STILLWATER
Set along the lagoon in Ponte Vedra Beach, Stillwater redefines a once-static backyard into a landscape organized by movement, geometry, and view.
Several years after completing a major home renovation, the homeowner found herself underwhelmed by a recently installed landscape that had not matured gracefully. Garden beds had thinned, the lawn demanded constant attention, and the yard offered little reason to move beyond the pool terrace. Despite expansive water views, the space felt disconnected from both the home and its setting.
The intention was to create a more immersive garden experience - one that would draw her outward, introduce layered texture and color, and selectively screen neighboring homes across the lagoon while preserving open sightlines.
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Residential
As featured in Homes & Gardens
Process:
Full Backyard Renovation
Partner:
Sutherlin Lawn and Landscape
Photography:
Polina Pigulevsky Photography
The composition begins at the kitchen, an important vantage point in the daily rhythm of the home. From this interior axis, the lawn was reorganized around a circular framework that subtly directs movement and establishes order across the yard. A custom cantilevered pergola rises from this geometry, reinforcing the curvature below while acting as a vertical counterpoint to the horizontal expanse of water.
Existing planting was edited for clarity and longevity. A seasonal chaste tree gave way to a sculptural olive whose silvery foliage harmonizes with the coastal palette and introduces a quieter refinement. Additional olives and ligustrum provide layered screening without closing the view, allowing privacy and openness to coexist.
Circulation was treated as a deliberate gesture rather than an afterthought. A nod to the homeowner’s more modern adventurous aesthetic, an unexpected geometric path inlaid with Mexican beach pebble bisects the lawn and extends toward the dock, its texture and pattern grounding the garden in material contrast. A secondary shell path offers a softer route to the north side yard, balancing the strength of the central axis.
Planting introduces movement and repetition through native dune daisy, silver saw palmetto, agave, cardboard palm, and hand-selected coquina boulders that punctuate the composition with mass and rhythm. The lawn itself was recalibrated for durability while retaining enough open ground for the homeowner’s dog.
A beloved cowgirl sculpture, relocated from the family’s Ohio home, now rests within agapanthus and foxtail fern - both personal artifact and focal point within the larger composition.
Stillwater feels layered yet resolved, structured without rigidity and expressive without excess. It restores invitation and rhythm to the water’s edge while remaining grounded in restraint.
