Southern California style: Pebbles and paint

The impetus for the scene from Lynne Blackman's Del Mar garden (shown) was what she calls "beach murk." To combat overcast days that "suck all the color from the garden," she stripped away the vegetation growing against the wall, except for the bougainvillea vines. She painted the wall a bright acid yellow (Antebellum from Frazee Paint). Then she installed a serpentine ribbon of blue fescue, edged it with a mosaic of smooth stones, and painted the stones a plum red shade (Plummit from Frazee Paint), thinned down with water to make it more like a glaze.