Because her house near the Southern California coast is set in a hillside, Leslie Mannes was short on outdoor space for get-togethers. The only possibility: a tiny, crumbling patio out back. Enter landscape designer Ryan Prange (fallingwaterslandscape.com), who revamped it into a stylish, surprisingly roomy-feeling refuge with some genius landscaping ideas. Prange hid part of a broken concrete retaining wall behind a wooden screen and the rest under a curtain of creeping fig (Ficus pumila) planted against the wall. He repaved and planted the patio floor, tucked a seating area into the corner, and added built-in benches and a gas firepit. “Now the patio is inviting,” Prange says, “and full of nice little surprises.”