaller every time you add something, try subtracting first. A great urban garden often starts with
a simple question: Where do I walk, where do I sit, and what do I want to hide?

• Use fewer materials: repeating one paving type makes the space feel cohesive and larger.
• Plan for stormwater: consider permeable surfaces where possible to reduce runoff and puddling.
• Choose “architectural” plants: think strong silhouettes, repeat forms, and fewer fussy fillers.

Winner #5: Best Edible Garden BaDesign’s Modern Garden in Palo Alto

This edible garden is for people who want their kale to look as good as it tastes. Designed by Jennifer Ivanovich and Branden Adams
of BaDesign, the garden brings modern structure to a yard that already had fruit trees but needed order, privacy, and better flow.
The result is a cohesive space where edible plants and design details work together instead of competing.

Why it won

• Edibles are integrated, not hidden. Vegetables appear in planters and beds that feel intentional.
• Custom steel features create flexibility. Modular armatures support climbing crops and can be adjusted seasonally.
• Hardscape supports real use. A deck connects the kitchen to dining and grillingbecause nobody wants to carry plates through mud.
• Details carry the design. Corten steel elements, raised beds, and espaliered fruit make the garden feel curated.

Design moves you can steal

The secret to a beautiful edible garden isn’t rare heirloom seedsit’s structure. If you give edible plants a clear framework,
they look “designed” even when they’re doing their chaotic plant thing.

• Pick one organizing geometry: rows, grids, or repeated planters.
• Use vertical growing: trellises and supports reduce clutter and improve harvest access.
• Consider training fruit trees: espalier techniques can save space and make fruit easier to pick.
• Design for the off-season: beds and structures should still look good when they’re not full of tomatoes.

What These Winners Teach Us (Even If You’re Not Competing for an Award)

1) A garden is a system, not a pile of “nice things”

Each winner solves a real problem: how to connect indoors and outdoors, how to create privacy, how to make a small space feel calm,
how to grow food without turning the yard into a farm-themed obstacle course. The plants are beautiful, but the plan is the star.

2) Outdoor rooms are built with edges

A successful “room” outside usually has boundaries: a wall, hedge, raised planter, fencing, or even a furniture arrangement that makes
the space feel held together. The goal isn’t to shut the world outit’s to make the space feel purposeful.

3) Performance is part of beauty

Many modern garden decisions have hidden benefits: permeable paving can help reduce runoff; pollinator-friendly planting supports
biodiversity; drought-wise design reduces water demands. In other words, a garden can be pretty and responsiblelike a houseplant
that doesn’t punish you for taking a weekend trip.

How to Apply the “Considered” Approach in Your Own Space

Step 1: Sketch your “real life” needs

• Where do you enter and exit?
• Where do you want to sit?
• What do you want to screen: neighbors, garbage bins, HVAC units, that one awkward slope?

Step 2: Choose 2–3 materials and repeat them

Repetition is a cheat code for cohesion. Too many materials can make a small yard feel chaotic. A tight palette makes everything
look intentionaleven if you installed it while watching three tutorials and whispering, “Please work.”

Step 3: Use plants like architecture

• Structure: shrubs, small trees, repeated forms.
• Softness: grasses and perennials to blur edges.
• Seasonality: plants that change across the year so the garden stays interesting.

Step 4: Add one “signature move”

The winners all have a signature: a floating ledge, a glass entry moment, a styled indoor vignette, a composed front path,
a modular edible armature. Your signature could be a bench at the end of a path, a trellis, a water bowl, a sculptural planter,
or even a perfectly placed shade tree. One strong move beats ten scattered ones.

of Experience: What It Feels Like to Build a “Winning” Garden (Without Losing Your Mind)

Most people imagine garden design as a glamorous montage: you point at a spot, someone nods, and a week later you’re sipping iced tea
in a perfect outdoor room. In real life, the experience is more like: you stand outside with a tape measure, realize you’ve been
eyeballing distances wrong your entire life, and then spend 45 minutes debating whether gravel is “relaxed” or “messy.”

The first big “aha” usually happens when you stop shopping for objects and start designing for movement. The moment you mark a clear path
from the back door to the place you actually sit, the yard starts behaving. Suddenly, it’s obvious why the winners feel so calm:
they don’t make you wander in confusion like a Roomba that’s lost its map.

Next comes the edge workthe unglamorous hero of every great garden. A low wall, a raised planter, a bench with a back, a narrow strip of
hedge, even a line of pots that visually “holds” a patio. The experience here is weirdly satisfying because the space becomes legible.
You can feel where the room starts and ends, and your brain relaxes. That’s not just aesthetics; that’s environmental psychology doing
its thing.

Then there’s the plant reality check. If you’ve ever bought a plant because the label said “easy” and then watched it decline like it’s
auditioning for a tragedy, you’re not alone. The winners remind us that styling matters, but matching plants to conditions
matters more. The “experience upgrade” is learning to read your light: morning sun versus scorching afternoon exposure, reflected heat near
walls, wind tunnels at corners. When you place plants where they actually want to live, the garden stops feeling like an endless rescue
mission.

Edible gardens add another layer: they reward structure. The first time you put climbing crops on a trellis or train fruit along a support,
you feel like you’ve discovered a secret level in the game. Harvest becomes easier. The garden looks cleaner. And you get to say sentences
like, “I’m going to check on the espalier,” which makes you sound like a person who owns linen napkins. Even if you don’t. Yet.

Finally, the best part: the moment the garden starts giving back. Maybe it’s the first dinner outside that doesn’t require juggling plates
through a muddy bottleneck. Maybe it’s noticing pollinators showing up because you planted a few flowering herbs. Maybe it’s your indoor
plant corner becoming the place you automatically drift toward after a long day. That’s the real “award”: your space becomes a habit.
You use it. You enjoy it. You stop thinking of it as a project and start thinking of it as part of your life.

Conclusion: The Real Secret Behind “Winning” Garden Design

The five Gardenista Considered Design Awards winners aren’t just prettythey’re functional, intentional, and human-scaled.
They prove that great garden spaces come from a few strong decisions made with clarity: define rooms, design transitions,
repeat materials, and choose plants that behave well in your real conditions. Do that, and your garden won’t just look good
in photosit’ll feel good on a random Tuesday, which is honestly the highest honor of all.