Native plantings line this new Urbanite path leading to a custom stone patio with a recycled concrete bench. A new wood gate offers privacy and openness to the narrow but airy side garden.
The beautiful flowers of Chilopsis linearis Desert Willow add seasonal texture and paint summer color to a gray fence.
A small variegated form of reed grass, Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Overdam' flowers under the window sill of the kitchen. Ribes aureum and Ribes malvaceum are spreading as espaliers along the wall above Erigeron glaucus 'Cape Sebastian'.
A Myrica californica Pacific Wax Myrtle will quickly grow to screen the neighbors roof. (The Maple branches have since been pruned away from the new plant to give the space it will need)
Monardella villosa Coyote Mint grows with Ribes saguineum 'Claremont' in the morning sun along the new Urbanite path as Dymondia margaretae forms a mat to soften the edges of broken concrete.
The Urbanite path is ready for planting and the space is open for business.
Scraps of concrete salvaged after reconstruction to be water-jet-cut by Rustworks of San Carlos into this custom bench.
Pictured here ready for grout, a custom cut-stone patio will give the family a new experience to the front door. The path and grade leading up to the patio was lowered for a step up, slowing down the original axial passage through the space and framing the entrance to the house.
The stone ledger is mortared as a level coarse.
A baserock was compacted around the perimeter of the existing aggregate slab as the foundation for the new mortared cut stone ledger.
An Urbanite path takes on a permeable "flagstone look". This path will be planted with a drought tolerant groundcover to soften the edges and add living beauty to what was once a sidewalk. 
After the jackhammering, unused pieces are trucked to the Smart Station for recycling. The remaining slabs are then arranged and reset as the new path.
This grill area was reset tightly as a mortarless transition space. The new Urbanite path now flows more naturally to the families large existing mortared flagstone patio and private garden at the rear of the house.
After the jackhammering, unused pieces are trucked to the Smart Station for recycling. The remaining slabs are then arranged and reset as the new path.
The entrance area before pictured here, opposite the front door to the house which lies along the concrete path. The existing aggregate will be the foundation for the new mortared cut stone patio entrance.
...plenty of material to hammer out a new path.
The path before was an axial "runway" type sidewalk. The client wished for something more natural and sustainable. Another goal became to slow down both visual and physical movement through the space so one may enjoy the garden path and the clients beautiful existing landscape.
Hi Brian, we live in Oakland and are considering the same type of urbanite flagstone look for our backyard patio area. Currently, it is just dirt, weeds, grass, and mulch. We intend to excavate in order to place the reclaimed urbanite level to the surrounding concrete skirt around the perimeter of our house and garage. I am curious if you have any advice about the settling of the chunks of urbanite which are approx 3-4" thick. The idea is to do some dense patterns such as your path, as well as some sparse placements with low growing fescues or other drought-tolerant small plants and ground cover in between such as creeping thyme. The main concern is preventing uneven settling of the urbanite. I am very interested in any advice you have on this topic! Thanks, Amy
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