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DIY Landscape Design: Breathe New Life into Your Garden, Part 2

January 31, 2014 By Christiane Holmquist Leave a Comment

Boundaries – Defining your space

A fence encloses, shelters and says “Here I’m safe”

As mentioned in the last post, the word ‘garden’ means enclosure. You are perhaps among those that enjoy a front lawn that is shared with their neighbors…

Other people need more of it, telling the world “This is my space” and “This is where I create my personal world.” To them boundaries imply that this space could be defended; they feel their personal space is intimate only when it is enclosed and when the fences or hedges restrict the access to their home. For them, even the front garden needs to be delineated, marked and enclosed, even if it is only with the hint of an enclosure, such as low fence or a row of shrubs.

If you feel more comfortable with an enclosure, consider that its type depends on your need for privacy or protection, as well as the style of your home. It should complement the house and garden that it protects, in design, scale, level of formality, materials or overall character.

This could also be the opportunity to show off your creativity or personality with some whimsical or artful accents.

Your outside living rooms

Isn’t a pond so much more interesting than a lawn?

Rather than seeing your garden as a static picture from inside your breakfast nook or from your patio, it might be time to view your landscape as an opportunity to create “rooms” for different purposes:

Perhaps you could have a private reading nook? A hammock under a tree might be all that’s needed… Or you have dreamed of a yoga/meditation nook? A small deck or paved area hidden away behind some large bushes might work for that. Or you have fantasies of loosing the old lawn and creating garden scenes that you can discover on an meandering pathway? If there’s too little room for separate spaces, perhaps it’s time to create your dreamy and forever soothing and entertaining pond, right next to your patio?

Now add personality and character (Accents & plants)

A bench placed under a tree and surrounded by foliage and flowers promises relaxation and comfort.

In shaping your garden, your fantasies and desires should be your guides: Now is the time to dream and then figure out how to bring your vision to reality.

You might have already assembled many cut-sheets, photos and magazine articles on landscape scenes that have appealed to you, and it will help to examine them for a common theme. I’d note why these images speak to you: Is it the intimacy of a space? The romantic feeling of a nook? The privacy of a green arbor? The intriguing textures of a plant scene? The playfulness of a whimsical fountain and a bench nearby inviting you to sit down with a magazine?

What object can give a garden a greater personal touch than your own fountain design?

By looking at these images, you can better evaluate your own garden and improve it by giving the whole your personal stamp and style.

For example, a stone ball could be an energetic and self-contained sculpture that’s a whimsical and a forever appealing counter point in the midst of your flowers. A glass ball could add a gleam of light among them, too.

Strolling past a whirligig, or a found object, or … (you fill in the blank) would be fun. This special thing will make you happy and will reveal just a little about your personality to the visitor.

Here, succulents and water-wise perennials surround the play lawn.

Ideas for colorful plantings abound online or in print in plant books and beautiful gardening magazines, or you can find them in botanical displays (such as the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon , or the San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas), so I’d like to add mainly these ideas:

Shrubs make good “bones”: they are part of the backbone of a garden, can provide privacy and screening; they add the permanence to the otherwise ephemeral plant material; Smaller shrubs and perennials then provide the décor, color, more temporary interest; they remind us of the passing of time and the never-ending cycle of natural processes.

All of these plants are vital to our gardens; but none should overpower them.

Time to plant a tree? (Or: Anchor your home to the environment; it might “fly off” otherwise…)

A tree can balance the proportions of a house, and “anchor” it to its environment

One of the most overlooked features often missing in gardens, especially in front yards, is a tree that embellishes the home. I don’t mean a tree that’s growing into the power lines or breaks up your driveway… nor a Eucalyptus long forgotten in the back yard, or a Pine tree that’s shedding needles onto your porch or roof either. I don’t mean a monster that has been topped and that can’t throw any shade on your home, in summer.

Trees organize, give structure and reinforce the character of a garden

Trees provide structure and organization to the garden, they add “weight” and character. They give shelter and shade to people, animals and plants; they screen out unwanted views or frame desirable ones.

Here’s what I would look for: A tree, in proportion to your home (for a one story home that means a tree that doesn’t get bigger than 25-30 ft), placed where it cools your home in summer. I would choose a deciduous tree: In winter then the sun will warm your house.

Don’t forget that the height of a tree, say 25 ft, usually means that the roots will spread AT LEAST as wide, but most trees’s root systems spread 1-2 times that far… It’s therefore very important that you plant the tree at a distance of at least half of its height from any structure (foundation walls, patios, walkways, driveways) that could restrict its growth, or where the roots could do damage later down the road.

A tree like that can ‘anchor’ your home to the surroundings and firmly ‘plant’ it in its environment. The tree’s canopy will be a shelter for anybody walking under it; which is why I would try to plant it close to porches or terraces.

Now you’re (almost) there: You can already look for the new hammock to hang in that tree…

DIY Landscape Design: Breathe New Life into Your Garden

January 28, 2014 By Christiane Holmquist 1 Comment

January is a perfect time for winter clean up and fresh home landscape design ideas. This post shows you how to breathe new life into your garden.

Coral Tree (Erythrina bidwillii) A Coral Tree in full bloom is a gorgeous sight, and seeing it you might have felt a stir of desire for such a punch of color in your garden? And did you realize that you haven’t enjoyed it much lately, that it is stale, and that much about it bothers you? But how do you breathe life into it?

January, for us Southern Californios, is a perfect time for winter clean up and fresh landscape design ideas: Although this winter is warmer than usual, it is still a better season to plant than summer. So should you start your refresher with plants?

The Power of Structure

A beautiful plant scene is seductive, but without a structure is does not become a garden.

It’s easy to be seduced by the gorgeous plants at a specialty nursery or in a magazine, and many gardeners have the impression that introducing new exotics or the latest hybrid would be the solution to a satisfying outdoor living space. However, in my consultations at the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon I meet many homeowners who, much more urgently than with plants, accents or atmosphere, need help with the basic “bones”. That is, with the structures that give shape and form to a garden: As the original meaning of the word ‘garden’ implies, it’s the ‘enclosure’ , the pathways and edgers, gates and transitions, pergolas and fences, patios and shelters that create the garden. Only when they can fulfill their functions of giving definition, protection and organization to the garden would I be ready to flesh it out with plants, accents, personal style.

Thus, starting with the structure(s) can remedy the underlying defects or shortcomings of any landscape. But should you begin in the front yard, or rather the backyard?

In practical life, it’s only you who can answer this questions: If your front yard is not inviting any longer and you get upset every time you come home, it’s time to invest here.

However, if you can accept the idea that the front yard isn’t perfect but it’s really your backyard that bothers you most because you don’t find the peace and comfort here that you dream of, it’s wiser and more satisfying to create that sanctuary first. From the enjoyment of that space it will be the easier to tolerate the imperfect front yard!

Elements to consider

If it’s the front yard that needs refreshing, ask yourself: What’s there to invite a visitor to walk up to my front door? Could the trash cans be hidden behind their own enclosure? Are the irrigation valves out of sight? Is it safe for walking; are the steps even, the lighting sufficient, the path wide enough?

Is there a genuine walkway, or do your visitors walk up to your front door on your driveway? If so, now is the time to give your walkway the “weight” it deserves: To approach a front door on a driveway that’s just wide enough for the owner’s cars feels to me as though visitors aren’t really expected. Creating a walkway allows you to show off your landscape and to create a ‘discovery’ path makes the journey more memorable: Let the visitor get a feel for your personal touch and appreciate your love for details, by planting attractive plants, setting out yard art perhaps, or displaying an attractive container.

The garden underfoot

Here, a beautiful flagstone on concrete walkway is leads safely to the front door.

Don’t forget also to look at your pavement: Is it comfortable, safe and in harmony with the style of your house?

The options for the pavement materials are numerous: Prefabricated concrete pavers; porcelain or stone tile; brick or flagstones on concrete or placed directly on sand; DG or concrete…Even decking material (as in wood/timber or synthetic lumber) can work and give a beautifully warm and naturalistic touch to the landscape.

Flagstones “sand-set” with inter-planting lend naturalism to a landscape

As a response perhaps to the stress of urban life and our isolation from nature, I get a lot of requests for flagstone and DG as pavement material because they are perceived as more naturalistic, and flagstone is very “in” these days. A flagstone path with green plants between the flat stones can look very attractive. The reality, unfortunately, is that these “inter-plantings” are rarely successful: As these plants need to be watered, this kind of pavement doesn’t contribute exactly to water savings, and it’s advisable to apply the irrigation at times when any puddles on the irregular surfaces of the stones can evaporate before the morning use.

DG used in a naturalistic garden path fits well into a relaxed landscape

More of a nuisance are the weeds that invade these inter-spaces often and that are difficult to eliminate; most often they need to be pulled by hand. Leaving sand, DG (decomposed granite), or coarser gravel between the stones would be the easiest solutions.

Flagstone as garden path is attractive material, with or without inter-planting

DG is made from weathered granite. In the landscape industry it is most often used in pavement as a naturalistic material that, if not “stabilized” by additives, is permeable. It is mixed with color and sold in several earth tones,and when compacted it is a material widely used in landscaping. Unfortunately, despite of the compaction and binding agents used in it, the surface grains sit loosely on top and therefore the DG should only be used on a flat area; in my opinion it’s not suitable for any ramped area as one could easily slip and fall.

As material used for a path leading to a front door I myself don’t use it much; I find it too ‘loose’ and relaxed for most front yards, and hesitate to recommend it when it is likely that feet and shoes carry the coarse sandy grains into the house.

Flagstone, firmly set in concrete in a walkway, is costly in comparison to interlocking pavers, or colored concrete, or laid “on grade” (on sand/without concrete base). With inter-spaces, and sand between the flags, it is not as foot-friendly and trip-safe as I would want it to be, in a space that’s accessible to the public.

Concrete pavers (“interlocking”) are a very popular paving material

Interlocking (or segmental) pavers are much in demand these days because versatile and attractive. (Actually, pavers made from stone, concrete or brick have been in use for thousands of years.) The varying degrees of tumbling of the paving stones that define the texture, and the pattern and size define the character of the paved areas, and you can achieve effects from an elegant smooth pavement to a historic-looking ancient cobble stone effect.

The pavers are easy to remove if necessary (for instance when you want to add a footing for a shade structure or other features later); cracking can never occur (as would be possible with concrete pavement).

Colored concrete is also used; I find the sandy “sand finish” or “acid wash” on colored concrete very attractive and fitting into a contemporary as well as a classic look.

Whether colored acid-wash concrete, concrete pavers or cut stone pavers laid directly “on grade” (directly on native soil or sand), you’d benefit from the help from an experienced craftsman/mason.

Click here to read more about DIY Landscape Design …

From Boring Yard to Garden Joy: Six Steps to Help You Create Your Dream Landscape Design (Part I)

September 30, 2013 By Christiane Homquist Leave a Comment

Are you dreaming of a peaceful, functional and relaxing outdoor living space?

One that you want to spend every free minute in?

For a successful home landscape design that brings you enjoyment, peace and comfort, take these ingredients:

Dream it (and now’s the time to pull all the stops)
Determine your needs (i.e. what you can realistically do); assign required space dimensions to each element
Define your style
Draw a plan (or get landscape design help)
Remove and keep only what’s desirable (f. ex. a shade tree) and put it all together
Enjoy!

It’ll work for you, too, with this recipe! Here’s how we did it for Rachel’s garden:

1. Dream it
When I first met Rachel she had come with her garden club to visit a garden that I had designed. She complimented me on the beauty of the design and asked if I’d be interested in helping her with her yard: She didn’t think much could be made of it since it was so small, but could I come to see it anyways?

Rachel, at her wonderful age of 83, is a very active member in a few different clubs, and as we talked it was apparent that she had a clear idea of what she dreamt of:

Have more friends over and entertain them in her garden.

She hoped for a space in her garden in which to serve some light foods and drinks, surrounded by color and beauty. The lawn wasn’t comfortable anymore to walk on, and over the years the shrubs had been disfigured and pruned into boring blobs; many had just disappeared and had never been replaced.

Where would I create this entertainment space, since the yard was so small?
And would there perhaps be room for a lounge chair in a reading nook?
And could she have a fountain, or other water feature?
And would we have enough room still for many flowers and interesting textures?
The entire yard was enclosed by a 5 ft wall not high enough to block out the neighbor’s window. Could we make the garden more private without blocking her view of the ocean?

2. Determine your needs (i.e. what you can realistically do); assign required space dimensions to each element

The first thing I asked Rachel was to define and tell me about how she planned to entertain her friends:

Would she want to sit down at a table and serve food there?
And how many people would she like to seat?
And where would the food be served from, since the main kitchen was upstairs, on the first floor?

We determined that she wasn’t going to serve hot food but only salads and finger foods prepared in the smaller downstairs kitchen in her guest apartment. This way she wouldn’t need any tables to sit down as most people (mostly groups of up to 10 to 15 people) would be standing or strolling through the garden; some seating could be provided with benches.

(Note: To seat 4 people around a table we would have needed at least 10 sq ft ; this seems to be the bare minimum, and if you need circulation space around it or your chairs are a bit oversized, 14 sq ft for this dining area would be needed.)

However, to accommodate these groups, two “entertainment” areas would be best, and I suggested to allow for each about 12 x 12 ft : This would allow room for benches, some additional (temporary) seating if necessary, and still have enough planting space around them to soften all. Also, these spaces would need to be connected with easy pathways. (Inviting people to stroll from one area to the other would be a perfect way to display plants to be discovered on the way.)

Since most of her friends are elderly, the pavement under foot needed to be safe, which in my mind excluded any materials with uneven surface such as flagstones or gravel.

This left stabilized/compacted DG (decomposed granite), concrete, tiles and interlocking pavers; which one would we be using?

3. Define your style

Examining her house and garden for elements that would help define the style of this new backyard landscape design, I noted these clues:

The main assets of the existing garden were a mature Pine tree in the corner that provided lovely shade (unfortunately pruned very unprofessionally but not beyond repair); also two mature fruit trees in the other corner, and a beautiful view of the ocean, in between a couple of roofs in the neighborhood. We would try to keep the mature trees.
Enclosing the garden was a 5 ft wall that had the potential of making it more private if it could be raised in a few critical areas?
Architectural style: Her house is a Southwest/Perceived Spanish 2-story building with white stucco and red tile roof, and an upstairs balcony from which she views her garden and the ocean.
There was an existing, albeit small patio paved with grey concrete; any new pavement would need to harmonize with it since we there was no budget to remove this pavement.
About Rachel’s preferred style: The strongest clues as to Rachel’s taste were, as with so many design clients, visible inside the home: She loves Mexican and Southwestern art, as displayed everywhere in terracotta tile floors, furniture, colorful cushions, glazed ceramics, paintings and souvenirs from the Southwest. Red tile was used everywhere, and the walls surrounding her garden are reminiscent of a Spanish courtyard whose surrounding walls allowed a beautiful view of the ocean.

We have now assembled the first ingredients of this recipe . For how to put them together for your dream garden, please read my follow-up post.

As Fall Brings Harvest, and Score Yields Music, So Does Design Yield Award!

September 28, 2013 By Christiane Homquist 15 Comments

(Regarding my “Gardens of the Year Award” in Eva Ditler’s article
“On key”, in San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles, September 2013.

Photography by Martin Mann, Patricia Bean/Expressive Architectural Photography and Christiane Holmquist

Finding the beautiful photos of my award winning design in the San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles magazine and reading Eva Ditler’s melodic description of the garden gave me a jolt of pride and delight. It’s with amazement that I realize how many talents went into the creation of this article: My client Melissa’s almost lyrical explanation of the garden and reference to the music she “hears” in it and that went into its creation; the writer’s skill that gave such a pleasing and expressive rendering of it; the photographer’s craft in capturing the light and atmosphere of the garden; and the experience, focus on detail and enthusiasm that went into the design.

Yes, and music (as the article refers to): Perhaps, with my love for it, I grasped what Melissa had in mind and was able to create a “melodic landscape garden that takes its cue from music” and that is so enjoyable. And during the creation I enjoyed the exploration of exceptional materials, the symphony of colors, and the concert of ideas between me and Melissa like two instruments playing together.

I deeply appreciate the opportunity to work with her, as I appreciate the award and the coverage of it in San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles.

All of this is impacting my understanding of what I do and where I have arrived, after 15 or so years in this craft. Designing a garden is risky endeavor: When I design something, I base it on the client’s mostly verbal description of the desired garden. At the time of presentation of the design this vision exists only in my own mind; by sharing it with the client, I hope to communicate this vision to her, and, in doing so, expose myself to her “verdict”: Did I capture her description and the desired mood? Can I communicate, with my craft, my vision, and will she agree with it? Can I then follow where she wants me to take the design and get even more into her head, while applying my own design principles?

The present design is one very individual response to a particular set of challenges and demands. However, its results and appeal are based on the same principles that must be applied to all designs and that, as they are applied to a different set of challenges and demands, will create a very different garden and feel: It’s the balance of hardscapes with living plantings; the juxtaposition of delicate foliage and intriguing materials; the functionality of spaces and the harmony of colors that result in a garden that is useful. This will be a garden that is deeply satisfying to live in, and that everybody can enjoy.

A big thank-you to the judges that voted for me!

Read more about this garden in my earlier post “Joint Venture in La Jolla”.

MORE GARDENING & ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:

The Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon/CA is a place that I cherish as place of fun, entertainment and education on water conservation and sustainable landscape design. It offers 5 acres of displays that are easy to walk and explore and that are filled with great drought resistant plants and educational displays of landscape materials. It offers classes on all manner of landscape issues. Other events offer landscape design help that can make life easier for novices or those that are into DIY landscape design.

The WCG will celebrate its “Fall Plantstravaganza” on Nov. 2, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 3 pm. These events have always been highly educational and entertaining to all gardeners and those who love plants and landscapes. You can even buy exceptional drought tolerant plants here and bring your questions to the horticulture “experts”, such as vegetable and Master Gardeners, arborists, and representatives of water authorities; and you can schedule a low-fee consultation with a design professional. (“I’ll be one of those professional landscape designers here; I also offer classes here and 1 hr consultations.)

Don’t forget to mark your calendars — hope to see you there!

From Boring Yard to Garden Joy: Six Steps to Help You Create Your Dream Landscape Design (Part II)

July 31, 2013 By Christiane Homquist 2 Comments

In my previous post, I described the first 3 ingredients to creating your most inviting outdoor living space:
1. Dream it; 2. determine your needs and assign physical space requirements to each element; 3. define your style.

Here now are the remaining three steps to make this happen:

4. Draw up a plan for your home landscape design (or get professional landscape design help)

Taking in all the clues from Rachel’s interior design, the architecture of her house and her preferred color palette a picture was quickly emerging in my mind:

I pictured a low water landscape breathing peace and beauty, brimming with color and plant life. The garden would be laid out around two main paved areas reminiscent of Spanish/Mexican courtyards.
Benches would offer seating to take a drink or finger food, to enjoy the many colors or to feel the comfortable atmosphere and peaceful mood of the garden.
One area would invite more for quiet sitting and contemplation of a fountain ;
The other area, closest to Rachel’s kitchen, would be the main food serving area. Here two benches would form a square for people to mingle, with room for side tables that Rachel could bring in if she had more trays than she wanted to place directly on the benches.
A walkway would be connecting these spaces, and their layout would be following the shape of the house (its walls were slightly curved outwards); the new pavement would be placed directly adjacent to the existing patio to allow people comfortable access to all areas of the garden.
Doing this suggested either a similar or a completely different pavement…
The benches would allow me to introduce more colors into the garden: They would be in complementary colors to each other, to the perimeter walls that I’d also paint, and to an additional, purely ornamental wall that I would use as “room divider”, “weight” and upright element in the garden.
This wall, in the shape of an undulating wave, would complement and contrast a water feature that would be the focal point of the quieter sitting area.

5. Remove what’s not needed; and put all ingredients together:

Rachel was very excited about the first draft of this backyard landscape design and approved all of it.

She was most thrilled about the idea of applying paint to all of the walls, the perimeter wall included.

And she loved the fountain idea which consisted of two stone slabs, mounted one on top of the other at differing angles, with a central core from which water would run over both stones.

For the new pavement we opted for grey concrete with an acid wash finish (which brings out the sand aggregate in the mix). This seemed the most elegant and cost-effective material that would harmonize with the existing grey concrete. (In the photo outlines of the future design elements are drawn onto the ground to help fine-tune their shape and dimensions, and to help the homeowner visualize the future look of the garden. It also shows how all plants have been removed except for the fruit trees and the Pine Tree in the opposite corner.)

And so the final design came together very quickly. After a soil test we chose a mix of some “Southwestern” plants with some other ones that like it here in Leucadia, too: Rock Purslane Calandrinia spectabilis, Aloe ‘Red Hot Chili Pepper’, Red Yucca Hesperaloe parviflora, Aeonium ‘Cabernet’ and Crassula ‘Campfire, to name a few’; more drought resistant plants such as Sundrops Calylophus drummondii and Penstemon Margarita BoP; the “bones” and structure of this low water landscape would be provided by the shrubs ‘Goldstar’ Yellow Bells Tecoma stans stans ‘Goldstar’ and Dwarf Variegated Myrtle Myrtus communis variegata compacta, to which Rachel added a favorite of hers, a Yellow Mexican Bird of Paradise Caesalpinia gilliesii. We placed another shade tree to shade the reading nook (Crape Myrtle “Centennial Spirit” Lagerstroemia x hybrids), over at the other end of the garden; its orange-red color will be a nice color teaser when in bloom. Ornamental grasses add a light and airy, even dreamy character to the plantings. Here we used Hairy Awn Mulhly Muhlenbergia capillaris, Golden Variegated Sweet Flag Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’, and Blue Oat Grass Helictotrichon sempervirens.

Purple Bougainvilleas drape a post-and-wire-trellis in two critical places to raise the privacy screen around the perimeter but leave a window to view the ocean.

To the colors of the plants those of the walls would be a permanent contrast, stimulus and harmonious “compliment” . We chose Orange for the perimeter wall; “Violet Majesty” purple for the seatwalls; and Chartreuse/lime for the curved wall across from the fountain.

6. Enjoy!

Sitting in the sun with Rachel recently on one of the colorful benches, and enjoying a sweet breakfast Danish (a “prop” left-over from staging her garden for the photo shoot), she remarked on how much she loves her garden now, and how she marvels at discovering, every morning when she comes outside to visit it, another plant in bloom or just colorful on its own.

At that moment a bee was visiting a rock purslane flower right behind her shoulder, and as I was pointing the bee out to her she hardly moved away and said she loved how so many of them are now visiting her garden. This is what she had dreamt of, and she’s learning to take care of the plants and delight in them any moment she can.

This backyard landscape design was faithfully executed by San Diego Landscaper Mark Sterk/Columbine Landscape Inc.

Sustainable Landscape Design – Celebrating California at its Best

May 1, 2013 By Christiane Homquist 2 Comments

Everything about the location of their new home appealed to Ara and Diego: Conveniently located at a comfortable driving distance to schools, work (both work in medical research at a local university), shopping and cultural events of San Diego, and located in a quiet residential neighborhood, it offered a magnificent view of San Diego Bay, right from their back patio. It had a good-sized landscape with many fruit trees and room for Diego’s exotics collection; it even had a pool and large play lawns for the couple’s three children.

The home’s architecture and layout however left a lot to be desired: The 70’s style red tile roof of this Perceived-Spanish fantasy weighed heavily on it; chopped-up rooms and lack of windows and doors were not taking advantage of one of the most prized attributes to Southern California lifestyle: Our brilliant skies and mild temperatures inviting “inside-out living” spaces that blend seamlessly together. Ara and Diego dreamt of taking advantage of all as much as possible; with their love of contemporary and mid-century modern art and architecture they decided on a radical transformation of their new home. The changes would not stop at the home itself; picket fence, spindly palm trees and neatly hedged shrubs did not fit into their aesthetics either nor into their sense of sustainability.

One of the first things they decided on was to lift off the heavy roof, revealing the clean horizontal lines of a modernist bungalow, and refreshing the exterior with a white smooth “Santa Barbara” stucco. On the inside, rooms were enlarged, and in the center a large community space created that floats seamlessly from living to dining to living space. The old entry hall was removed and replaced by a courtyard that is open to the front yard; a room addition created a U-shaped patio in the back yard. Here a warm, barefoot-friendly Ipe deck is a continuation of the wood flooring indoors and invites as much living outdoors as possible, facilitated by sliding doors that connect every room with the outside.

Ara’s and Diego’s creative passions didn’t stop at the house : They were interested in landscape design help that would complement and soften the crisp edges of the home’s modernist design; it needed also to reflect the couple’s artwork and accommodate their active lifestyle. The new landscape design should work with the dry California climate as a low water landscape; it should only require a modicum of maintenance, and it also needed to incorporate Diego’s exotic collection of cacti and succulents.

As we were brainstorming possible landscape design ideas, we agreed that the lawns had an essential place in the landscape as much-used play areas for the couple’s children and their friends. Both the back yard landscape design as well as the front yard are designed around the children’s activities.

The entrance patio, right next to the garage and the driveway, was a bit too open to the public; we wanted it to be off-set without employing a heavy screen. The pavement here consisted of a beautiful travertine tile into which we cut out a row of tiles, just between it and the driveway. Here we placed a couple of naturally rusted steel troughs that “enclosed” the patio and created a visual although very low separation between the two. More a suggestion rather than an actual screen, a lacy curtain of horsetail reeds creates greater privacy for this courtyard that is open to the public yet can’t easily be scrutinized by passersby.

Decorating the wall across from the breakfast room we mounted a red metal sculpture fabricated after Ara’s and Diego’s design. It decorates a fountain trough made also of steel left to rust naturally. (The fountain is presently under repair, and the trough not filled.)

With the heavy roofs gone, the horizontal lines of the architecture dominated the landscape. I employed xeriscape plants whose dramatic shapes, intricate textures and sky-reaching forms contrast with the regularity of the architecture and lend an exotic touch to the landscape: Dracaenas Dracaena marginata, Ponytail Palm Beaucarnea recurvata, Caribbean Copper Plant Euphorbia cotinifolia and Purple Peppermint Willow Agonis flexuosa ‘After Dark’ lend the height and the dark color accent; Agaves and cacti the exotic notes; bold Aeoniums and Rock Purslane Calandrinia spectabilis the color and visual interest. A giant New Zealand Flax, Rushes and False Yucca Hesperaloe parviflora lend the airier character, and to all xeriphytic perennials contribute a softening effect.

The old access to the side yard was re-designed; a good-looking Ipe fence picks up the material used in the back yard for the deck extension and inside the home for the flooring.

Diego had already started a substantial collection of fantastic cacti such as Cleistocactus and Cereus monstrosus; also Foxtail Agaves, Aloes and a giant Euphorbia canariensis; some of them had been salvaged from his previous home. They all found their new home in this xeriscape San Diego and are a much better aesthetical fit for the home’s architectural style than the clipped shrubs and fence of the former landscape. Some of them act as their own dramatic pieces of art and have prominent places in the landscape (here across from the red metal courtyard sculpture).

A local gravel called ‘Palm Springs Gold’ serves as mulch and adds a textural element. It is also a clean foil against which the colors and textures of these plants stand out. It evokes a desert scape in which succulents are used in great numbers together with long-flowering and lasting perennials and other drought resistant plants.

More from common sense and the desire for sustainability than aesthetics, the existing pool and part of the previous deck (bordering the new Ipe deck) were integrated into the new landscape and allow a smooth access from house to pool, play lawn and garden.

When the weather is warm which is around 300 days a year, the family keeps the windows and sliding doors to this terrace open.

What an exciting project this was, and how satisfying. To me as landscape designer San Diego it reflects a new “California Mix”: A definite aesthetic sense influencing the design of home and garden without ever imposing a purist’s approach; a strong desire for a sustainable landscape design that honors the style of the owners while acknowledging the needs of the family and the environment.