Christiane Holmquist Landscape Design

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A Matter Of Balance: Don’t Allow the Hardscape to Dominate the Planting

March 9, 2016 By Christiane Holmquist

Don’t allow the hardscape to dominate the planting

Part 2

In my last post I endeavored to put plants in the forefront of our gardens in order to make them softer and more welcoming: Under our southern sun pavements, structures and other built structures create glare and very deep shadows. How can we reduce the harshness of this bright white light in residential landscape design?

I think the primordial quality of a well-designed garden is its ability to let our eyes and minds rest. To that effect, I want to employ shade, light-absorbing textures, coolness, perhaps even the sound of water. I try to balance out the hard structures with drought resistant landscaping and let the plants play an equal if not greater role in the organization and feel of the design. Here are a few tricks how to employ plants to that effect:

hard surface balanced with softening plants

This entrance area can be extremely bright, but Redbuds and oaks add a “roof” to the approaching visitor and create shade.

Don’t let too much hardscape take the warmth out of your garden

No massive gate columns here: The framing of this garden entrance is done by the swollen trunks of Floss Silk Tree Ceiba insignia, which also provides shade; the young mimosa in the island has a very soft light-absorbing deep green foliage and will create a wonderful welcoming coolness.

Even in full non-day sun, someone sitting on that bench would be able to admire the cool blue of this beautiful Potato Bush.

Even in full none-day sun, someone sitting on that bench would be able to admire the cool blue of this beautiful Potato Bush.

Here, a low water and low maintenance clumping grass reflects light like an animal’s fur, and the shade of the shrubs beyond is in contrast to the bright patio on the right.

Here, a low water and low maintenance clumping grass reflects light like an animal’s fur, and the shade of the shrubs beyond is in contrast to the bright patio on the right.

grasses swaying in the wind

A boulder echoes the horizontal line of the eaves, while grasses repeat the vertical lines of the window frame.

Plants have many roles: They create the visual pleasure that changes through the seasons because of the seasonal bloom, and they offer a juxtaposition of delicate textures with the outlines of strict architecture or rugged boulders. Plants can repeat the dynamic contrast between horizontal and vertical lines already present in the architecture of a house. Leaning pine branches intersect with vertical grass blades, while vertical flower stems stand at a right angle to a boulder’s edge.

These dark bromeliads provide contrast to the lightness of the house’s walls, strappy irises play off of the low horizontal stone wall, and palms throw their interesting shadows on the walls.

These dark bromeliads provide contrast to the lightness of the house’s walls, strappy irises play off of the low horizontal stone wall, and palms throw their interesting shadows on the walls.

secret yet inviting garden

Although many “hardscape elements” are used here, plants scale down their proportions and make them soften until they almost disappear. Plants are employed to edge this stone path, and instead of an umbrella or arbor, the tree canopy on the left shelters a bench.

While the stone and wood create light and dark structure, plants soften the overall effect.  Even the light-colored pavers are more inviting when edged in grass.

While the stone and wood create light and dark structure, plants soften the overall effect.  Even the light-colored pavers are more inviting when edged in grass.

Here, the stone flower beds will start to look less heavy when the vines start to take over the arbor and the perennials and shrubs gain their mature height, cascading over the sides to soften them. While distinctly dividing the side of the house into different areas, each area becomes its own secret garden.

DSCN1697 (1)

Plants create suspense: Where is the path leading? Your eye bounces down the path from the Aloe to the pink flowering Rock Purslane to the yellow Mexican Marigold. They thus create the illusion of a larger yard.

A minimal structure for vines will soon create much-needed shade, while all around plants absorb some of the light. The purple-flowered tree is a Jacaranda; the white shrub on the left is Iceberg Rose.

A minimal structure for vines will soon create much-needed shade, while all around plants absorb some of the light. The purple-flowered tree is a Jacaranda; the white shrub on the left is Iceberg Rose.

Soon, the three Podocarpus trees along the back wall will be tall enough to screen out the neighbor’s house and all boundaries will be obscured, thus creating total privacy in a natural setting.

Plants help to separate this sitting area from the entrance and to make if feel more private.

Plants help to separate this sitting area from the entrance and to make if feel more private.

This design also creates the illusion of distance, giving the front yard a larger feel. The small deciduous shrub will provide more shade and privacy as it matures, and give an excellent opportunity to use creative landscape lighting to add drama at night by revealing its beautiful branch structure.

Instead of walls and doors, planter pockets serve to break up the pavement and to separate one usable area from another.

Instead of walls and doors, planter pockets serve to break up the pavement and to separate one usable area from another.

Getting away from hardscapes is a challenge; there are sexy materials that don’t need watering or maintenance, and will last close to forever.  Stone, wood, glass, metal, and even fiberglass or plastic are very versatile and lend themselves to a variety of different uses. Be it fencing or furniture, these materials can help us give places to ‘hang’ our plants, much like in a big wardrobe.

Many landscape architects and landscape designers in San Diego (and elsewhere) have been trained to use these materials as the back-bones and foundations to build around – and upon – with plants in secondary filler roles.  But plants can also serve this purpose; let yourself fall in love with the texture and structure of a plant, or your favorite tree, or a color, and design around that.

Tell your designer that this is the plant you want to showcase or use.  Say you want a great big hedge of something to serve as a fence.  Think about using our native Toyon Heteromeles arbutifolia, or a Silverberry Eleagnus pungens.  Both are tough shrubs with attractive foliage, colorful berries (Toyon) and fragrant flowers (Silverberry) that are very undemanding in soil, water or light and that can be sheered, pruned or trained into small trees or an evergreen screen.   If you prefer beautiful craftsmanship, think about how a simple perfect circle carved from stone, laid in brick, or made of wood can’t help but stand out best when surrounded by the chaos and asymmetry of plants.

Right now is a great time to look for California natives, drought-tolerant succulents and waterwise perennials, shrubs and trees at your local nurseries!

 

I believe this is a topic that will interest many gardeners, and I’ll talk about it in greater detail and colorful examples in a presentation at the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon on June 11, at 9:30 a.m., in a class entitled “Balancing hardscapes with plants”.  Look for a detailed description in the coming weeks at the Garden’s website.  I’d be happy to greet you there!

Filed Under: Drought Resistant Landscape, Drought Resistant Plants, Gardening tips, Low Maintenance Plants, Low Water Landscape, Shade Structures, Special architectal landscape elements, Trees Tagged With: backyard landscape design, diy landscape design, drought resistant landscaping, landscape designer San Diego, low water landscaping, perennials

Thank Heaven for Little Trees, for Little Trees Grow Bigger Every Day! The Role of Trees in Landscape Design

June 28, 2013 By Christiane Homquist

Tipu foliage and flowers

Recently, on a hot Sunday afternoon, I noticed a curious thing:  On a comfortable chaise-lounge in the shade of my Tipu tree,  I was reading a good book when I felt drops of water or some other liquid falling on me.  Was it raining? The drops were so tiny that I couldn’t even see them on my skin, but there was no doubt about what I was sensing. Wondering if I was experiencing aphid droplets falling out of the tree canopy, I examined the surrounding furniture on my deck, but there was nothing of that sticky substance that aphids exude and that is known as honeydew.  What could these droplets be?

Tipuana tipu

Knowing about how trees cool themselves, I imagine that it was the tree itself that sprayed on me:  Evaporation (“transpiration”) of water from its foliage in the hot afternoon was extra fast and generous to form the minutest droplets that ‘rained’ on me.

A gentle spray to cool me off – how awesome!

Have you ever noticed how wonderful the shade under a tree feels, especially on a hot day? The lovely sensation on my skin made me think again about how important trees are in the sustainable landscape design, no matter which climate you live in.  Consider the most obvious at this time of year: Beauty from bloom and form; shade and reduced energy cost, and an emotional connection that we all have to trees.

As I was lounging in the shade, I was wondering how big the temperature difference was that I felt there:  In the full sun it was close to 100° F that afternoon; in the shade by contrast a comfortable 85° F!  And the air that I was breathing under it was fresh and cool – the tiny droplets were just an added pleasure.

Silk Tree Albizia julibrissin

Numerous authors and organizations have made a valuable contribution to this subject and demonstrated to homeowners and planners alike, with hard numbers, the measurable payback of trees, even the increase in real estate value! There are many fun facts about the social, environmental, economic and communal benefits of trees at sites like these:

“Trees are Good”,  by the International Society of Arboriculture; “Canopy”, a publication by a volunteer organization in Palo Alto that cares for trees; “Why Shade Streets? The Unexpected Benefit” by the Center of Urban Forest Research.

DSC_6214 rev

As gardener and landscape designer San Diego  passionate about sustainable landscape design another benefit comes to mind that many gardeners have certainly noticed, too:

The canopy of an evergreen tree provides a perfect microclimate for cold-sensitive plants as well as for those that prefer the dappled shade over a sun-baked situation. This is particularly true of inland valley or desert situations where many plants, even the desert plant species, that tolerate full sun closer to the coast appreciate the reprieve that a tree canopy provides as too much sunlight creates problems with the plant’s ability to regulate photosynthesis (this is the chemical process by which plants convert water and carbon dioxide from the air into carbohydrates).

Palm shade

The shade also translates into lower water needs for everything growing beneath as well as prolonged growth and flowering:  While many plants, even drought resistant plants, go limp or floppy in the mid-day heat of summer, the ones in the shade show more intense color and firmer foliage. (Some plants respond to the heat and drought by going dormant and dropping their leaves, such as California Buckeye, a California native plant.)

Drought resistant plants that actually prefer the dappled shade (or afternoon shade from a building) are many succulents, such as Aeoniums, Sedums and Echeverias, even Foxtail Agave Agave attenuata prefers this situation.  Also many flowering perennials and soft-leaved plants such as Sundrops Calylophus drummondii, Copper Canyon Daisy (Mexican Marigold) Tagetes lemmonii, and Purple Sage Salvia leucophylla come to mind.

Bougainvillea TreeAnd then there are the strictly aesthetic-driven aspects of designing with trees, and I can’t even begin to consider a home landscape design without them, or any landscape design for that matter. (I wrote about it already in a previous post “Trees in my garden? No trees, please!”). They are a garden’s upright support and beams; they are the main structural elements around which all other plants are arranged.  They feel to me like the “ceiling” and walls in the garden; shrubs and flowers are the furniture so to speak…

Trees also give a garden its mood:  Compare the feel that a palm tree creates in a garden, with that of a deciduous Sycamore; or picture the branches of a pine tree and the “whoosh” of a breeze going through it, and compare it with the burning orange fall-foliage of a Crape Myrtle or Western Redbud!

Trees can mark a spot as focal point; they can denote a boundary; they can frame and enhance a view or screen out an unsightly one.  Most  important perhaps is the comforting, protected feeling that we experience: There’s something primordial about sitting under the canopy of a tree:  It connects us with ancient, genetically anchored memories of our cave days, I imagine, and sitting in an open field has a very different, un-sheltered feel.  A landscape without them is feels lifeless to me, depressing even; there’s not much shelter for birds so they stay away, and it doesn’t feel nurturing.

If all this makes you want to design your landscape and select the best tree for it, here are a few more resources specifically for San Diego homeowners:

San Diego Tree/Palm/Plant Pictures at http://www.geographylists.com/sandiegoplants.html

And perhaps the tree down the street that you have been interested in has already been identified and listed in our own San Diego Tree map?

This fun interactive map lets you search for a particular tree by neighborhood:  Just locate your street, zero in on it and see whether the tree you are interested in has already been identified.  Conversely, if you have identified a tree in your neighborhood and want to contribute to this database, just upload a photo and the information, and you’ll help your neighbors learn about it.  This great resource also shows you some of those ‘hard numbers’ that I mentioned above as the trees’  “Yearly Eco Impact”.

tree protecting pond

To get a feel for the physical presence and characteristics of a tree, especially at maturity, nothing suits this better than a visit to any of the resources that we have here in San Diego:  There’s the San Diego Zoo of which its founder, Dr. Harry Wegeforth said,  “A luxuriant growth of trees and foliage was one of the chief features of the Zoo as I planned it in my mind’s eye.” (Read also “San Diego Zoo Gardens”).

Then there’s the San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas, and the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon. Or the San Diego Safari Park that  is home to 4 ac of California nativescapes, with more than 1500 individual plants representing 500 species, all of which historically call SoCal home.   And then there’s their conifer forest with more than 1,000 plants representing 400 species of conifers..

And don’t forget San Diego’s Balboa Park!

Take a stroll one of these summer days and marvel at the beauty and cool comfort that the shade of the trees provide.  Send me photos of our finds, share your landscape design ideas with me and let me know if there’s a resource that I didn’t think of!

Filed Under: Drought Resistant Landscape, Landscape Design, Places to visit, Trees Tagged With: design your landscape, home landscape design, landscape design, landscape design ideas, landscape designer San Diego, Sustainable landscape design

Fall is for gardeners – Now’s the time to put your landscape ideas to work

October 4, 2012 By Christiane Homquist

I imagine that low water landscaping fans here in the south-west share a common tingling sensation in the finger tips these days; the recent harvest moon and the longer nights awakened out plant lust:  Without doubt fall is here, and soon we can work outside again without risking a heatstroke.

So what better time to consider our next moves in our low water landscape?  On my list the to- do-chores are conveniently intertwined with the to-buy-list:

Replace the plants that haven’t made the mark; there are much better ones available.

In the increasingly hot summers these past years, a number of my drought tolerant plants have been looking sparse, lanky and tired; even when cooler temps set in they didn’t pick up the pace.  I’m itching to replace them with tougher plants: Mountain States Wholesale Nursery specializes in desert plant species promised to do better in our climate and soils. Although not ‘a desert’, our climate in San Diego is getting drier, and our occasional ocean winds should be a bonus (salt spray and heavy clay soil excepted – please check on the individual plant’s requirements). Their plants are retailed at Kniffings Discount Nurseries in El Cajon ; (they will order for you what’s not in stock.)

Here a 3 beauties that I’d like to try:

Leucophyllum candidum ‘Thunder Cloud’  Thunder Cloud Texas Sage

An evergreen shrub with compact form, silver foliage, deep purple flowers summer/fall. Blooms repeatedly; needs well drained soil.

SIZE (H X W) 3 feet x 3-4 feet

WATER Low

GROWTH RATE Slow

HARDINESS 10º F, USDA Zone 7

PRUNING : Shear in late spring if at all

Hesperaloe parviflora ‘Perpa’   Brakelights Yed Yucca

Red Yucca  Brakelights has vivid red flowers from Sept. to June that attract hummingbirds; it’s a compact grower with narrow, leathery, blue-green leaves. This tough, low maintenance native to Texas and Northern Mexico thrives in full sun and reflected heat; good specimen container plant, suitable for a wide range of climates and soils.

SIZE (H X W) 2 feet x 2 feet

WATER Low

GROWTH RATE Slow

HARDINESS -20º F, USDA Zone 5

PRUNING Remove old flowers

Desert Willow Lucretia Hamilton Chilopsis lineraris ‘Lucretia Hamilton’

The natural form of this deciduous tree is multi-trunked with a graceful, weeping appearance with long, narrow leaves and attractive burgundy trumpet-shaped, orchid-like flowers. Blooms appear in terminal clusters from May through October. The resulting seedpods cling on branches throughout winter.  After flowering, long narrow seed pods are produced.

SIZE (H X W) 18-20 feet x 18-20 feet

WATER Low

GROWTH RATE Moderate

HARDINESS -10º F, USDA Zone 6

PRUNING Prune to shape

And now to my to-do-list:

On the very top of my to-do list is “Renew landscape mulch”

My layer of mulch has thinned considerably over the last season, and it’s time to replenish it – benefits will show in a few weeks.

Here’s what mulching does;

  • Mulch will reduce the amount of water that evaporates from soil, greatly reducing the need to water.
  • Mulch improves the quality of your soil by breaking up clay and allowing better water and air movement through the soil.
  • Mulch provides nutrients to sandy soil and improves its ability to hold water.
  • Mulch acts as an insulating layer on top of soil, keeping it cooler in the summer.
  • Mulch keeps weeds down, and the weeds that do grow are much easier to pull.

Mulch like you mean it;

  • Before applying mulch, remove weeds and water thoroughly.
  • Replace the grass under trees with mulch, to mimic the way trees grow in nature.
  • Keep mulch 6-to-12 inches away from the base of trees and shrubs.
  • Apply 2-to-4 inches of mulch in all planting areas. Finer mulches (sized a half-inch or smaller) should be applied no more than 2 inches deep. Courser mulches, such as large bark chips, can be applied 4 inches deep.

 Shopping for Mulch

Mulch is available by the bag or in bulk. Bulk mulch is measured in cubic yards. You can calculate the volume of mulch you need by multiplying the area (in square feet) by the depth (fraction of foot, not inches), then dividing by 27.

Here’s a link to  FAQ about mulch that holds a table that will guide your calculations:  http://www.agriserviceinc.com/faq.html

Here are links to more providers of mulches, top soils, amendments:

El Corazon Compost Facility (AgriService), Oceanside.

San Diego Landfill, San Diego (some products are is free for SD residents) .

For the County of San Diego, for locations to recycle your green yard debris and woody material or to pick up compost and/or mulch consult the Compost and Mulch Facilities Guide.

My take on maintenance:  Cut down on it.

Garden maintenance may occasionally be tedious, but most of the time it’s simply gardening, and that’s what many of us love to do.

Be confident:  a garden is rarely finished.

It’s the journey that counts.  You might have a very special micro climate formed by the special building materials of your home, or the particular accumulation of decomposed granite or boulders or sediment soil…

Gardens are not static.

We just don’t have control over climate, or over the individual plants.

Shy away from things that cause frustration:

-          Shrubs and trees that outgrow their space ;

-          Plants that need better drainage than your soil can provide;

-          Flowers that are unsightly after flowering, that are susceptible to diseases or flower only for a short time (f.e. Hybrid Tea roses)

Choose low maintenance plant:

They demand very little but will pay you back with permanent interest from their beautiful structure and exceptional texture:

  • Agaves
  • Foliage plants such as the stunning Safari Sunset Conebush Leucadendron ‘Safari Sunset‘, terrestrial bromeliads (see Rancho Soledad Nursery, Rancho Santa Fe, for their great collection of Aechmeas, Vrieseas, Dyckias and more; many of these with very low water needs)
  • Perennials grasses (f.e. the beautiful Melinis nerviglumis Ruby Grass )
  • Succulents such as low-growing Graptopetalum   or Sedums
  • Crimson Grey Geranium (also called Kalwerbossie Geranium) 

Employ the permanent colors from hardscape – that’s a no-maintenance garden:

  • colored concrete, flagstones, DG (decomposed granite)
  • attractive gravels & boulders
  • glass and concrete balls
  • attractive furniture
  • colorful containers
  • garden art
  • shade sails
  • pillow and cushions, umbrellas

Are you getting anxious yet to get outside and let your creativity flow? Shape your garden, enjoy the changing season, experiment?  I’m sure you have many landscaping ideas of your own. Enjoy this season; soon the winter rains will help us establish our new plantings and will reward us with new growth and even bloom  -  the year in the drought resistant landscaping is long from over.

Filed Under: Drought Resistant Landscape, Landscape Design, Low Maintenance Plants, Low Water Landscape, Trees, Xeriscape designs Tagged With: drought resistant landscaping, drought tolerant plants, landscape ideas, low maintenance plants, low water landscape, low water landscaping

Xeriscape Design: Hot and lush yet waterwise – Tropical look-alikes for an arid land (Part II)

August 19, 2012 By Christiane Homquist

With their striking structural forms, masses of large leaves or finely cut foliage, and hot flamboyant flowers tropical plants create a lush look evocative of paradises far away. To some it’s wasteful to create tropical gardens in our desert scape, and they might even feel that tropicals don’t “fit” here.

I’m not in favor of creating landscapes that evoke the tropics – it’s too difficult to ignore the ever-present Eucalyptus or the native Chaparral on our dry mesas or in our boulder-rich foothills.  I love the California native landscape, and I love desert plant species and Mediterranean plants.  However, in the hottest months many of the gardens that are landscaped with drought tolerant plants look drab and lifeless.  Perhaps it’s due to a fine layer of dust… or the summer dormancy of our drought resistant plants.  For those of us who want to add a bit more ‘spice’ to our bleached-out gardens here are more “wanna-be tropicals”. They’ll add hot, energizing color and lush foliage, yet as drought tolerant plants fit into a true xeriscape San Diego style.  (See my previous blog post about this subject.)

Aloe rudikoppe 'Little Gem'

Aloe rudikoppe ‘Little Gem’

 

This tough succulent produces beautiful orange, exotic waxy flowers year round, in contrast to many other Aloes.  It’s superb also for its toughness as it can tolerate regular water to dry conditions and thrives even on the northside of buildings where it never gets any direct sun.  1 ft 6 inch height, spread 2 ft; hardy to 25F.

 

 

 

 

Bougainvillea Torch Glow

Bougainvillea Torch Glow

 

As a shrub that slowly grows  6 to 7 ft tall and 5 ft wide this Bougainvillea is more adaptable to smaller gardens than its rambling brethren. With hot pink flowers for most of the year it can be paired with succulents, tropical looking plants or desert gardens as it is very drought tolerant once established.  Hardy to the mid 20s.

 

 

 

Tropical flair from Daylily Black Suave

Daylily Black Suave adds a great color highlight to the gardem

 

This is a wonderful highlight of color in the garden with deep red, luxurious flowers.  Height about 1½ ft by width 1½ ft. In massing it would have a great impact.  Blooms in spring and again in fall.  A good technique to coax it into re-bloom and remove spent leaf blades is to cut the whole plant about 6 inches above ground when the first flush of flowers is gone.

 

 

 

Sweetshade makes a tropical looking appearance in the xeriscape landscape.

Sweetshade Hymenosporum flavum produces sweet fragrance and adds tropical flair.

 

When in bloom in early summer, this evergreen tree is quite showy with yellow fragrant flowers against glossy green leaves. It has an open, graceful upright habit and can reach a height of 20 to 40 ft and a spread of  20 ft. It likes sun to partial shade, well-drained soil and is water-wise. Early pruning will result in a stronger, denser plant.

 

 

 

 

Rose Cherry Bomb

Rose Cherry Bomb adds an explosion of color to the low water landscape

 

This rose is perhaps a perfect stand-in for Hibiscus without its problems of mildew or whiteflies… It produces sweet rosy red, 2-3 inch single-petaled blossoms with ruffled edges, on beautiful bronze/dark green disease resistant foliage.  Approximately 5 – 6′ tall and wide. Flowers most of the year with nice hips in winter;  full to part sun, and hardy to -15 F.

 

 

 

Tupidanthus Schefflera pueckleri

Tupidanthus is surprisingly versatile and even moderate in its water needs

With glossy, evergreen foliage and a very tropical flare, this shrub can grow to 30+ feet in height and can be trained into a single trunk tree. Stems produce bright green, palmate lobed leaves that slope down. Loves the sun or partial shade, and medium water.  Hardy to 28 degrees

It surprised me to learn that many of these plants that I had formerly considered ‘water huggers’  need indeed much less water, as the grower of these plants, Tom Jesch of Waterwise Botanicals in Bonsall explained:  With the appropriate watering rhythm in their establishment phase they will push out their roots far and deep which makes them much more resistant to a low water regime than we are used to believe.

With our rising water cost and the prolonged high temperatures that have parched so much of our land water conservation and drought resistant landscaping is on all our minds. So it’s wise to look for plants that fit into our xeriscape designs, but we don’t need to deprive ourselves of a lush look and energizing colors.

Filed Under: Drought Resistant Landscape, Landscape Design, Low Water Landscape, Trees, Xeriscape designs Tagged With: desert scape, drought resistant landscaping, drought tolerant plants, low water landscape, xeriscape designs, xeriscape San Diego

Hot tropicals on a water budget – xeriscape landscaping with brilliant color

June 22, 2012 By Christiane Homquist

Bright summer light washes out the colors in the drought tolerant landscape

Bright intense light and June haze over drought tolerant landscape

What comes to your mind when you hear the term ‘xeriscape landscaping’?  Drab, color-less expanses of thin blades, sharp spines, gravel and dusty mulch? Blue-gray foliage with some pale shriveled-up flowers?

I exaggerate of course. But have you noticed how in our lovely county, when it’s summer in earnest, and especially around noon, many plants seem to “hold their breath”?  Their colors look faded and washed out in the glaring sunlight; some stop blooming, curl their foliage or actually shed it. In my garden, my very controlled watering régime is only half to blame (after all, I’m gardening with drought tolerant plants); for many of my Mediterranean plants it’s summer dormancy, their genetic response to the intense light, extended drought and heat.

So I was excited when I got an invitation from  Waterwise Botanicals in Bonsall to visit their growing grounds:  Tom Jesch introduced us to some traditionally considered “tropical” plants with their expected attributes: Lush foliage, glossy leaves and brilliant, intense color, but that perform, with clever irrigation practices, like drought resistant plants:  After planting, you water deeply and then repeat the cycle on the same day or the day after. Re-water about 10 days later (or earlier, depending on how much water your soil retains). When the establishment phase is over (usually 6-9 months), you can stretch the period between waterings to greater lengths (again, this depends on how well drained your soil is or how much water your soil can hold; a good amount of organic matter increases its water holding capacity…)

If you are looking for some strikingly colorful additions to your low water landscaping, check these plants out.  I, too, look forward to incorporating them into my landscape designs:

Royal Queen Pereskia grandiflora violacea drought tolerant tropical shrub

Royal Queen Pereskia grandiflora violacea gives a punch of color to the xeriscape design

Royal Queen is an attractive answer to our water crisis. With glossy evergreen foliage (that hides its thorns – it’s in the cactus family after all) and clusters of orchid-like purple flowers from late spring to fall, this shrub lends our low water landscaping a colorful and “royal” touch. It likes regular watering but is equally tough in dry conditions, partial or full sun.  It’s partially deciduous in winter and tender to freezing temperatures.

Uses:    With its size of 3 to 4 ft in height and width, I’d use it as center of a flower bed design, as specimen, (in winter, when it’s partially deciduous, I’d distract from it with other green or flowering plants); or I’d use it in mass plantings where its sparser look in winter is not a problem. I’d also use it in a container if it can be rolled out of sight in winter.

 

Variegated Brazilian  Skyflower Duranta repens variegata as tropical addition to xeriscape designs

The Variegated Brazilian Sky Flower Duranta repens variegata lends a tropical touch

Shiny leaves with bright green and cream variegation, drooping clusters of lavender blossoms in spring to summer make the Brazilian Skyflower an attractive large shrub that grows to 12 – 15 ft tall by 8 ft wide but can also be trained into a small tree.  It thrives in the heat, sun or part sun. It needs regular water (as in every 10 days or so), and it’s hardy to the high 20’s. A note to gardeners with children:  This plant produces yellow berry-like fruits (the plant is also called “Pigeon Berry”) that are toxic if ingested.

Uses:  I’d use it as screen, or train it into a small attractive evergreen patio or container tree.

I’m excited to have found more plants that are suitable for the drought resistant landscaping, and I look forward to using these when I need to give my xeriscape designs more punch.  And there are quite a few more to cover -  look for them in my next post.

Filed Under: Container Gardening, Drought Resistant Landscape, Gardening tips, Landscape Design, Trees, Xeriscape designs Tagged With: drought resistant landscaping, drought tolerant plants, flower bed design, low water landscaping, xeriscape designs, xeriscape landscaping

My Favorite Drought-Resistant Plants for Southern California

February 8, 2012 By Christiane Holmquist

As I explained in my last blog post, Southern California is a challenging environment for landscape designers. We certainly love to help our clients create lush gardens full of plant life, but we must also be aware of the garden’s water needs, especially in the face of the many years of drought we have suffered in Southern California.

 

I’ve met many homeowners who are looking to develop more water-conscious landscapes in their front yard and backyard but don’t know where to begin. Many worry that drought-resistant = a backyard filled with cacti. Not true!

 

There are plenty of beautiful plants that thrive in a desert environment. Below is a list of some of my favorite drought-resistant plants. Each one of these plants can provide life and color to your front or back yard without requiring a lot of water or maintenance.

Mulga  Acacia aneura

Description: The Mulga is an evergreen shrub whose canopy can extend to the ground, and can thus be used as screening plant.  It can easily be trained into a small, umbrella-shaped tree that slowly grows to a height of 18 or 20 feet spreading to about 15 feet.

 Why I Like It: I love the Mulga for its graceful appearance. It comes into bloom in spring, and its canopy of silvery-gray leaves contrast prettily with its yellow flowers. When in full bloom, this tree stands out as an attractive accent plant in any desert landscape.

 Maintenance:  Prune to shape as needed.

 

Grevillea ‘Winpara Gem’

Description: This handsome, large shrub is a fast grower in well-drained, alkaline soils. It likes full sun and partial shade and is drought tolerant once established.  It can reach up to 10 feet with variable width.

Why I Like It: The Grevillea it is an attractive shrub with upwards reaching branches, clothed with gray-green leaves. It carries bright red flowers at the branch tips that attract bees and hummingbirds.  The heaviest flowering occurs in late fall/early winter and lasts over several weeks with intermittent blooms throughout the year. With its size, the Greviillea makes an attractive screening shrub or handsome accent in coastal or inland plantings.

 Maintenance:  Prune to shape as needed;   give it occasional deep watering

 

Trailing Buttercups (also called Sundrops), Calylophus hartwegii

 Description: This must-have perennial thrives in hot, dry locations. It is native to the western region and reminds me of Evening Primrose with bright yellow, four-petaled flowers against narrow, ferny leaves.  Trailing Buttercups are low growers and spread out about two feet. Flowering reaches its peak in the summer, and depending on location, takes a rest in late summer to re-bloom again in fall.

Why I Like It: I like this plant because of its toughness and versatility. Once it’s established, the Trailing Buttercup can tolerate a great deal of drought and can also take regular water if drainage is good.

Maintenance:  Give Trailing Buttercups occasional deep watering ; cut back hard (down to about 3-4 inch) in late winter to prevent it from getting sparse and sprawling.

 

The Ghost Plant, Graptopetalum paraguyense  

Description: The Ghost Plant is not nearly as scary as its name implies. This clumping succulent grows up to seven inches high and produces branching stems, which will spread indefinitely (though slowly, making it easy to control).  Plants will turn gray-blue when grown in shade and gray with a twinge of pink in full sun, with sprays of white or yellow flowers in spring. With its gray-blue fleshy leaves, the Ghost Plant provides a nice contrast in color, texture and form with many other plants and combines well with perennials and taller shrubs. The Ghost Plant is suitable as a groundcover in areas without foot traffic, as filler in rock gardens, or as spiller from hanging baskets and pots.

Why I Like It: I don’t know which aspect of this plant is more endearing, its elegance, low water needs, extremely low maintenance requirements, ability to fit into different design types, low height and handy size, or its readiness to grow from leaves, stems or divisions.

 Maintenance:  Don’t overwater; nip or prune to control spread; plant broken stems to multiply your Ghost Plant.

 

Filed Under: Drought Resistant Landscape, Gardening tips, Landscape Design, Trees Tagged With: drought tolerant plants

Do you love trees? Not sure about them? San Diego’s Center for Sustainable Energy informs about how trees can increase your property value

April 25, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist

Budding arborist or fearless teenager?

Budding arborist or fearless teenager?

I had the pleasure last week to speak with Robin Y Rivet, urban Forester/ISA arborist for CCSE’s, the Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego ( https://energycenter.org ),  a non-profit organization that is holding free workshops for home owners and business professionals on the many benefits of sustainable landscaping.   

Robin Rivet is CCSE’s urban forester for ATAC (“Advice and Technical Assistance Center”).  She is ISA certified arborist and UCCE master gardener.  The ATAC hosts free workshops for homeowners, professionals and municipalities to “explore the relationship between urban forestry and sustainability”. In addition to featuring a different educational live tree each week, they offer free workshops, outreach events and a community based website. The next workshops will be:

May 16, 5:30-7:30 pm, Make Sustainable Tree Choices to Increase Property Value, with Robin Rivet, urban forester and UCCE master gardener.

Ms. Rivet will offer advice about why trees enhance property value, and how to choose and locate the healthiest trees that appreciate in value over time and enhance the property value of your home, school or business.
June 2, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm: Sustainable Fruit Trees: Best Practices for Homes and Schools, with Tom Del Hotal, ISA certified arborist, Southwestern College adjunct faculty member and chairman of the California Rare Fruit Growers San Diego Chapter

Tom Del Hotal will provide an overview of what fruit trees do best in our region and some tips on getting the best results from your choices.

There are many other workshops relating to sustainability, fiscal incentives, outdoor water conservation rebate programs (I could only find one for commercial and multi-family), air conditioning, photovoltaics, cooling systems… check out the workshops and register at https://energycenter.org/index.php/outreach-a-education/advice-and-technical-assistance-center/2474-upcoming-workshops

A last note about their resource library: It is an awesome collection of books relating to urban forestry, green roof plants, BM (best management) Practices, study guides for the arborist certification and many other great books, and the borrowing is free. I also picked up several great educational “Tree City USA Bulletins” prepared for the homeowner and landscape professional by the National Arbor Day Foundation. These pamphlets contain easy-to-read information, diagrams and photos on topics such as tree ailments, laws governing trees and tree choice for the right place, to name just a few.  I’m sure that I will refer to these in my work and give copies of them to my clients.

Addresses:
ATAC Advice and Technical Assistance Center
8690 Balboa Ave., S.D. 92123
Robin Y Rivet robin.rivet@…
Robin Rivet at 858.634.4741
https://energycenter.org/index.php/outreach-a-education/advice-and-technical-assistance-center

Filed Under: Landscape Design, Trees Tagged With: Arbor Day Foundation pamphlets, ATAC Advice and Technical Assistance Center in San Diego, best management practices for the tree owner, best management practices in the home orchard, budding arborist, drought tolerant trees, fiscal incentives for homeowners, fruit trees, green roof plants, how to choose healthy trees, how to enhance property value through trees, ISA certified arborist, liability from trees, outdoor water conservation rebate programs, proper tree choice, property enhancement through trees, pruning trees, rare fruit tree grower, rebate programs for landscape water, rebate programs for outdoor water use, sustainability in the landscape in San Diego, sustainability through trees, sustainable fruit trees, sustainable garden design, trees enhance property value, trees enhancing property value, urban forester, urban forestry, xeriscape

Olives in January – Another California Winter Story

January 10, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist

drought-tolerant-olive-tree-tipsHaving my daughter home at Christmas is always a delight as we enjoy as much time in the sun as we can, while her home town is buried by several feet of snow.   This last holiday, as we were enjoying some gardening chores together my daughter commented on the heavy olive crop that was still on the tree.  I guess it was the appetite for another chicken baked with black olives, rosemary and lemon peel (one of our favorite recipes) that encouraged us to get serious about harvesting our olives before rodents, birds or insects would get them.

drought-tolerant-olive-tree-tipsPlacing the ladder under the canopy to get to the branches for hand-picking was difficult because of the many ornamentals planted in the dappled shade of the tree.  (This drought tolerant, attractive tree with silvery-green foliage is a wonderful addition to the drought tolerant, Mediterranean garden, and many un-thirsty plants enjoy the dappled shade that it provides.)

Most of the other olives had to be gotten down without help of the ladder, so we tried raking or knocking them off with a long pole and catching them in a tarp that my daughter and I held up. All needed to be done carefully to prevent injuries to the branches because this could have invited “Olive Knot”, a bacterial infestation resulting in galls developing at the branch that will cause die back.  (To protect from Olive Knot requires a couple of copper sprays each year, one in the fall following harvest and one in the early spring.)

We filled a few buckets, picking out the mushy or half eaten ones of which there were a few.  This fruit has been enjoyed for thousands of years in the Mediterranean area (where it is still grown), so there is a multitude of curing recipes out there.  We prefer the salty dry ones like the black, pungent French Nyons olives, so after washing them we are curing them now with salt.  The curing is needed to remove the bitter glucosides (“Oleuropein”)  that account for the horrible taste (which is a pity – they look so appetizing already uncured!)  Other methods are water curing, brine curing and lye treatments  (See “Safe Methods for Home Picking” , a publication by the University of California, Div. of Agriculture and Natural Resources, at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8267.pdf )

To try dry-salt-cure olives, use a pillow-case, for which you have made a drawstring top. Mix the olives with their own weight in non iodized table salt, pickling salt, or rock salt.  Pour them into the pillowcase and cover with more salt. Hang the pillow case in a place where the juice that will drop from it will not stain -  perhaps in a tree?  Stir them once a week for 4 weeks or until they have lost their bitterness.  When they are no longer terribly bitter, rinse in water and allow to dry overnight.  Then pack them in oil until you are ready to consume them.  (From “Lost Arts, A Cook’s guide to making vinegar, curing olives, crafting fresh goat cheese and simple mustards” by Lynn Alley, Ten Speed Press).

It was particularly interesting to learn from the Olive Grower’s Council of California in Visalia that some small olive oil presses may actually still cold press. However, most modern olive oil equipment warms (not heats) the paste to allow better release of the oil from the olive flesh.

Here some more background info that Mr. Adin Hester of the Olive Grower’s Council shared with me:  Table olives are an important economic crop in California. Major producing counties include Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Glenn, Tehama and Butte. LA County/San Fernando Valley at one time was a major producer of olives for oil and table use. (About the same historical time,  Butte County was also a major table and oil producer.)
Now the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley are the major producers.

The 2010 crop produced a record setting 164,984 tons. About 5% was left on the trees because of small size and freeze damage in late November. This year’s harvest was one month later than normal. The industry generally begins table olive harvest in mid-September and finishes by November first.

Olive oil harvest begins in late October to early November and generally finishes by the end of December.  The later harvest, the greater the risk of freeze damaged olives. Frozen olives produce an unacceptable oil.

Today two major varieties of table olives are grown in California:  Manzanillo (80%), and Sevillano (the big green olive that gets fermented and stuffed with almonds) (20%).  There are still minimal acres of Mission, Barouni and Ascolano table olives grown in California. Even a few acres of  Kalamata olives are found in the state.

Olive tree culture:

Cold hardy to 15 degree F / -9 degrees C, it thrives in areas with hot, dry summers but also perform adequately in coastal areas.

This very ornamental willow-like tree with its soft silvery-green foliage grows slowly, typically to 25-30 ft high and as wide.  Young ones put on height fairly fast.  It is a more of shrubby tree so training begins early in life, where for a single trunk side branches are shortened and later pruned away below the point where you want branching to begin. The old-timers suggest letting the seedling grow freely for the first 3 – 4 years, then prune for shape.  The tree can be also trained into a multi-trunked form; for this, stake lower branches or basal suckers to continue growth at desired angles. It likes well drained soil but also grows in deep, rich soil, or stony soil with little fertilizer.

Pruning is important to maintain a champagne-flute shape of the foliage – if you are interested in a healthy tree and a good crop.  The tree is self pollinated, and opening the canopy will enhance air flow and good fruit setting.  Pruning should be done after harvest and when the danger of frost is over, which suggests early spring as the best time.  The new wood the tree produces during the g rowing season is where the buds will form to produce the following year’s crop.

The Olive tree should not be topped. An exception to this rule is the use of the olive as a hedge. It will form a dense, attractive hedge if topped and trimmed.

Water: It is drought tolerant; however, to produce a crop they need moisture consistently. Spain has over 5.5 million acres, most of which are dry-land farmed.  This results in not much production per tree or per acre, but the acreage multiplier still gives them the recognition of being the largest olive producing country in the world.

Sources:

A lot of interesting information, history and great recipes can be found on the website of the California Olive Oil Council http://www.cooc.com/culture_heritage.html

Olive curing recipes:  http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8267.pdf

also “Calendar of Backyard Gardening Operations for Olives” at  http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/Fruits_&_Nuts/Olive/

Information about Olives: Safe Methods for Home Pickling

http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/Fruits_&_Nuts/Olive/

(Table) Olive Growers Council of California at  http://www.olivecouncil.com/index.html

Filed Under: Gardening tips, Trees Tagged With: contemporary landscape design, drought tolerant designs specialist, drought tolerant gardening, drought tolerant landscape design, drought tolerant trees, growing fruit trees, growing olives in southern California, harvest homegrown olives, holiday gardening, home-grown olives, irrigation restrictions, local garden expert, local landscape design expert, olive recipe, Olive tree culture, olive trees as screening plant, olive trees in the sustainable garden, olives in the home orchard, ornamental trees for the drought tolerant landscape, Sustainable landscape design, table olives from the home orchard, Water Conservation Garden, water-wise gardening

“Trees in my garden?…. No tree, please!”

August 8, 2010 By Christiane Holmquist

Front yard before re-landscaping

Front yard before re-landscaping

I never thought I would have to come to the defense of trees in the landscape.  One of the most perplexing moments in my profession happens when a client says that they don’t want trees in their garden. Upon my rather baffled question why, their response is usually “too much water use”, “too much maintenance”, “not needed” or “just too much trouble”.

Hearing this makes me cringe, but I imagine what might have caused their feelings: High maintenance (such as pine needles in their pool filter), nuisance (like olive stains on the pavement), or danger (such as a branch dropping out of a Eucalyptus tree). With these images in mind, trees are for them undesirable members of the plant family that they don’t want in their garden, and they don’t share the notion that “trees are deeply rooted into the human psyche; in a hectic and chaotic world, greenery provides you with a safe, nourishing haven”. (Fran Lambert, Consulting Arborist, in “Trees and Turf”, April 2006).

Front yard after introduction of trees and other colorful plants

Front yard after introduction of trees and other colorful plants

I am passionate about good design as well as about plants, so remaining calm in this situation and not becoming “preachy” is a challenge. The role of trees in the landscape seems uncontested, but when you think about them, what comes to your mind besides beauty, shade, stature?

For me as landscape designer, I am foremost interested in the architectural aspects of trees. First of all, their size and mass establish the overall framework of the spatial composition; in this way, they are among the most important landscape design elements, creating floor, walls and ceilings of “outdoor rooms”. A vegetative ceiling can provide a sense of vertical scale in an outdoor space, a feeling of comfort and shade.

Trees give a house scale and place it in proportion with its surrounding; a house without trees therefore feels like a box that isn’t grounded, like a container that hasn’t settled into its site.

Back side view of house with tree

Back side view of house with tree

Back yard without trees

Back yard without trees

Trees can act as windbreaks or screen of an unsightly view, or frame an attractive one like a picture frame. With their color and structure, they can be used as an accent point in your landscape picture.

Besides being indispensable parts of a design, trees play a great role in human as well as the environment’s health: Their canopies contribute to air quality by filtering dust; they also provide some noise reduction (the tall, densely planted trees with fleshy broad leaves do the best job). And, as a tree provides nesting and shelter for birds, they assist in insect control, and listening to the song of birds is usually very pleasant.

Shady pond

Shady pond

As energy consumer I consider also the energy savings through trees, and last but not last SHADE! “It never rains in California”, and the whole world envies us for it, but to have endless sunshine in a garden would be like living on a sunny plaza that has no shelter from the sun. A man-made shade structure can be a great element in a landscape, but it doesn’t quite have the same effect as the dappled, cool and moist shade of a tree! Summer shade from the deciduous trees placed on either south or west sides can lower utility cost by amazing 10-15% (and allow for solar heating in the winter months).

These are measurable benefits that we gain from trees (not to mention the delight that a tree in full bloom can create). And the cost of trees, you may ask? Of course, there is some maintenance: A young tree will benefit from yearly inspections and minor corrective pruning during its infancy to assist it in growing into a well-shaped healthy specimen; this way a costly restorative pruning can be avoided when the tree is much older.

And water needs? Of course you will need to water your trees; even trees indigenous to our dry Southern California need water during their establishment phase which can last a couple to 3 years depending on the amount of rain during the winter months and other factors influencing establishment.

Weighing the investment in trees against their benefits, consider this:  The National Arbor Day Foundation states that “A well placed and properly irrigated tree will have a measurable return on investment”: In deed, the Foundation estimates the value that trees add to properties at 15-20%!

In order to assure the most pleasure out of your trees and the least trouble, here are some suggestions how to avoid problems with your trees:

Select trees that:

– are in the most natural state as possible and have a good trunk taper

– have juvenile branches spaced throughout the trunk (until trees are anchored and established, lower juvenile branches need to remain on the trunk and main stem and therefore looks more like a shrub)

– are appropriately sized for the container

– have branches with wide angles of attachment (larger than 45 degrees)

Avoid trees that

– have been pruned into a lollipop shape

– are supported by a nursery stake (whenever possible)

– have pot-bound or girdled roots

– appear weak, sick, or unhealthy

– show mechanical damage or other wounds

And don’t plant trees too close to power lines, nor closer than 10 ft to permanent structures. (Check also on proper guide lines for tree planting in fire-prone areas).

There are great resources in our County for people that want to learn more about trees: The book “Ornamental Trees for Mediterranean Climates; the trees of San Diego” is a colorful guide and compendium of a host of trees that thrive here, with descriptions, photos, and even addresses where the photos were taken. The Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon (more info at www.thegarden.org ) showcases many suitable and lovely trees for our area. And of course there is Balboa Park with its trees, and the San Diego Botanic Garden (formerly Quail Gardens at www.qbgardens.com ).

I don’t think I’ll ever be detached and impartial when it comes to trees, but armed with the above list of arguments and paybacks I hope to be more neutral and professional when explaining how trees will benefit my clients and how fundamental (could you say imperative?) they are for their home landscape. Despite of their initial rejection none of my clients has yet refused to concede interest in trees, and fortunately, I haven’t yet had the commission to design a “tree-free” garden. That would be the saddest thing, and I hope it will never happen.

Filed Under: Gardening tips, Landscape Design, Trees Tagged With: architectural aspects of trees in the landscape, drought tolerant gardening, drought tolerant plants, drought tolerant trees, dry climate design, Energy savings in the landscape through trees, gardening ideas, good landscape design principles, landscape design with trees, landscaping in San Diego County, landscaping with trees, limited water resources, low maintenance plants, return on investment in the residential landscape, role of trees in the landscape, the role of trees in the environment's health, trees adding to air quality, trees as landscape design elements, Trees as windbreaks, trees facilitating insect control, trees in the residential landscape as ROV, trees in the spatial composition of landscapes, trees providing noise reduction, trees providing shelter for song birds, trees supported by the National Arbor Day Foundation, Use of trees in the landscape, useful tools for the water-wise gardener, Water Conservation, Water Conservation Garden, xeriscape

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Christiane, your design is beautiful. Viewers love the design and color. Thank you so much for all your support while the project was being developed. It would have been more stressful for me had you not held my hand regularly.

Rachel Michel

CHRISTIANE HOLMQUIST LANDSCAPE DESIGN


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