Xeriscape designs Archives - Christiane Holmquist Landscape Design

Balancing Plants With Hardscapes In Your Landscape Design

January 21, 2016 By Christiane Holmquist 1 Comment

When leafing through a landscape trade magazine recently, I noticed how much emphasis was placed on the “hard stuff”: Large patios and terraces paved with interlocking pavers and seat-walls around them in either stone or concrete block; sweeping staircases, luxurious zero-edge pools, massive built-in outdoor kitchens with the latest in outdoor cooking technology…

Obviously, the homeowners had invested a small fortune into their landscape and I imagined them rightly proud of their yard improvements.

Yet it struck me how little inviting I found these spaces; the hardscape seemed to overwhelm the warmth of nature, which had been defeated.

Hardscapes such as these create a wholly uninspired landscape

Clarification: The layout and organization of a garden into ‘rooms’, or the ‘bones’ of a successful garden, is tantamount, but NOT dependent on hardscaping.

When I ask my clients to describe their home landscape design goals, one of the first things they mention is their dream of beautiful, lush plants that draw them out into the garden; they blame the garden’s unattractiveness on the lack of beautiful plants, and this may be quite true!

But I usually respond by pointing to other facts that make their garden uninviting: It is in most cases the poor organization of their spaces that doesn’t allow for smooth circulation. There may not be sufficient room for a comfortable dining table and a clear, logical way to serve food here…perhaps there’s no shade for the homeowner who wants to spend time outside without being roasted.

Frequently also, there’s not enough privacy for a family that likes to take their breakfast or dinner outside, in their PJs or swim wear (or naked, God forbid!)

All corners and edges!

So I do pay much attention to the layout of a garden and devise outdoor spaces that can be used in comfort, preferably with the most beautiful materials. However, while hardscaping can be used in all aforementioned circumstances, so can “plantscaping”.

Plants should be used more often to solve these problems. I begin envisioning their garden coming to life with plants, color, textures; I see the wildlife drawn by them and begin feeling the mood of the garden.

This is an example of an oversized pool deck almost devoid of plants and atmosphere.

And I know that these plants will be substantially more than ‘the icing on the cake,’ but will also serve to organize the garden.

So what makes an outdoor space successful and inviting? What is it that draws us into them?

hard surface balanced with softening plants

Many hard surfaces in play with an interesting variety of drought tolerant plants.

I can think of several groundbreaking ideas in the last 50 or so years that shook the gardening and design world. They called for a new, sustainable appreciation of plants and their function in our gardens.

They use such words as “enchantment”, “romance”, and “plant personalities”…and they describe the variety of their sculptural, dramatic, and attention-getting forms that we should consider in our designs and substitute for hardscaping.

Also, it is important that we consider plants at the very beginning of the design process, so that their softness and drama can be the leading elements of the design, and let the hardscaping once again provide a supporting role.

Hedges can be clipped into formal green ‘walls’ to delineate areas, provide privacy, or simply act as a backdrop. Trees with interesting shapes can give not only shade but supply the columns where we need strong vertical movement.

Trellises covered with vines can also provide privacy or decoration, and plants of different structures, textures, sizes, and colors can let the eye bounce around, lead it through a garden, and provide interest and momentum.

Hardscaping then is scaled back to its more appropriate role, and plants can once again frame a scene or blur boundaries with nature.

Grasses glow and sway in the wind while the pine breaks up the vertical wall of the house.

Numerous books and beautiful articles have been written about landscapes that make you dream and want to be in them.

Some advice that I’ve learned is to allow for change and growth in plants as well as in people’s responses, and to avoid creating “landscapes that demand that their plants stay in near suspended animation to fulfill the designer’s vision (and impose an unrealistic burden on their owners for upkeep)”. Let’s remind ourselves instead that, “At its heart a garden is a relationship, an ongoing dialog between people, plants and the place in which they both live and grow.” It is this relation with them that builds a garden.

-(“Plant-Driven Design,” pgs. 18 + 19, by Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden)

A landscape design that is inviting and romantic, secret and enticing. The plants are numerous and varied; they lead the eye around the landscape; the tree overhead frames the view and provides shade, and the fence is light and unobtrusive.

In my next post, I’ll give a few examples of the power of plants and examine how they can be used where we traditionally imagine hardscapes:

How big a pool deck do you really need?
How do you create boundaries or privacy with plants if not with walls and fences?
Will you need a retaining wall, or could plants do a better job?

These are some of the questions I look forward to examining, to help you create balance in your home landscape design.

How to Escape the San Diego Garden Doldrums

December 22, 2015 By Christiane Holmquist Leave a Comment

Integrate your garden into the larger xeriscape that is our San Diego County.

(It could spell more fun and savings than you expected.)

Grounded: Desert plants evoke our Anza Borrego desert; DG and boulders connect with the Mission Hills behind the house

With approaching retirement and more time to travel, Jeanie and Jim realized that their traditional garden didn’t seem to allow them much time away; it just didn’t respond well to weeks of absence. When they called me, I found that they begun to add to their traditional home landscape design many new-found loves: Various Aloes and Sticks on Fire Euphorbia, Organ Pipe and Barrel Cactus, ‘Bells of Fire’ Tecoma, Crown of Thorns and other xeriscape plants.

With their list of collected plants I was handed a clear mandate: Remove the old lawn, the worn-out shrubs and even the Queen Palms; create a drought resistant landscape, lively and evoking our local Anza Borrego desert, yet not too spiky and withered looking, that would be easy to maintain and allow them weeks of absence without needing human intervention.

Front yard Before

Here’s their testimony about our adventure together:

What was the biggest motivator to transform your garden?

“We have always enjoyed succulents and the desert landscape, so we wanted both our front and backyards to look like the desert that we love. Also, due to our continuing drought situation, it made sense to convert to a low water landscape to save water. Additionally, the biggest motivator was to reduce our work in the yard: mowing would no longer be necessary. As we travel and are gone for extended periods of time, we wanted a landscape that was virtually maintenance-free during our absence.”

Above, the old lawn is more or less gone, with palms being ‘statuesque’

So where do I begin a landscape design renovation?

I imagined the entire garden as ‘playground’ for all the exotic drought resistant plants that Jim and Jeanie dreamt of. To display these plants to their fullest, the tilted surface of a mound would be useful; also, the mildly undulating terrain would bring some movement into the “flat” scene.

The new back Yard design provides more entertainment space and greater visual pleasure.

During our brainstorming the desire for ‘more entertainment’ were mentioned, so for the backyard I designed an extension of their patio, surrounded by seat-walls for casual overflow seating. Behind these walls, the terrain was also be mounded to give the planter bed here greater movement. Many of their desert plants were put here to which I added a few well-tested perennials and grasses: Sundrops Calylophus, Verbena ‘De la Mina’, California Fuchsia Epilobium and Angelita Daisy Hymenoxis. While the textures and forms of the desert plants are more permanent, the perennials and grasses would add a notion of seasonal decline and re-growth.

To these I added various Agaves, Rushes, grasses and Red Yuccas; also fluffier and softer foliage plants, such as Emu Bush Valentine Eremophila, and Texas Ranger Lynn’s Legacy’ Leucophyllum, chosen for its silvery foliage and light purple flowers that would offset well against the yellow and orange flowers of Senna, Tecoma and Palo Verde. I used creeping Elephant’s Food Portulacaria as an attractive groundcover and the grass-like Bulbine because of its flowers that attract bees year-round.

Still in their infancy, plants begin to take their place in this scene.

For me, Jim and Jeanie’s project was very satisfying; having clients who so clearly appreciate where they are, love region-appropriate plants and are open to a professional landscape designer’s suggestions makes always my job most pleasurable.

DG as top dressing, boulders and xeriscape plants give this garden a strong regional and authentic character.

Here’s how Jeanie and Jim think about the experience:

What was your biggest and best-appreciated result?

“With careful plant selection, hardscape, lighting and other elements of the garden, we feel it was a success and we’re proud of having a really great yard. An unexpected bonus is the many compliments received from neighbors.”

To this I would add: With the boulders and the mounds as top dressing Jeanie and Jim have expressed their appreciation for our dry environment, but foremost they linked their garden with the rugged hills of Mission Trails Park across the canyon. The plants they love and the chip seal (a coarse DG) do another to give their garden a strong regional and authentic character.

What is your greatest pleasure now, or the thought or feeling most often felt when walking through your garden?

“We really enjoy the variety of our plant selection with the many colors, textures and shapes. Using DG (decomposed granite) as topdressing mulch allows the plants to really “pop out.” Over the last year we have witnessed the growth and color changes of the plants realizing that the landscape feels more alive and ever-changing than just a static lawn. We also appreciate the hummingbirds and bees that visit regularly.”

Paddle Plants hugging a boulder

Any lesson learned or any other thought that you care to share with the readers?

“We learned: In drought situations, drip irrigation is the best way to conserve water. Landscape lighting is extremely important. Anyone undertaking this type of project should get the best lighting they can afford since it makes the project exceptional as the landscape is not only admired during the day, but it is just as impressive in the evening. (We highly recommend Volt LED lighting (available on the internet.) Also, it cost us twice as much as we originally thought during the early planning stages. Hardscape, lighting and other changes made during construction drove our costs up, but we are so pleased with the results that we would do it again. “

Colorful and interesting; lawn-be-gone!

Looking back at this project and considering the short time in which this garden has continued to grow, another idea comes to mind:

In southern California, it is sometimes hard to remember what time of year it is, but it is especially important to do so now: days are getting shorter and cooler: we need to remember how our bodies respond by storing more food, by changing sleep patterns and energy levels, by changing moods. A garden should be a natural environment, one that changes with the seasons and reminds us of our place in the web of life and of its cyclical nature. Those clipped lawns and shrubs surrounding our office buildings may provide us with a glimpse of green, if we are fortunate enough to have a window to the outside, but they leave us with little comfort and warmth when our lives change. If we get married, or divorced, have an accident, grow old, start a new career, buy a house, lose a friend etc., a static landscape may feel even more alien and uninviting if it mocks our changing natures.

What we seek in a garden is a reconnecting with the relish we relive every year, in the first days of spring when plants are just beginning to flower again, or on a warm day in fall, out at the edge of a clearing in the forest, that fills us with peace and amazement at how beautiful even small things can be: it can be a great comfort in times of change. Building a drought tolerant landscape is an opportunity to connect with the beautiful natural environment of San Diego County, and to let the seasons and change back into our lives.

Colorful, virtually no water nor maintenance – mission accomplished

Beautiful drought tolerant garden in San Marcos

June 30, 2014 By Christiane Holmquist 2 Comments

This landscape was transformed from lawn-centric static space into a living garden designed for outdoor living. It is colorful and entertaining year round, and invites to enjoy and relax, play and garden.

We transformed the yard into a drought resistant landscape with room for many activities: A patio roof and shade trees make outdoor living comfortable; with play lawn and plenty of garden beds (both homeowners are avid gardeners) there’s room to play outdoors year round.

PROJECT SUMMARY: After sitting down with the homeowners, we opted for lawn-removal in front and kept only a minimum of lawn in the backyard for the children to play on. With this landscape re-do, the homeowners have reclaimed their front yard and created a private “buffer zone” at their front door. The homeowners are passionate gardeners, so we significantly increased their garden space and filled it with exceptional drought resistant plants.

We replaced the paving material of the existing terrace with a tumbled paver placed on sand and added a shade structure. Although the terrace was reduced in size, it is comfortable for the many uses of this family, and the large shade cover creates lovely dappled shade in this space. A wrap-around seat wall invites garden visitors to observe the plants and the fish in the small pond placed at the edge of the terrace for close-up viewing.

As the trees grow, they will not only cool the entrance and protect shade loving plants, they will also complement the horizontal lines of the architecture, anchor the house to its site and “shrink” the home to a more human scale.

To allow more water to penetrate into the subsoil, compacted pervious DG (decomposed granite, a local material) was used to create paths through the garden. These paths lead to benches and arbors and provide a clean, fast-drying surface to walk on or ride a tricycle.

Partners:

Nature Designs Landscaping, Vista, CA

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Successful Backyard Landscape Collaboration in La Jolla

January 23, 2013 By Christiane Homquist 8 Comments

How a homeowner with an artist’s love of beautiful details and a receptive landscape designer found synergy and fertile ground in the garden for a beautiful backyard landscape collaboration.

A couple of years after installation, this garden has matured beautifully. I cherish the artistic collaboration with my clients; it contributes to very personalized and satisfying designs. In this project, the teamwork was particularly fruitful, as Melissa F., entrepreneur, artist and singer/song-writer, contributed an immense flow of creative ideas and suggestions. The result is a garden that is beautiful and incredibly peaceful.

Melissa calls it her ‘outdoor home’ because it’s all here: living room, kitchen, sitting room and lounge, and vivid plantings that make all come to life.

The previous backyard landscape design consisted of an uninspiring courtyard that a planter bed set in the middle made user-unfriendly.

Melissa and Todor love to cook and entertain outside. To blend the outdoor kitchen seamlessly, we used bamboo facing, echoing the indoor flooring and the living bamboo hedge. Now, under the cool shade sails, the outdoor dining area feels like it has always been there.

For each material selection we explored the idea of “weathering”, inspired by the mottled copper caps on eaves and fence posts and the home’s faded wood siding. The naturally rusted steel used for edging, planting troughs, fountain and gas lights provides that patina; matte concrete and exposed beach pebbles continue the theme.

Organized to allow for entertainment, relaxation and play, the garden creates a dynamic and sunny ‘outdoor home’ where plants add color, life and interest and prevent the built elements from overpowering the garden.

The bamboo hedge is a beautiful response to the construction of an oversized home in the neighbor’s yard that threatened the privacy and intimacy of this garden. The hedge helps focus the eye on the interior and defines the boundary of this backyard. It’s exciting to see how the black Bamboo stems echo the dark pavement in a wonderful contrast to the surrounding green foliage.

Most of the original overgrown “tropical” plants were removed and replaced with low maintenance plants, many of them from the sub-tropics. This xeriscape landscaping was composed in colors of Melissa’s preferred color palette:

Forest Pansy Redbud, bronze Sedge and golden Kangaroo Paw, purplish Echeveria and in-ground Bromeliad with striking foliage. A few splashes of orange and red add highlights to the picture.

One of the landscape lighting ideas was to use steel “fire” troughs. They provide light, warmth and entertainment after nightfall. While their mottled rusty walls continue the theme of weathering, they also tie the different spaces together.

The steel fountain complements the materials used in the landscape and has a calming effect on all senses.

If synergy is “the ability of a group to outperform even its best individual member”, then this residential landscape design is a beautiful example of how two creative individuals with their own aesthetics found common ground in the garden and created a product that will satisfy its owners for years to come. (Landscape designer San Diego Christiane Holmquist).

Photography: Patricia Bean Architectural Photography

The joys of winter – preparing for next year’s success and enjoyment of our drought resistant landscape

December 28, 2012 By Christiane Homquist 4 Comments

Reading yet another list of gardening chores for this winter (it does provide our best gardening season), I notice that there are a lot of ‘to do lists’ published online and in gardening magazines about how to prepare for the next year in our gardens. Feeling slightly guilty about wanting to stay indoors and relax a bit, I wondered ‘Why not write something about the fun stuff that can help us become better gardeners, enlighten and entertain us, without being a chore?’

Celebrate, entertain and learn

The San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas offers great cultural activities for visitors of all ages, gardener or not. Visit their “West Coast largest interactive Children’s Garden”, enjoy their holiday lighting displays, or participate in their classes, docent or self-guided tours, bird watching events. Not to miss is their annual “Sculpture in the Garden” exhibit.

Come to see their fascinating botanical plant groupings. One of them is designed like an amazing “underwater” garden where succulents and cacti evoke a fantastic world of coral reef marine life.

The Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon is a public garden that focuses on a fun, entertaining approach to education where the local homeowner, student or casual visitor can learn about water conservation in the xeriscape landscaping and “the sustainable use of related natural resources”. Classes and events provide landscaping ideas, and their next greatly enjoyable and family-friendly event is the Spring Garden Festival in April. (If you need help with water conservation in your landscape, or with fire prevention, composting techniques or seek your trees, this will be the opportunity for you to put your questions to various experts in their fields.) And don’t miss out on their seminars and classes, tours and events.

Sheer bloom

Cantua ‘Hot Pants’

If you love Magnolias, Roses, Silk Cotton Trees or exotics that you can’t grow in your garden, see what’s blooming month by month at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden.

Combine a visit of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino with a stroll through (and perhaps plant purchase at ) the 12 magnificent garden areas. “The Botanicals Gardens contain more than 14,000 different kind of plants in more than a dozen principal garden areas, including the Rose, Shakespeare, Camellia, Jungle, Palm and Chinese gardens. ” They offer a truly enriching experience, to be repeated at different times of the year to see what’s in bloom.

Floral wonders, and other fascinating things in the desert

At about one hour’s drive in the east county is the Anza Borrego desert that is famous for its spring wildflower bloom. Depending on rainfall and other weather conditions, you can visit the wild flower stands from mid-February through early April.

The Anza Borrego Desert State Park also offers educational events captivating at all ages. Organized hikes accompanied by naturalists, star gazing events, wild flower and bird watches begin as early as January 1. See here their Interpretive Schedule.

For the birds

Did you know that one of the best-known raptor watch sites of the country is located in this county? The Wildlife Research Institute in Ramona draws visitors from all over the world, especially in January when the watch (various hawk species, falcons and Golden Eagles) watch is on.

Learn about California native plants, buy some, and be inspired

One of the finest growers just over the county line is the Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano. Not only do they grow a beautiful variety of California native plants, they also publish their availability and plant catalog online, with an outstanding amount of plant profiles, planning tools and ‘how-to’ recommendations.

Harvest your own winter-grown veggies

If you manage to get your winter vegetables (“cool season crops”) in the ground now, such as carrots, broccoli, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach and turnips, you’ll be harvesting in due course. Learn more about vegetable gardening at the Vegetable Research and Information Center of UC Davis.

California wildflowers “for the picking”

Now is the time to sow our California native wild flowers; for extra good germination, sow seeds just before a big storm or between storms: California poppies, mountain garland Clarkia unguiculata, purple owl’s clover Castilleja excreta, baby blue eyes Nemophila menziesii, Chinese house Collinsia heterophylla, and farewell to spring Clarkia amoena.

Get ready for more entertainment in your garden

Perhaps it’s time to consider enlarging your entertainment spaces, or to put a roof over your existing patio, so that you can expand your outdoor activities?

Or is it time to add some ‘drama’ to your garden and let it come to life by night? Read here about some basic information about low-volume landscape lights that might help you select and build your system.

Look to these sources for help with your gardening questions or for great plants

Here are some suggestions of drought resistant plants that bring some color punch to your winter garden.

Waterwise Botanicals in Bonsall grow a wide range of excellent garden plants for the low water landscape. They offer detailed plant photos and descriptions as well as a newsletter and maintenance tips.

The newsletter provided by Walter Andersen Nurseries is always a great read.

San Marcos Growers grow “the best” in xeriscape plants and are always adding new ones; their plants are as great as their educational website.

Read here the very useful Green Thumb’s Nursery blog and month-to-month gardening guide.

Your garden is waiting – patiently.

There’s time now to plan for a pretty, satisfying garden next year. And while you diligently take care of all the chores in your garden, don’t forget to get inspired by visiting one or the other locales mentioned here, and add your own dream destinations.

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying these holidays and wish all my friends a wonderful, prosperous new year.

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

October 4, 2012 By Christiane Homquist Leave a Comment

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.

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

August 19, 2012 By Christiane Homquist 2 Comments

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’

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

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.

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 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 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.

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

June 22, 2012 By Christiane Homquist Leave a Comment

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.

Wow your mother with a plant that lasts – beyond Mother’s day

May 6, 2012 By Christiane Holmquist Leave a Comment

Browsing at my neighborhood garden center for a special Mother’s Day plant, I notice the pink and purple/lilac flower clusters of Hydrangeas strategically placed at the entrance. I’m impressed by their gorgeous petal ‘bombs’ and think that this old stand-by would probably wow my host, too.

But then a thought steels itself into my mind: How long will my gift decorate my host’s table? Will she throw it away when the bloom is over, or will she plant it? This frilly one wants much more water than our rainfall provides, and many of our local micro-climates and soils are anything but easy on it. The farther away from the coast it grows, the sooner it will require shading from the hot afternoon sun, and then it wants coddling with acid-forming fertilizer to keep its color, and regular and pricey water.

Matilija Poppy

As landscape designer San Diego that practices xeriscape landscaping and sustainability, I love plants that wow me AND have a good ROI, that are attractive low maintenance plants for the low water landscape. Check out these:

A Matilija Poppy Romneya coulteri in full bloom makes your jaw drop, and bloom is now starting, right in time for Mother’s Day. The fist-size flowers are carried atop 6-10 ft stems, for several weeks, exuding a strong fragrance of fresh apricots. This perennial shrub needs no additional water once established; it fits into all zones except mountains and deserts, likes sun or partial shade, and is adaptable to all soils except those that drain poorly. Establishment can be difficult, but once successful, it will send out underground stems in sandy or rocky soil and more slowly in clay soil and is thus difficult to contain. It is best planted along barely cultivated margins, on slopes as erosion control, in dry areas or along parkways. It should be cut down to a few inches above ground in fall to remove old foliage.

Consider also our native wild lilacs, the Ceanothus family that equally fit well into xeriscape designs. The members of this group can be evergreen groundcovers or small trees; some species have brilliant blue flowers, others range in hues of purple, violet and white. They keep their great form year-round, survive the greatest summer heat as true drought resistant plants; they make valuable contributions to any habitat garden by providing food (butterflies, insects, seeds) and cover.

Ray Hartman Wild Lilac Ceanothus arboreus ‘Ray Hartman’ is striking with glistening green leaves, a height of up to 18 ft, and with rose-colored buds and profuse clusters of sky blue flowers. It grows reliably in both interior and coastal sites.

California natives bring a sense of heritage and a connection to the future; they have an incredible potential in all sorts of garden designs if we understand which plants perform in which conditions. With lots of different foliage, flower colors and textures they’ll make your garden interesting in all seasons, and with careful selection you can get year round color because some plant will be in bloom any time of the year. With little needs to additional water or maintenance they are choice candidates for the residential landscape design that satisfy us for years to come and have a high ROI.

For other exceptional non-native plants for drought resistant landscaping, see my previous posts on My favorite plants for Southern California , on Gardens Exciting and Alive – Year round, Water-wise roses and more.

Check these links for recommended growing conditions, descriptions and sources:

Moosa Creek Nursery

Las Pilitas Nursery

Tree of Life Nursery

Theodore Payne Foundation

Looking for new landscape design ideas for your backyard? What about a pond?

March 1, 2012 By Christiane Homquist 9 Comments

One of my very first backyard landscape design projects was a small urban backyard renovation where the homeowners were tired of lawn and old shrubs. Ryan and Jill were dreaming of a much more peaceful, enchanting scene and asked me to design a pond that they could view from their deck.

The sound of water running in a small creek from a small rocky “outcropping” and mound in a far corner of the garden into the pond, and a dense leafy screen surrounding the garden would make the backyard very private and block out most of the city noises.

The design was installed some 8 years ago, and I recently went back to visit and to see how pond, fish and homeowners were doing.

I did arrive with some trepidations: My original choice of screening trees had not been the happiest: The Brazilian Tipuana tipu is a beautiful tree with lacey foliage and a wide, umbrella-like crown. It fits well into a low water landscape, is ‘green’ through our Southern California winter but starts shedding its foliage when most other deciduous trees have leafed out already. This takes several weeks until, in early summer, it bursts into the prettiest bloom of orange-yellow Sweet Pea-like flowers. Besides the leave drop problem I had expected that the trees in this xeriscape design would crowd each other out eventually, and I was expecting that the homeowner might regret that selection.

I was thrilled to see a scene not much changed since the garden had been installed: The creek was still running to the pond, providing needed oxygen and delighting us with its gurgling and bubbling sounds. Some twelve smallish Koi were busily milling close to the deck as the evening was approaching, to receive their daily feeding. The peaceful mood was still there as were the trees, although the homeowner said he would remove them soon because he intended to install solar panels on his roof. To my relief he said that he had loved their look and therefore didn’t mind the extra maintenance. I asked him about his maintenance program, and he explained that he adds a biological clarifier on a weekly basis, and an algaecide as needed (both are biological controls). He also uses a skimmer and filter cloth, hidden under a fake rock, that get cleaned weekly (except during heavy drop like the Tipus drop their leaves); then there’s a biofall (where the waterfall starts) in another plastic box that has the same filter mesh at the bottom and 2 mesh bags of rock. The leaves and petals are not too bad, he says – even when the wind has blown an extra load of petals into the water.

What about “visitors”? He has created some hollow spaces at the bottom of the pond under several overturned clay tiles where the fish hide when an occasional heron or egret comes to visit. Raccoons merely push a few of the smaller rocks around in their attempt to catch a Koi, but always give up – they don’t like the deep in the middle of the pond where the fish hide.

Over the years Ryan and Jill have enjoyed their water feature that always entertains them with a lively yet peaceful scenery: There are rocks and boulders, rushes and grasses at the water’s edge, and there’s the cherished Pineapple Guava that has grown into a graceful large shrub, on the other side of the pond.

There’s the play of sunlight on the water’s surface and the steady darting of dragon flies or other beneficial insects that land on blades and pads of Iris and Water Lilies. Birds of course come to the water’s edge to bathe and drink as well as other critters. Visitors come to stay, such as frogs, others wonder out again, such as the occasional raccoon.. There’s the comfortable chair across from the deck inviting to sit and watch the activities at the pond from a different angle, especially the perennial glint and splash of the Koi fish. There are lots of babies at this time – they are the babies that hatched in early summer of last year.

I’m not an expert in pond building or maintenance, so here’s a quick overview (and I don’t claim completeness):

The prominent ingredients of a fish pond are water, plants, fish, snails, soil, light, temperature – and time. After all the ingredients have been put together, it takes time for all to balance out and grow into a clear pond.

Algae, while they are unsightly, may not necessarily be unhealthy; they can make the water appear brownish or green, or grow as fine threads or moss-like coverings on shells, snails, walls and stones. Small fish can feed on some of these algae… Threadlike algae are often associated with crystal clear water and are evidence of the oxygen-generating ability of algae. A lot of things feed plants, algae and fish: Food that we give the fish; foliage that drops into the water and decays; and the waste that fish produce.

Adding aquatic plants to a pond not only increases its visual appeal and natural look; floaters such as Water Hyacinth , marginals such as Water Iris , and Water Lilies help reduce algae as they feed on nutrients or block out sunlight – both will starve the algae. Shading the water with leaves keeps the water cooler which is desirable. Chemical control may also be used if necessary, however great care must be taken to select chemicals safe for fish and plant life. As the pond matures, the need for chemicals should diminish. Keeping decomposing material in the water to a minimum will also lower the nutrients in the water, less food will then be available for the algae to feed upon. Prune off old leaves and skim the surface for fallen leaves.

The pH of the water can also affect pond balance, and there are formulas suggested to help achieve it. Also, you can determine the most balanced amount of fish and plants for your pond by calculating the water’s volume and surface area.

I’m not an expert in pond matters; I’d rather refer to an ‘ocean’ of information and helpful videos online… You can contact the local chapter of the California Landscape Contractors Association to refer you to a San Diego landscaper experienced in pond building.

And mosquitoes?

Did you know that fish eat mosquito larvae and that mosquitoes don’t like moving water? Keeping your water moving and cleaning off debris regularly that provides hiding places for mosquitoes is a good recipe to control mosquitoes.

What not to love about a pond! I myself have one, as part of my front yard landscape design, by my front door. I watch it from my living room window, and although its location isn’t perfect either (the previous owners must have decided to live with the maintenance; they created the pond at the edge of an oak canopy), it’s a most cherished delight of my garden.

Integrate your garden into the larger xeriscape that is our San Diego County.

(It could spell more fun and savings than you expected.)

Christiane Holmquist

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