A Mediterranean Cutting & Vegetable Garden in Tiburon California

Interior designer Courtney Smith takes us through the gardens of her Santa Barbara-inspired hacienda in Tiburon, California — a property she and her husband transformed from an overgrown lot into a series of outdoor "destinations" designed to be used in every season.

The lower garden is her husband's domain, a gardener since Covid: raised vegetable beds of broccoli and carrots, plus new cutting boxes for the bouquets Courtney loves — geraniums that remind her of her grandmother, Sally Holmes roses trained to climb, and hydrangeas grown from her wedding flowers.

Working with landscape designer Daniel Ellis, they leaned into Mediterranean plantings suited to Marin's tricky microclimate, and repeated textures and roses across the property the same way they repeat patterns indoors.

Every zone earns its keep: a private back dining deck with a fireplace where they eat 90% of their meals from May to October, a spa just seven steps from the house (chosen over a pool for the cool Northern California evenings), a living-wall-backed outdoor kitchen born from an ugly fence, and a front firepit that seats up to 25 around a spectacular view of the bay.