Our friends Swati and Tarak have a beautiful home with an amazing Italian inspired hillside garden right here in the South Bay. This graceful terraced back yard is a wonderful representation of how you can transform a steep hill into a lovely lush green landscape filled with flowers, greenery, trees, and a fruit orchard.

I love meandering in Swati and Tarak’s garden. I love the beautiful trees and lush vegetation here. It’s always shady and full of little surprises. Swati and Tarak’s garden is divided into 5 levels, with each terraced area elegantly planted with Mediterranean style flowers and bushes.

The first level in this garden is the patio deck. From here steps lead down to the cobblestoned hillside garden below.

The second level has a lovely brick patio featuring sweet smelling lavender and roses.  There is also a covered sauna here that has a portico covered with gorgeous blue flowers of wisteria in the spring.

Aged terracotta urns strategically placed at the transition of every level give the steps leading down a lovely artistic affect.

Last summer I gave them a few tips on what to plant in these gorgeous urns.  Swati shared some photos of how these pots have been transformed into lush flowering urns overflowing with vibrant color. Filled with bright geraniums, azaleas, bougainvillea, roses, and trailing verbena, these urns now provide a splash of color to this shady landscape.

Swati and Tarak’s garden has so many lovely trees that even in the heat of summer these trees provide cool shade for the bushes and vegetation here, shade that makes it a haven for flowering plants.

Trees in this hillside garden are in a variety of textures, shapes, and colors that all work harmoniously together in this beautiful backyard.

The third and fourth levels down this garden feature a beautiful spring cherry blossom tree, maple trees, and Italian style olive trees.

A grassy area at the 4th level slopes down towards fragrant yellow roses that provide a colorful border with views of the hills beyond.

Rambling roses bloom at all levels in this hillside garden.

The lush green backdrop of trees and evergreen bushes create a tapestry for daylilies, clematis, rosemary, and roses. These plant gems provide delicate splashes of color to this shady green textural garden.

The last set of steps leading down this garden ends in an abundant fruit orchard.

Over 15, maybe even 20 fruit trees were planted by the previous owners and have grown over the years into mature fruit bearing trees that have completely taken over this steep hill that slopes down towards the edge of Swati and Tarak’s property.

All summer and fall fruit trees imaginable are here in their fruit orchard. Apricot trees, white nectarines, yellow nectarines, yellow peaches, white peaches, plums, multiple varieties of apple trees, cherry trees, lemon tree, orange tree, and even table grapes can be found in this fruit orchard.

Swati and Tarak have enough fruits in the summer to open not just one, but multiple fruit stands at the farmers market.  Every summer they distribute their fruit to friends and family, and many times Swati will invite us to stop by to pick the fruit ourselves, which is always a fun experience.

The squirrels seem to be the big fruit orchard villains here in their garden. Funny stories I’ve heard from Swati and Tarak about the squirrels and birds that seem to finish off the cherry tree leaving no fruit for the family.

Tarak told us a story of this one specific apricot tree of which they have yet to eat a fruit from.  He talked about this apricot tree that was covered in hundreds of apricots all ripe and ready to be picked. Tarak said he waited one more day to pick the fruit but by the time he got to them the next day, all the fruit were cleaned out completely. He said not a single apricot was left on the tree! He doesn’t know why, but that is the one tree the squirrels seem to clean the fruit off, every year. He has yet to taste an apricot from that tree in all these years.

I love the beautiful trees and lush vegetation in this garden. It’s always shady and cool, and an added bonus is that at any time of the year there is always some fruit ready for picking and for our enjoyment 😋😀.

Swati and Tarak’s garden is one Italian inspired landscape you don’t have to visit Italy for 😊.