early spring cheer

A few early spring pots captured on one of our recent glorious sunny days.  The containers used were the clients and while I typically do not gravitate to blue pottery, the turquoise was a great foil for the creamy yellow colors of spring.  Hellebore, primula, acorus and calluna combine for a fresh display with a few bright orange willow twigs from my garden for a vertical accent.  Spring is just around the corner…

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lights, camera

When next evaluating your garden in the crisp morning sun or warm evening glow, consider whether there is an opportunity for backlighting.  The best lighting effects typically occur with either the early or late sun. When the rays hit a lower level they can light up any translucent plant from behind creating a gorgeous halo.  In northern latitudes, the low winter sun can provide backlighting for a good portion of the day.  Full sun is not always required for backlighting, filtered sun can also create a wonderful effect.  If you study the space, with filtered light you can strategically place a plant to be the only one lit.

Once you determine whether you have the light, then set the stage with plants that will show off.  Hands down, the best plants for backlighting are ornamental grasses.  From blade to feather – they simply glow.  Throw in a breeze and you have performance art.  Beyond grasses, just about anything translucent will light up.  Red leaved Acers and other similarly hued trees such as Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ and Cotinus coggygria ‘Grace’ create a particularly stunning effect with several warm shades defining the canopy.  Even some of the small chocolate colored Phormium like ‘Jack Spratt’ look fabulous when back lit.  Bulbs such as tulips look lit from within.

When designing a garden, I always look for an opportunity to backlight plants.  Its one of the many ways to make a space magical.

Acer palmatum ‘Fireglow’ is well named

Sesleria autumnalis lights up while Phormium ‘Jack Spratt’ steals the show

Filtered late afternoon sun creates a spotlight with the nearly white Miscanthus sinensis ‘Variegatus’

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simplifying the garden

Winter is here and my landscaping business is in its usual mid-season slumber.  While I design all year long, typically early December through mid-February I take a hiatus from garden installations for three reasons:  inclement weather, high soil saturation and low plant availability.  I think its the right thing to do for client gardens even though it means a crazier spring for me.  Scheduling issues aside, I have grown fond of winter’s lull that allows me to eat dinner with Adam every night (instead of with my computer), get into a reliable workout schedule and most of all – ponder my own garden.  This year I have a new garden to develop and my approach is already shaping up to be quite different from our last garden.   One major difference is I am not starting from scratch here.   We built our last house and the garden was carved out of a cedar and alder forest situated in a ravine.  Adam and I did most of the heavy lifting including felling trees, hauling soil, compost, gravel & rock, not to mention the masses of plants & trees that went in.  I am glad this type of work is behind us – the difference between ages 31 and 41 in your joints is nothing to sniff at.  The other factor is how I have changed.  Nearly 10 years of designing gardens under my belt, I am much more restrained in both how I approach developing a garden and how I select plants.  In the early days, I was driven by a mad plant lust and wanted to try just about anything and everything.  Things failed, but many succeeded and I learned from those failures and successes.  In my new garden, I am blessed with good structure and I plan to build on this using a limited plant palette of known performers hand selected for the garden’s precise cultural conditions.  I have also developed patience.  I used to feel that the state of my garden was a reflection of my design expertise, and as such it must always be perfect.  These days, I’m comfortable sitting back and observing the garden through the seasons before I start in on major changes even if it means areas will look less than ideal for a while.  I want to be sure I understand each choice made by the prior owners as they made thoughtful decisions.  For instance, I am fortunate that they preserved some mature gems from the original garden (house was a 1920s rebuild & expansion).  However, changes do need to be made and finally getting to my point – many of these are driven by the need to simplify care of the garden.

I enjoy pottering in the garden, but by no means do I want a garden to own me.  I also have a high standard for how the garden should look.  Marrying these two requires good design.  My mantra – the garden design works so I don’t have to.  Obviously this is an exaggeration.  Every garden requires a measure of work, but the goal is to reduce maintenance anywhere I can – particularly tasks that are repetitively tedious.  For instance weeding with no hope of prevailing – like crab grass in between path stones that were laid directly on unprepped soil.  This new garden came stocked with just about every local weed, and some in spades.  In the beds, I have mounted a relentless assault over the past 5 months through repeated deep weedings.  Luckily the soil is well amended and loose so getting the weeds out is fairly easy.  There are just so many of them including the ultra wicked crabgrass.  The next step in this war is a very thick layer of compost that will go on the beds in early March.  I will probably throw in an organic pre-emergent like corn meal.  While it will take dedication over several years to control weeds in the beds, I can already see results.  On the other hand, the stone path is hopeless.  No matter how much I weed, I will never get all the little crabgrass root pieces out from underneath the stones without taking the path apart.  At that point, the best choice would be to replace it with something lower maintenance like clean gravel that can be lined with weedcloth – which is the plan for spring.    This change will allow me to focus on things that I can improve instead of a battle I’ll never win.

There are other examples of areas that need modification to reduce maintenance.  Salvaged concrete was used for a patio in the interior courtyard (see below).  I like the idea, the concrete is from a driveway that was removed during the house rebuild.  The downside: pea gravel in between the slabs migrates all over the place and weeds & plants have gone bananas in these joints…so another constant maintenance issue.  If I loved the design, I’d find a way to make it work (like sending Adam out with the flamer)…but I don’t.  The patio stops abruptly just past the french doors and feels out of scale with the space.  Its too small to hold furniture.  The grade sits too high, only 1/2″ below the siding, inviting all manner of pests into the structure.   The broken concrete with weeds growing in between does kind of scream abandoned.  In another area, I’d be fine with this – I love a deconstructed wild feeling in the right place.  However in an interior courtyard that should function like another room in the house (and in this house – tie the old and new wings together), it needs a different feel.  I want the space to be functional, echo the interior design and I’d like to disguise the narrowness of the space with a more uniform floor & uneven patio edge.  I’d also like to use the concrete pieces.   With that in mind, the planned redesign includes using the concrete pieces as a border around a larger patio that has a curved edge.  The new patio floor will be a 3/8″ clean crushed gravel in a soft peach hue.  The largest pieces of concrete will be set as landings in the gravel at the two sets of french doors and as stepping stones through a bed from the patio to a nearby path.    To soften the hardscape, Nassella tenuissima and annual succulents such as echeveria will be planted directly in the patio (cutting small openings in the weedcloth) with the gravel serving as a mulch.  Existing plantings in the adjacent beds will be replaced with plants that perform year round since the courtyard is viewed from nearly every room in the house.  We already have Italian piazza string lights to hang above the area and are planning a large farm table as the center piece.  The space needs enclosure on one end, and we want to experiment with tall panels of Cor-ten steel that will age to a rich rust color.  While this design is more complicated than the existing treatment, it will be less work since a much larger area will be covered in low maintenance permeable hardscape that will be lined with weedcloth.  A few before shots of the courtyard and one hastily thrown together mock up of what it may look like…(table courtesy of West Elm).

salvaged concrete slabs

note the crispy Acer…already changing color in August…too hot for it in this spot…

mock up

These are the plans for the future – much work has already been done to simplify plant care.   We arrived on the heels of summer, so initial work in the garden was plant removal.  A few problem plants were dealt with immediately like local thugs Hypericum and Euphorbia ‘Fen’s Ruby’.   Water seeking and thus potentially invasive plants were removed from the base of the Glendon septic mounds.  An Acer Plamatum ‘Bloodgood’ planted about 1′ from the house was removed before it became a problem and given away as there is no spot for a tree of this size on the property. As soon as the weather cooled and rains returned, plants were shuffled around.   First up, dealing with right plant, wrong place.  A delicate Acer palmatum dissectum that burned in the August sun and required constant hand watering was removed from the center of the hot courtyard and placed on the northside of the house where its dark foliage will contrast against the light siding.  An unhappy floppy mass of Nassella tenuissima was pulled out of a shady spot and placed in the sun.  A few things out of scale here and there were removed or shuffled, and some things were regrouped in masses.  Drainage issues were addressed and my usual river rock border along the house was started.  The Glendon mound septic system (if you are not familiar – looks like burial mounds) is fortunately tucked in the back garden.  To protect the sandy mounds against erosion and soften their unnatural forms, masses of drought tolerant grasses and perennials adapted to sandy soils such as Nassella tenuissima, Nepeta, Bouteloua gracilis, Sesleria, Achillea, Sedum and Fragaria (beach strawberry) were massed on & around the mounds to create a “controlled” meadow (e.g. a meadow look without the using the weedy seed packets).   This area will require constant weeding as we cannot use compost on the mounds and they have been infiltrated with several weeds including horsetail.

This got really long but hopefully not too boring!  More to come as we keep moving forward…

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spring furnishings

High end outdoor furniture companies offer us sublime works of art, yet each piece can be more than our monthly wages. For those of us on a more earthly budget, I have been impressed with the line up in recent years from some of the classic “catalog companies” such as Crate and Barrel, West Elm and Restoration Hardware.  I still think of these retailers as catalog companies because I live on and island and getting inside one of these stores is a production that involves cars, ferries and half of a day. I’ve also found that seeing a broad range of their lines in the stores is rare.  Luckily, their online resources are extensive. I’m a fan of natural meets industrial & modern, and these retailers all have a take on this look.

Outdoor furniture should not only look good, but it should feel good.  Outdoor time is for relaxation and it defeats this purpose if your furniture is uncomfortable.  Also consider the scale of the space that you are furnishing and select pieces that are in step.  Finally, consider your climate.  Sometimes its best to store furniture away during the off season (I do), but if you live in a year round bonny clime, you can keep your exterior furnished year round too.  Keep in mind that relentless sun exposure or morning dew in a coastal climate can wreak havoc on furniture just as much as a rainy climate.   Make sure your cushions are weather and UV resistant, I tend to favor Sunbrella.

Promotions are on right now as we gear up for summer, so if you are in the market for an outdoor furniture refresh, take a look at a few 2012 favorites I’ve hand picked…

West Elm

West Elm is part of the Williams-Sonoma conglomerate and has always been more my cup o’ tea than their other retailers.  Their offerings are current, have clean lines and definitely appease my natural meets industrial bent.

Montauk Nest Chair. Photo courtesy of West Elm.

Textured Stone Planters. Photo courtesy of West Elm.

Verone Rustic Planter. Photo courtesy of West Elm.

Jardine Dining Collection. Photo courtesy of West Elm.

Crate and Barrel

To me, Crate and Barrel has always symbolized affordable design, and their outdoor furnishings follow suit.  Clean lines, colors and shapes, with a dash of natural.  They are a go to choice for me for interior and exterior.

Reef Lounge Set. Photo courtesy of Crate and Barrel.

Alfresco Natural Dining Set. Photo courtesy of Crate and Barrel.

Cadence Lantern. Photo courtesy of Crate and Barrel.

Marimekko for the outdoors. Photo courtesy of Crate and Barrel.

Restoration Hardware

Restoration’s outdoor line has really expanded over the past decade – they have a wide selection of styles and the detailing is clearly top notch.  Their online tools are exceptional and they offer many fabrics to choose from.  This all comes with a higher price tag, but if it fits in your budget, be sure to take a look.

Ibiza Lounge Chair. Photo courtesy of Restoration Hardware.

Belgian Slope Arm/Provence Beam Table. Photo courtesy of Restoration Hardware.

A great selection of Sunbrella colors in solids. Photo courtesy of Restoration Hardware.

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if you build it, they will come

I recently commented to Adam that I’d love a frog pond.  The evening chorus is what I am after…it tickles me.  A few days after sharing my secret wish, a lone croak appeared in the garden late one night. I investigated, and found this little guy raising a ruckus all on his own.  He is well camouflaged – look at the center of the photo:

He has taken up residence in my little pot o’ pond.  What is this, you ask?  Man made ponds can be beautiful when done right, but they also can be high maintenance and prone to leaks.  I keep my water features pint sized and in a pot.  With some creative engineering, you can wire the pot for a dripper or bubbler that will create soothing sounds and help to keep the mosquitoes down by moving the water.  Throw in some water plants and a few floating lettuce and voila – a pond in a pot.  I’ve created many glazed pot water features and have also ventured into galvanized metal stock tanks which work well in the right setting.  Typically I prefer a low & wide pot that is glazed both inside and out.  If the pot’s interior is unglazed, it can be better sealed by painting on a thin silicone coating.  If you want to get fancy, you can hard wire the pump to a switch that is controlled via a remote.  Impress your friends.

A few of the water features I’ve created:

Dragonfly dripper with black taro and dwarf papyrus

Bubbler is a copper pipe snugged just below the lip so you only see the water...

Stainless steel dripper in a galvanized stock tank

Still pond in a pot in the backdrop (the frog's home)

Not long after Frog A took up residence, I was heading outside for my evening slug hunt (no further details – I want you to still like me). I opened the front door to find another small green frog on the doorstep.   Since our resident frog has been calling out for a mate every night, I guessed that perhaps this was his Cinderella.  Since she (I am making some storyline assumptions here) was headed the wrong way and at risk underfoot, I moved her closer to her frog prince.  Maybe we will get some tadpoles.

The sun was out today, as was our resident frog who took to sunning himself on his private pond edge.  I think he is living the high life.

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8 months on…

Designing & installing a garden is a birth of sorts.  I just returned from Los Angeles and wrapping up phase 3 of my parents’ gardens.  This time we tackled the final frontier:  the beds on either side of the driveway and a small side courtyard.  Near the driveway, we wanted a drought tolerant, easy-care and minimalist plant palette that still maintained a natural feel.  We first set boulders and sited a large specimen fruitless olive (Olea europaea ‘Fruitless’). Powder blue agave (Agave ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’) provide a repeated sculptural form.  The agave are interplanted with soft masses of the work horse ornamental grass for the coastal west – Sesleria autumnalis.  Accents of the restio Chondropetalum elephantinum provide vertical interest and movement.  A few nearly black Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’ and soft yellow Yucca ‘Bright Star’ spice up the color while CA native Verbena lilacina ‘De La Mina’ creates a natural looking backdrop with a long bloom season.  Masses of Senecio mandraliscae edge the drive.  All plants are drought tolerant in this maritime climate.  Looks a bit anemic in the below photo – but those plants need space!  As things fill in, ground covers can be added to take up the slack, though this planting will be quite dense over time.

Now on to the more mature stuff.  I was very pleased to see the completed gardens (phase 1 & 2) filling in and looking lovely.  See my prior entry for more on the design and installation of these gardens – Keeping it in the Family.  The meadow garden heads into year 3 this summer while the entrance courtyard is at about 8 months.  Still plenty o’ room for things to stretch their legs, which is important if you don’t want to be making heartbreaking decisions a few years down the road (first year it sleeps, second year it creeps, third year it leaps).  If any of these plants look enticing – keep in mind that much of this would not survive a frost.  Their typical winter lows do not dip much below 40 as they are near the ocean (Sunset Zone 24).

Just a few photos to share now – can’t wait to see it grow up!

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keeping it in the family

My parents live in a natural beauty oasis tucked in the urban metropolis of Los Angeles.  Located on the coast and blessed with ample open space, Palos Verdes offers rolling hills, acres of trails and rugged cliffs.  Despite the cooler temperatures and maritime fog, it is arid like the rest of Southern California.  The native landscape is predominantly coastal scrub, a beautiful tapestry of soft greens, yellows and browns.  In spring the hills green up for a bit, then turn gold.  I always appreciate seeing the dry, sunny hills after winter in Seattle.

Given the climate, I’m frequently surprised by the landscaping.  We read about political battles for water rights in the agricultural Central Valley, yet many LA locals still seem to be in denial about their arid climate.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen and read about several inspiring native and dry gardens there.  Yet, expansive emerald green lawns and thirsty plants still frame many of the houses.  When my mom decided to buck this trend and become more drought tolerant, I was more than happy to sign on to the project.

First – a little background on my parents and their garden.  The property is 3/4 of an acre and borders a canyon of protected open space.  It sits high up above the Pacific with an expansive view of the Santa Monica Bay, Malibu and West Los Angeles.  My parents are English, so it follows that my mom has been a life long gardener.  Not a sit around, drink tea and talk about roses gardener, but a dirt under the nails spend all afternoon weeding gardener like me.  When my family moved from Seattle to Palos Verdes in the early 80s, our new garden pretty much consisted of “meat ball” shrubs and lawn.  My mom systematically removed most of the grass and offending shrubs over time – in small enough pieces that it was gone before my dad realized there was a campaign against it.   The lawn was replaced with an English garden.  Billowy perennials, roses and arbors created a small replica of the home she left many years ago.  The CA heat proved much kinder to the roses than Seattle’s soggy springs.  While they were thirsty and high maintenance (and sometimes downright mean), roses were the backbone of the garden and my mom adored them.

The change began in the back garden.  At this point, none of us knew how far it would go.  It all started with my mom’s trip to visit me and attend the NW Flower and Garden Show in February 2010.  After hearing John Greenlee speak about the evils of lawn, my mom headed home with a mission to tear out the last bit of lawn and create a drought tolerant, bird and pollinator friendly garden on the canyon side of her property.  I volunteered to design it.  In place of the lawn, I designed a stone and decomposed granite path that winds around the space and offers areas to pause.  The center island bed became an ebullient naturalistic planting.  My mom finished the surrounding beds using many of the same plants and a few new goodies like native Coyote Brush - Baccharis pilulari and the native Verbena lilacina ‘De la Mina’ at the canyon edge.  For more details, see the posts “dry garden” and “dry garden part deux”.

Just as we finished planting this area, there was talk of completely redoing the front pool gardens where most of the roses resided.  My parents were looking at significant hardscape work – removing the concrete and replacing it with stone.  It was time, the aging concrete had its issues and the pool was due for a resurfacing.  Despite this, I was skeptical – it seemed like a huge upheaval.  I was even more skeptical that my mom would be able to part with the roses.  I was wrong.  Over the winter, the plans solidified and they decided to go for it.  My mom pulled out nearly 30 roses before they had a chance to bloom – so she would not change her mind once she saw the flowers.  Despite protests from her friends, she forged ahead and stuck to her guns.  The best roses were gifted to friends and drought tolerant plants were salvaged.  Only two plants remained in place.  A loropetalum that we arborized and a camellia original to the garden when we moved there nearly 30 years ago.  In the 11th hour before planting, my dad confessed an attachment to it so it stayed.   Once the garden was cleared, I put together some mock ups.   I flew down and we interviewed stone masons.  While there, I sprayed out the hardscape lines adding new connecting paths and a little extra room to the pool deck.  My parents wanted to keep the footprint pretty much the same, so no radical changes to the layout occurred.  In the end, they were able to mortar the stone over the top of the concrete, which kept the concrete waste out of the landfill.  Seven weeks of dusty work later they had gorgeous stone floors around a salt water pool with a Pebblecrete finish.

Then came the plants.  The timing was perfect as I was just slowing down from my busiest season ever.  I relied solely on photographs, a site plan and Photoshop to develop my planting plan.  The planting palette was chosen to echo the other garden with the difference being more structure.  The back garden was designed to be naturalistic. Since the pool gardens frame the entrance, I wanted to show a bit more restraint in this area.  All plants were chosen for drought tolerance in the site’s maritime climate (Sunset Zone 24).  Knowing more about how Nassella tenuissima (Mexican feather grass) is naturalizing in California’s wild areas, I opted instead for the sterile Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’ for soft movement.  I’ve never used this grass so I’m curious to see it mature (thank you Sunset for featuring this grass as an alternate to Mexican feather grass in a blog post).  The color palette echoed the back gardens with hues of chocolate, apricot, wine, silver blue and deep violet.  As always, foliage color, form and texture were favored over flower color.

We discussed irrigation in depth and they agreed to try Netafim drip irrigation.   While the goal would eventually be minimal supplemental water, the plants needed support to become established.  I was thrilled as I knew drip would use much less water and be a better choice for the drought tolerant plants than sprinklers. The soil was prepped by first loosening the compaction that occurred during the hardscape construction.  I then added an ample base of sandy loam and a top dressing of compost after planting. We needed a good drainage layer above the native black clay to keep the drought tolerant plants happy during the brief, but sometimes heavy, rainy season.  Irrigation lines were buried under a thin layer of the sandy loam before mulching to improve moisture retention.

We made a road trip out to Asian Ceramics in Duarte (it was very hot!) and found some gorgeous Vietnamese rustic pots for the final touch.

Below are detail shots and a few before and after photos.  The before shots were taken in December and after my mom knew the garden was going to be renovated…so not a depiction at its prime.  In the afters, the plants are young and I leave ample space for growth, thus the bare ground.  Over time, the plantings are designed to soften the hardscape edges and will, of course, fill in as layered heights.  In the next six months,  I will head back down to finish a few smaller areas and will take more photos at that time.

Detail shots:

Before and after from the same angles.  In the last after, note the house exterior is still in progress with repainting, replacement of front door and exterior lighting.

During all this, we had an ongoing discussion about house color.   A few years ago, I encouraged my mom to be thinking of using softer, earthy colors instead of the standard white that so many of the Spanish style homes down there have.  For one thing, my parents have a solid mid-century ranch.  While it does have red tile roof for fire protection, the rest of the house is decidedly un-Spanish.  White can be glaring under the strong Southern California sun and the color does nothing for the plants it backs.  The house needed to echo the stone’s warmth and provide a backdrop to show off the foliage.  After much deliberation over the phone (each with a Benjamin Moore deck in hand), samples were tested and we arrived at a combination of mellow tones in a muted gold (house), nutmeg (cabana accent wall) and mocha (trim & fascia). Benjamin Moore colors: fairway oaks, autumn leaf and fallen timber.  Screen color is way different than paint, but below are Bennie Moore’s online swatches:

Initially, the fence at the property line was painted the gold too.  As soon  as I saw it, I knew it was wrong.  It reflected too much light and made the space seem smaller.  My dad painted over it with the mocha and the change was fabulous.  The fence suddenly receded, making the space feel more expansive.  The delicate grasses and powder blue foliage came to life.  It is amazing how background color affects a garden and it is an important consideration in design.  I only got to see half of the house painted – but what a difference color makes!

showing the two colors on the fence...

late afternoon sun makes the house color glow...

mocha warmth quietly setting off the plants

house partially painted

The final touch was the furniture.  We ran out of time to shop during my last visit – so I canvassed the online retailers.  We selected Restoration Hardware’s Catalina deep lounge chairs for the cabana and arm chairs for around the outdoor fire with cushions in Grass.  We opted to not go “matchy-matchy” on all the furniture, and my mom is going to be on the lookout for the right coffee table.  Existing wrought iron lounge chairs will be powder coated the same dark bronze as the new furniture and there are new cushions to match on order.  I think these chairs made the trip from Seattle 30 years ago and definitely earned a spot in the new garden.

Restoration Hardware's Catalina lounge chair, photo courtesy RH

We had so much fun working together on this project – I am really thankful that I was able to create this space with my parents.  I was limited to my off season due to a full schedule of garden installs here, and completed the work between summer 2010, winter 2010 and summer 2011.  Since I was designing remotely, my parents identified contractors and shouldered nearly all of the install oversight, particularly for the hardscape.   In addition to the general design & plant palette, I sprayed the lines, rounded up the plants, did plant layout and was present for planting.  A true family effort.

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drip irrigation

Finally – summer has arrived in Western Washington!  Our recent dry stretch means we are now watering full speed ahead as the moisture reservoir from the prolonged spring rains has finally dried up.  My garden is probably one of the last to dry out with its high water table, limited afternoon sun and heavy compost.    Given these factors, I opted for no automatic irrigation.  Which brings me to the topic – drip irrigation. I am often asked whether we need irrigation in our climate and I always respond with a strong “yes”.    Unless your garden consists of a small urban plot with a few pots and  limited bed space, you probably will find hand watering overwhelming and not entirely effective.  Not to mention a waste of water as most hand waterers (myself included) get tired of holding the wand and resort to setting up sprinklers.

There is a movement here that mirrors California’s water conservation efforts by encouraging home owners to skip the irrigation and use Mediterranean, natives & other drought tolerant plants that can take our typically dry summers.  In California, this is incredibly important.  Water use for landscaping is astonishingly high – particularly for irrigating lawns.   It is estimated that up to 300,000 acres of CA are covered by residential lawn (Source: Reimagining the California Lawn).  While I support water conservation and understand why it is important for us too, I still favor the use of supplemental automatic irrigation on ornamental beds for the following reasons:

1) Drought tolerant does not mean zero summer water – there is a difference between “thrive” and “survive” (the same applies for marginally hardy plants like many of the hebes…they might survive the winter, but they will look terrible).

2) Once the soil dries out completely, it can be a challenge to re-saturate – often requiring excessive water to reach a plant’s roots.  It is better to provide water at intervals – right to the plant’s roots and deeper to encourage strong root growth.

3) Plants that can survive with zero supplemental water in summer typically do not want to live here in winter – such as cold hardy agave and yucca.  It is downright mean to subject them to our deluge and many just give up and die unless their soil has been perfected to a free draining, gravel & sand mix.  They are outstanding for pots – particularly ones sited under eaves in a sunny position.  If you do pot them – the same rule applies for the potting soil – it must drain sharply.

4) Ditto for some of the Mediterranean plants we have been experimenting with in recent years – we are faced with rot if the soil is not free draining or hardiness issues in the cold winters (Cistus, anyone?).  Because we have to build soil that drains freely to support these plants in winter, the beds can dry out much faster in summer leading to needing supplemental irrigation to keep them looking decent (see #1 above).

4) I’ve never met a fern that I did not like, however several of our natives that are well adjusted to dry summers and wet winters are forest understory plants.  They are fabulous in the right setting, however the shady forest has long been cleared in many residential areas.  Our tough and beautiful plants like Polystichum munitum will scorch badly in the hot afternoon sun and cannot be utilized in exposed environments.

5) Just because you have installed automatic irrigation does not mean you are going to be wasteful about water.  On the contrary – a properly installed drip irrigation system (this is not soaker hoses or emitters) will conserve water as compared to hand watering, hand setting sprinklers or automatic sprinklers.  It delivers water exactly where it is needed and less of it.  If you are selective about where it is installed (ornamental beds near the house and not native areas), it can be a garden life saver.

Despite our need for supplemental water – there is no perfect automatic irrigation system.  A reality I share with each of my clients.  Each system has its pros and cons, however some are more worthy than others.   My preferred choice for ornamental beds is drip irrigation such as Netafim (www.netafimusa.com/landscape/literature).  Netafim consists of tubing with emitters spaced at intervals.  There are different options for the emitter spacing and choosing the right one depends on your soil profile and your gph (gallons per hour) needs.  The lines are placed in the garden bed after planting and before final compost typically with a 12-18″ spacing.  The lines are pinned down and buried under a few inches of soil and compost or just compost.  The method is to blanket the bed with water rather than have an emitter for each plant.  With this approach, you must carefully plan for zone division based on sun exposure and soil moisture levels and to be sure to use plants with similar water needs in each zone.

Some landscapers believe that sprinklers are the best way to go for ornamental beds.  I’ve heard the argument that sprinklers are better because you can “see the water” whereas with drip, you cannot.  I find this odd – plant roots need the water, not the leaves or soil surface or the adjacent sidewalk.  “Seeing” the water everywhere does not improve distribution to plant roots.  Here are some other reasons why I prefer drip irrigation such as Netafim over automatic sprinklers in beds:

1)   Efficiency of watering over time:  Typically, sprinkler systems are installed before the plants.  The installers use equations to calculate coverage based on bare soil.  Anyone who has created a garden from scratch knows that water distribution via sprinkler is vastly different at year one compared to year three when plants reach established size and probably are blocking those sprinklers.  This results in what I like to call “soak and starve” – the plants right next to and blocking the sprinkler are over watered while other parts of the bed are completely dry.

2) Water waste & distribution:  Sprinklers water everywhere, but the water needs to get to plant roots.  Water evaporates in the air, ends up on leaves and hardscape and often has to be run for an excessive amount of time to penetrate the soil during the height of summer.  This can result in shallow water distribution which often leads to shallow root growth.

3) Foliar disease:  With our wet springs, we already struggle with fungal issues and foliar diseases. Continuing this top soak through summer can prolong  some nasty cultural problems like Heuchera rust and black spot.

4) Plant squash:  Overhead watering a plant loaded with blooms leads to a soggy and sad looking specimen.  Ditto for many of the lightweight ornamental grasses that can be flattened by sprinklers.

This is not to say that drip irrigation is perfect.  You need to be careful to not hit the lines when working in the garden.  You need to scratch below the surface to check the moisture levels every once in a while to see if you are over or under watering. (Note: This gets back to “seeing” the water…keep in mind that you have to check with sprinklers too.  Just because the top of the soil is wet does not mean that just below this layer is getting water.)  The lines need to be flushed to prevent sediment build up.  They can be set up for automatic flushing or this can be done annually.  In our climate, it is a good idea to winterize the lines and this does double duty for flushing.  For installation, you either need an experienced installer or to carefully do your homework to ensure the system functions as intended.

 

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waterfront plants

I recently had the opportunity to design a petite space on a very elegant houseboat.  The house has modern lines and the view is incredible – as waterfront as you can get.  The downside for the client is little privacy.  Kayakers pull right up to the edge of their deck and peer in – and who can blame them with such an interesting house.   To create a soft barrier enclosing the space (yet not impeding the view) I designed low benching to be attached at the deck edge.  This performs double duty providing extra seating when entertaining or a place to lie in the sun – all without taking too much precious deck space.  It also conveys the message “private space” for the floating lookie-loos.  I  added a screen on the north side of the deck to provide privacy from the closest houseboat neighbor and further enhance the sense of enclosure.  The architect/builder who will be creating these elements had the fantastic idea to put the screen on a track so it can be pulled out when privacy is needed and pushed back for a sense of openness.  Pots frame the space and add a bit of leafy softness.   I opted for a palette of black pots on the deck and one showy copper red pot by the front door – picking up the rich trim color.  I kept the planting simple – I am not a fan of overstuffed annuals in pots. I prefer interesting evergreen foliage plants in pots and one per pot when possible.  This provides elegant, clean lines and is very low maintenance. The ebullient flower stuffed pots may be lovely in summer, but most have to be redone every year and they provide little winter interest.   Plants used included a small Acer palmatum in rich chocolate-copper tones to add height and echo the house colors, a few dwarf conifers which are perfect for pots and Nassella tenuissima flanked by a copper colored Heuchera.

I planted the pots yesterday and the hardscape elements will be installed next.  I was not alone while planting – a family of ducks observed my progress from right off the deck.  They were every cute, but of no help whatsoever when the lens cap bounced out of my hand and into the water.   Nonetheless, I took a few pictures.

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spring gardens

I can finally sit back and reflect on the gardens installed this spring and enjoy the spaces we created.  I think the end tally was seven gardens that were installed or spruced.  I had some wonderful clients & projects and made fabulous new furry friends (that means you Louie and Sadie…).  Sadie would bound outside every time I came to the garden – except the days it hailed.  Then she stayed on her kitty bed inside, nice and warm.  At another garden, Louie was always thrilled to see me and even happier to lick my face.

Sadie

Louie

A few before and afters. Looking forward to seeing the gardens fill in over the next year…

Beach Garden -

This is a gem of a garden proves that you can accomplish much in a tight space.  Like most beach properties, neighboring houses are situated close around this garden and a sense of enclosure was needed without creating a dividing wall between neighbors.  Horizontal fencing not only adds a modern flair, but echoes the existing screening.  Fence sections were offset to create privacy without making the space feel closed in.  New stairways were added from the house to connect home and garden.  A stock tank water feature ties into the metal siding on the house and the modern architecture.  This is a garden I could live in. See before & after shots below.

before

after

 

Hilltop Garden -

The house was perched at the top of a knoll, yet disconnected from the landscape.  The clients had done a great job on the back gardens and wanted a new direction for the front.  We needed structure and formality, while still relating the gardens to the rural surroundings.  The clients wanted a Pac NW modern/Asian feel, yet the architecture is country modern.  So we settled in the middle for a design with modern tones that honors the site and architecture.  The entrance is more formal and plantings are predominantly evergreen to provide all season interest. Around the terracing and a small patio within the garden, the plantings become less formal and evocative of the surrounding mowed field.

before - front entrance path

after - front entrance path

before - front garden

after - front garden

Meadow Garden – Year 3

The third year brings lush growth and maturity to the Meadow Garden – see Case Studies on the Bliss site for more information about this garden.  A few pictures from this spring….

before

after - year 3

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