The experience of water in its many forms is at play throughout this garden. On one side of this contemporary beach house is the ocean, where a seating area and a fire pit overlook the beach amid natural dunes.

Native plants—that can withstand the salt that blows in the wind—are adapted to stabilize the shifting sand. On the other side of the home, a private courtyard harbors a fountain of basalt columns—sculpted by the homeowner—and a reflecting pool, which the house seems to float above. In this serene, almost formal space, plants are used architecturally.

Black bamboo forms a leafy wall, tufts of black mondo grass grow in concentric circles and the gnarled trunks of myoporum trees are almost sculptures in themselves.