Shades of Green… and blue, and gray…

shades of green

I love this combination of plants! The shapes, textures and colors all compliment each other so beautifully. The shiny blue-green glaze of the pot in the foreground and the barely visible natural stone fountain in the background make this a Sunset Magazine/Garden Design-worthy image, if I do say so myself! This little vignette is part of a garden I designed and planted about a year ago that had an Asian-inspired theme. Now that I’m done gloating, if anyone’s still with me, here’s a list of the plants:

- Echeveria imbricata (Hens & Chicks)

- Juniperus procumbens ‘Nana’ (Dwarf Japanese Juniper)

- Bamboo (can’t remember which, but definitely ‘clumping’ type!)

- Chondropetalum tectorum (Cape Rush)

BTW, the fountain is from Fabbri Home & Garden in Half Moon Bay and the pot is from AW Pottery in Berkeley. Isn’t it great when a plan comes together??

Tiny Garden

Cutest Thing Ever!

Last week I drove down the coast to see my friend Robin at Succulent Gardens in Moss Landing. He has a wonderland of all things succulent-y. Acres of the most beautiful, varied and healthy plants imaginable. I filled my truck up with plants for a garden I just planted in Montara that is right on the ocean. The thing I wanted for myself, though, was NOT FOR SALE yet! It was a prototype for a product that they will be selling soon. This little gem was about 5in. by 12in. on the outside, so the planted area was aprx. 2.5″ x 9.5″. Tiny!!! …and cute. Oh my god.

Absolutely Nothing to do With Gardening…

Us at San Francisco City Hall

I haven’t done a post in over three months, and this is my excuse! I got married on September 22nd at City Hall in SF (and on Sept.26th in HMB…long story).

I was a bit preoccupied with things not gardening related; dresses, shoes, music, food, airplane tickets, hotel reservations, in-laws, a new step-daughter, two teenagers who’ve had me to themselves for over 10 years, etc.

I’m back home, back to work and back to my blog now, though. I just thought first I’d post a pic from City Hall before I got back to business as usual. We both wore suits from the 1940s. It was a fantastic ceremony and a fantastic day!

Ahhhh, love!!!

Roses, Roses, Roses (lest you forget!)

Rosa 'Just Joey' ... yummm!

Rosa ‘Carla can’t remember’ with bumble bee

Rosa 'Bobby James'

Rosa 'Cornelia'

Rosa ‘Fourth of July’

Potted Succulents

Potted Succulents

I planted four of these big containers about 3 years ago for a law firm on Main St. They’re placed on a private deck that their employees can use for breaks or lunch. They truly are very low maintenance. A couple of months ago I pulled all the plants out, divided them, cleaned them up and replanted them and this is how they’re looking. So in over three years, besides watering once a week at most, this recent “re-plant” is all that I’ve done! I’m a fairly recent convert to the beauty of gardening with succulents (see previous post), but for the right application, I’m totally sold!  You don’t have to wait for them to bloom because they’re interesting in all seasons, low water requirements and in temperate climates, very dependable! Yup. I will be doing this again. Maybe even for me. I could throw a few pots (maybe round ones) like these around my fluffy rose garden. Could be interesting…

Low Maintenance, Dry, Bachelor Garden

This was a fun garden to create. My client wanted almost zero involvement in his garden. The only thing he was interested in (beside not having to do anything) was that the garden look interesting and tidy. For this design I started with the style of the house. You can see from one of the  images below that the house is very boxy with a flat roof. Sort of mid-century style, but built in the early 80’s so not nearly as cool as, say, an Eichler design. Needless to say, (but I will anyway!) an English cottage garden or a traditional, formal garden would be very out of place here. I ran the idea of a mostly succulent garden with boulders and gravel by him and he said go for it. So here’s what I came up with:

Really Heavy Rocks

These rocks were a royal pain to “place”. They ended up being 2x as heavy (& expensive) as they were estimated to be. The four guys I hired to move them the 6-8′ from the sidewalk to where they are now were amazing and never got discouraged, though I was ready to cry after about an hour! I was seriously ready to hire a crane to place them, but the guys kept moving them, inch by inch, and after FOUR hours they got it done. They didn’t even act like they wanted to kill me when I said things like, “Could you move that one two inches to the left with a quarter twist?”

Front Garden View

Here’s a more complete view of the front. The boulders in the first image are to the left, just out of the shot. In addition to the low Agaves, etc., I introduced some vertical lines to the design with Equisetum, Papyrus and Phormium. The client wanted a fountain, and thought maybe he wanted an Italianite, classical style piece, but was very pleased with the natural stone fountain (see center of image) we created for him. I didn’t know if I would like this garden when I started it- I’m more drawn to soft or symmetrical forms- but this ended up being one of my favorite gardens so far!

The Secret Garden

      There is a garden, that unless you get invited in, truly is a secret. It’s a few hundred yards from the North Sea, in Suffolk, England. As you walk or drive down the road, to your left is the North Sea and to the right is a dense, long privet (and other assorted shrubs & trees) hedge row. As one might expect, the landscape, as you look towards the sea, is is very sparse and windswept. Some gnarled shrubs and native shore plants- grasses and a wild brocolli (!) growing in the sea-polished pebbles. Towards the other side, one would never suspect what lay behind the hedge. I was lucky enough to know someone who knew someone and was treated to a tour of the secret garden. This first image (below) shows an open grassy area that is never mowed or watered. Wild bunnies (!) come in the early mornings and late evenings to munch on the  grass so often that they don’t have to mow! …and it rains here, rains so regularly that gardens stay really green without irrigation or regular hand watering. As a California native, this is such a foreign and amazing concept to me, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around it. You mean I could have a gorgeous garden and go away on vacation without having to arrange a rotating crew of waterers to keep my plants from withering up and dying?? I wouldn’t have to spend a fortune or feel guilty because I’m using a so much water?? I could have a lawn?? I think I would have fun creating a garden in England. (I would just have to make sure I got myself a crew of lawn munching bunnies!)  

 

 

inside the Secret Garden

      The caretakers of the secret garden have an interesting hobby. The garden, which is a couple of acres, has many…I’ll call them…critter cams. They’re infrared, motion detecting cameras, set up near areas like, bird boxes, nests, bunny haunts and badger dens. They have made their garden extremely wildlife friendly- going to extremes such as building hay bale habitats for badgers and bringing them left-over bread from restaurants every day, to filling the countless bird feeders and birdbath every day with fresh food and water! All the cameras connect to a computer in the summer house where one could sit and watch video of last night’s badger bread raid or the blue bird sitting on her eggs inside her private (so she thinks!) bird box, if one was so inclined. It’s like a super high-tech security system, but for critters. It’s a little quirky (stalker!), but incredibly fun and addicting. Unfortunately, I had to leave before the eggs hatched!

gnarly apple trees

      These old apple tree were overgrown with bramble bushes for so many years that the branches grew very long, with not much strength (being held up by the brambles). When they were cleared, and some of the branches just flopped to the ground, the gardeners couldn’t bear to prune away the interesting shape of the old trees. Notice the forked branches being used as stakes to hold up the long branches. These trees had swelling flower buds all over them and I was sad to miss the glory of their bloom.

  

hugging trees

     This last image was taken in the evening, as the sun was going down, casting it’s last light on these two trees that grew together, looking like lovers. Someday, oh someday, I will have a secret garden of my own!

The Garden is about to Burst!

 

Just starting to explode!

   If you look very closely, you can just see my legs in the top right corner of this picture. It’s proof that I got to play in my garden (actually ALL day!) on Mothers Day. It was a perfect day. My roses and lavender are just about to go all out. In two-three weeks it will all be so floriferous that my eyes, nose AND ears will just about burst!

   Roses(blooming) in view:  Just Joey,  William Shakespeare,  Buff Beauty and  Fantin-Latour. Do you see them?

Miggins’ Close up

   I was just reading a bit about the debate on greenwalks  (cool garden blog)- You know… pro gnome vs. anti gnome? Maybe I need some perspective here, but I LOVE my garden gnome, Miggins! (for interesting background on him, go back two posts)

Miggins! super cool garden gnome?

                Is it just me, or is he actually kinda cool?? …Anyone??

gone garden touring for two weeks…

   I will be across the pond, collecting photos and ideas from some amazing gardens. Blog ya’ when I get back!