Side yards can be narrow and canyonlike. This one, in a coastal San Diego housing development, is no exception. Yet Del Mar landscape designer Linda Chisari and the homeowner, architect Stephen Arnold Brown, were able to create an inviting garden with an ambience that suits the home's Italianate style.

The 13-foot-wide space includes a walkway that connects the home's front and back yards. A vine-covered pergola hides the side yard from the street and serves as a backdrop for a two-tiered fountain surrounded by 'Gourmet Popcorn' miniature shrub roses. Indian hawthorn shrubs, pruned and trained to resemble small trees, line the path leading to the pergola; beneath them, false heather hugs the pathway, forming soft mounds covered with tiny pink blooms. A row of narrow, upright yew pines along the fence extends the garden upward and screens the house next door.

Concrete strips flanking the walkway hold its decomposed granite in place and emphasize the garden's linear geometry.

DESIGN: Linda Chisari Landscape Designer (858/481-7888)