- Before I started, I didn't really know anything.

It's been an adventure.

Hi, I'm Jeffrey Harris and I live here in San Antonio with my partner, Kevin.

My partner inherited this house back in 2009, so it's been a work in progress.

What little was here was dying St. Augustine lawn.

And so that was the first thing to go because I knew that we, you know, had some severe droughts all the time.

There were a few trees in place, so I worked around those and it just went from there.

I worked as a social worker for many years and that work was pretty stressful.

So I needed a place to de-stress.

And I had been to a few gardens around the country and I always found them so tranquil and they really created this sense of peace for me.

And I thought, "You know what?

"I want that at my own house, "so I don't have to keep traveling "to all these different gardens."

And also we like to entertain.

We have, you know, a nice set of friends and I wanted them to have a place to enjoy when they came over.

And so I created pathways in kind of a circular motion that people could go from one point to another.

Well, when we moved in, the house had a patio slab, which was nice, but the summer heat just beat down on the house.

And we knew that we needed some form of shade right away.

So we put in the covered porch and it has really created a nice place to come out and sit.

And then we also have an outdoor dining table where we've hosted many barbecue parties and it's a nice place to eat and enjoy the evenings.

Starting from the covered porch, it kind of leads into what I call the subtropical garden.

The plants that are located in there lend a tropical feel.

And I also tried to create different levels and it doesn't take much 'cause this was a fairly flat piece of property.

There was a slight incline, but just create, using Windsor stones or some type of stone to build up a bed, even if it's only maybe, like, a foot, foot-and-a-half.

It really helps create, you know, that sense of different levels, some sense of excitement.

And as this was kind of close to the pool deck, I started thinking like, "I really want to create more "of a rounded form of garden "where there's plants in a circle rather than a line."

So I thought, "You know what?

"That would be a really great area to put some seeding."

And I've always been kind of against grass, you know, when we moved in here, what little grass was left, I just completely took out.

But this area really called for some grass 'cause it has a nice soft place to step onto if you get out of the pool.

And it kind of creates a place for the eye to rest with all the flowering trees and shrubs around it.

So as you're walking along the pathway through the tropical garden, it kind of segues into more of a Mediterranean look.

And one of the things that is really a focal point is a large iron gazebo.

What I've really learned is creating focal points in your garden is so important because it's somewhere, it draws your eye and then tucked right off to the side, in between the tropical garden and the Mediterranean, is what I call a little serenity garden or tranquil garden.

And you can go in there, sit down on a bench with a cushion and just kind of contemplate life.

And there's a bird fountain in there and a bird bath.

And then the pathway continues from there.

And so as you're moving through these different rooms, there's always something to catch your eye, whether it be a plant or a statue or a piece of yard art.

And then as you're moving from that, you step down from the Mediterranean gazebo, you move into what I call the seating area.

And it consists of four red Adirondack chairs with a large umbrella to provide shade.

And it's just a nice place to sit with your friends and have a conversation.

So what we've done is we've repurposed things from the house and also gone to thrift stores and found some things that fit nicely.

The house had security bars when Kevin's mother lived here.

Once we inherited the house, we took those bars off and we have repurposed those throughout the garden.

And I think it worked really well.

Kevin painted them all black.

So they're kind of a uniform color.

And what's so interesting is if you turn around and go back the other way, you see so many different other things and it gives a whole different feel to the same pathway that you just came from.

The pool, obviously, is a large focal point for the garden, but there was something missing at the end of the pool.

And so I thought, "What, you know, what could go there?"

I envisioned a large red cedar pavilion.

And so we had that put in and it just creates a sense of peacefulness.

And again, that sense of enclosure because it's surrounded by lattice and flowering vines, and then also some pieces of artwork that are also put on the walls of the pavilion.

And then you wind up on the pool deck, you're kind of seeking refuge from the heat at that point.

And so I had this area behind the shed that we had put in, but I had some forethought and I started thinking like, "Let's put doors on both sides of the shed."

That way, we could access the shed from what I now call the lower courtyard garden.

And it's kind of tucked away, you know, behind the shed.

And it's very shady and comforting.

There's a fountain.

I had a townhouse before and the owners that purchased it didn't want the metal bi-fold closet doors.

So I took them with me and I repurposed those as well by putting it along the fence.

So it really provides this sense of enclosure, it creates its own room.

And then I had a nice little backdrop of, like, an English garden.

Part of the garden is filled with colorful flowers, shrubs that give off scent, just a real sense of excitement that viewers like to come into.

But there's a time for a downtime, right, where one needs to relax, to get a sense of calm and peace.

And we certainly needed that.

And I think by creating the different rooms, that that is achieved.

So you can go from one room if you're looking for excitement and adventure, then if you're needing some downtime and wanting some time to relax, then there's another room that you can go to.

And that's nice to have both.