Landscape Design in Lakewood

Lakewood is one of the great planned suburbs in American history: roughly 17,150 tract houses rose on about 3,500 acres of former bean fields between 1950 and 1954, with crews finishing as many as 50 homes a day at the peak of construction. Seventy years on, those homes and their yards are due for a rethink. The original formula of a front lawn, a few foundation shrubs, and a parkway strip made sense in 1953. Today, a thoughtfully designed water-wise landscape can give the same tidy, welcoming street presence with a fraction of the water, and with far more color, texture, and habitat.

The climate is on your side

The climate is on your side. Lakewood sits on the Los Angeles coastal plain in USDA plant hardiness zone 10b, a region where Pacific Ocean weather dominates most of the year and winter lows seldom dip below 28 degrees. A few miles inland from the beach, Lakewood runs a step warmer and sunnier than the immediate coast, which suits the plants we love to design with: rosemary, lavender, olive, salvias, California natives, and the silvery, aromatic palette of Italy, Spain, and Greece. The growing season here runs essentially year round, so a well-planned garden can look composed in every month.

Two water suppliers, one approach

Water is a practical consideration in Lakewood because the city has two suppliers. Homes east of the San Gabriel River are served by Golden State Water Company, an investor-owned utility regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission, while the City of Lakewood’s own Water Resources Department serves the rest of the city. Whichever side of the river you live on, we design irrigation the same way: efficient drip zones matched to plant needs, hydrozoning so thirsty and thrifty plants are never on the same valve, and plantings that need less water every year as they establish.

Designing to midcentury bones

Design in Lakewood also means respecting the neighborhood’s character. The city’s midcentury bones are real and worth honoring, from the Mid-Century Modern May Company building at Lakewood Center to the Douglas Skynight jet that gives Del Valle Park its local nickname, Airplane Park. On a modest single-story tract home, we favor clean lines, warm materials, and structured plantings that read as intentional from the sidewalk. A front yard conversion here is not about ripping out a lawn and scattering gravel; it’s about composing a garden that looks like it always belonged.

What replaces the lawn

A tract lawn is the single biggest opportunity on a street like this. Taking it out is only half the job; what replaces it decides whether the garden is genuinely better. Soil that has spent decades under turf and fertilizer needs compost and mulch before it will hold water on its own, and planting chosen for this climate needs a fraction of what the lawn drank once it’s established. Add a shade tree and beds that take the driveway runoff, and a yard built for sprinklers becomes one that handles its own rain.

Root & Branch Landscapes offers landscape design, installation oversight with maintenance crew training, and consulting throughout Lakewood, from the streets around Mayfair Park to the neighborhoods ringing Lakewood Center. We’re a woman-owned studio based in nearby Long Beach, and we take a holistic, client-centered approach: your vision, your home’s architecture, and the realities of Southern California water shape every plan. If you’re ready to trade a thirsty lawn for a garden with genuine personality, we’d love to walk your yard with you.

Every Lakewood project is grounded in regenerative, water-wise practices, so your landscape stays lush and beautiful while using a fraction of the water a traditional lawn demands. We design, manage the build, and guide the crews who keep it thriving.