Grid

‘Elfin’ thyme turns this patio into a giant checkerboard. Growing in 4-inch-wide strips dividing poured-in-place concrete squares, it’s irrigated by a subsurface drip system and needs only the occasional light pruning. Sea thrift  keeps the grid from looking too controlled. (That blue “gravel” in the firepit is recycled glass.)

Design: Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture, Los Osos, CA (www.jgsdesigns.com)