Christiane Holmquist Landscape Design

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The lawn needs to go – but what then? Water Conservation Issues and Garden Re-do addressed at “The Garden”

March 24, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist

boulder scene in late afternoon with succulents and drought tolerant shrubsrelaxing chair under tree amongst grasses and perennials

Prompted by the rising water cost and irrigation restrictions, San Diego homeowners consult the many resources available the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon (at www.thegarden.org ).  Among these resources are landscape design and horticulture experts offering consultations on subjects like “California Friendly Plants”, watering, arboriculture (the science concerned with trees),  construction issues and landscape design. I enjoy being one of those professionals, and I thought you might be curious to learn how such a consultation might work for the people that come there. 

succulents and perennials adorn boulderIn my consultations I generally encounter the same objective:  Feeling the need to reduce their water bill or wanting a landscape that is more practical and ecological,  these homeowners are ready to retire their mostly lawn-centered landscape.  They come to the Water Conservation Garden with the common question,  “What do I plant now?”   Most of them believe that planting the right plants would make their gardens better and solve their problems; isn’t that what the beautiful low-water-use plants at “The Garden” are all about?

I understand this thinking but, as designer and horticulturist, I don’t think that suggesting different, albeit drought resistant, water-wise  or “xeric” plants, would address the underlying problem (although those plants are generally more sustainable).   I feel that planting random groups of plants into the former lawn area would not create attractive, comfortable spaces for outdoor living that “work”.  Since that is my focus, I explain to the visitors that it would serve them best if they considered first how to make enjoyable outdoor living possible, in separate spaces designed for different uses.

What needs to happen in a yard so it can become an “outdoor living room”?  How do you convert it into a play room, or entertainment space, a space to hang out, relax, dream, rejuvenate? 

A garden space needs to be organized spatially and hierarchically, and I start my design process, in which I involve my visitors, by asking them if they can think of an activity that they would like to do but never had room for or that was relegated to a back corner of their garden.  Perhaps there is some almost forgotten vision of a garden scene in the recesses of their memory that they never took seriously?  Take the example of my last visitors at the Garden:

This family, husband, wife and son, arrived well prepared for the consultation, with photos and a sketch of their garden drawn to scale. They had decided to take out most of the lawn, a large expanse right by the patio; they would only keep a small part of it for their son for whom lawn mowing is a therapeutic activity.  Opposite the patio, far across the lawn, was a planter bed, but since it was so far away and confined also by a low wall, the flowers in it were not recognizable from the patio. To my surprise, the lady told me that it held roses!  Her husband mentioned, almost in passing, that he would like to grow succulents.  Some trees were there, but they had been planted around the louter perimeter of the lawn so that they couldn’t throw any shade where it mattered most, which was on their hot south-west facing patio. 

“Hardscaping” elements such as patios, walk ways, fencing, arbors, boulders –  convey permanence and add structure.  Most of them don’t have to be maintained, except for some new coat of paint or occasional sweeping, depending on the material used. And they don’t demand watering, fertilization, pruning… So I suggest to incorporate them as much as possible into a design and let them “furnish” the garden, organize the space into areas of different use, provide separation as well as access, focal points, delineation and definition.

In the case of the before mentioned visitors, we found that a swing for adults, placed under a shade tree, would be lovely to have; I suggested to place it at the far end of the garden from where the family could see house and patio from a new perspective, and I drew its outlines on transparent paper taped over their sketch. And why not pull rose bed and succulents closer to the patio from where they could be seen?  Of course not into one flower bed, but in different areas that are perhaps even mounded up, separated by a walk way:  Gently curved mounds give movement to an otherwise flat plan, and the plants on them can be seen better, like on a painted canvas. And if your soil drains poorly, creating those mounds helps improve the drainage because you can mix the mounded soil to provide the drainage your plants need, such as many Mediterranean plants, California Natives and succulents, and even roses.

roses decorate arbor and frame a view

roses framing view

As for the lawn, we drew a much reduced kidney-shaped area that started at one end of the patio, wrapped around behind the rose bed and the succulent mound, and ended at the other end of the patio. This way it was still visible and easy to get to from the patio without dominating the foreground.  And to make all the different areas accessible, we discussed stepping stones and DG as possible material for the walkways, even coarse landscape mulch was considered.

Lastly we reviewed the possible locations of trees, and I pointed to my most favorite reference books on this subject:  Ornamental Trees for a Mediterranean Climate, the trees of San Diego, by Steve Brigham with book design and photographs by Don Walker, and the Sunset Western Garden Book. Here gardeners can research all their favorite choices before making the final selection; they can actually visit the trees shown in the tree book at their location!

Our time was up, and although we had not talked much about plants in detail, the family was happy (I suggested to look to the Water Conservation Garden’s displays for ideas).  Both husband and wife had information and tools in their hands that will make “playing” with their spaces, on paper first, a fun and exciting activity; selecting goals that are realistic and achievable with their budget and energy will now be a manageable task. And finally, armed with the proper reference books and resources that the Water Conservation Garden and other public gardens in San Diego County offer, they will be on their way to a garden that they can enjoy, and live in.

Filed Under: Drought Resistant Landscape, Landscape Design Tagged With: drought tolerant gardening, drought tolerant plants, drought tolerant trees, dry climate design, garden design, garden renovation, gardening ideas, irrigation restrictions in Southern California, landscape design, landscape design consultations, landscape re-do advice, landscape rehab, landscape-redo, lawn removal, limited water resources, low-water-use, outdoor living room, redesign of landscape after lawn removal, sustainable garden design, Sustainable landscape design, Water Conservation, Water Conservation Garden, Water Conserving plants, water-wise landscape design, xeriscape, xeriscape plants

Reclaim Your Front Garden From the Public – and integrate it into your living space

May 17, 2010 By Christiane Holmquist

In this and a couple of future articles I’ll be considering the role of the front garden in landscape designs – and in people’s lives. Perhaps I can add some points to the on-going discussion in the gardening community about landscape design that is not only contemporary and sustainable, but also homeowner-friendly.

My garden aesthetics are forever shaped by childhood memories where our garden gate opened to a romantic hide-away with play lawn, perennial borders and shade trees that we kids could climb in to hide, have our private “club” meetings, tell stories and make plans. The romance and seclusion of that place is still shaping my attitude towards gardens that I visit today: If it doesn’t give me a feeling of privacy and I can’t see any significant evidence of the owner’s personality in it, it’s not a garden for me but only an impersonal outdoor space.

A typical sub-division front garden in University City/San Diego

A typical sub-division front garden in University City/San Diego

Almost everywhere in our County we can observe the legacy of an American garden design approach that is neither suited to our California lifestyle, our changing tastes nor to our environment: Although ever smaller lots are making garden space more precious, the setback regulations in most Californian communities have not changed, to the effect that houses are still built with a considerable portion of their front garden given over to the public. The attitude towards front garden design is still dominated by the unquestioned expanse of “green”, and all other elements seem to be mere after-thoughts. One of my horticulture teachers called this lawn the “most expensive crop that is watered, fertilized, cut, and then thrown away”.

This was sadly evident in our own community in University City/San Diego where we lived with our 2 young children for a few years. In the front yard there was a lawn, a shade tree and some shrubs – the typical subdivision landscape. Although the children discovered that they could climb the tree easily and we built a tree house in it, all activity here was in the public’s eye; there was no shelter from noise and passers-by and certainly no visual interest.   Aware that water is not in abundance in Southern California, we asked ourselves also whether it made sense at all to water here when we clearly had so little enjoyment from our front yard.

Front yard showing signs of becoming a garden

Front yard showing signs of becoming a garden

So the lawn had to make room for a flower and shrub buffer between street and front door. We stopped watering the lawn and at the end of summer dug up the dead sod, imported a few cubic yards of good soil and created a low stretched-out mound along the street. We planted California Natives and compatible drought tolerant plants on this little berm to create a living “lacey” screen between the street and the mulched play area.  The following spring our front garden was a blooming sea of foliage and flowers which attracted bees, birds, neighbors, and kids who came to play in the tree house. By the second year most of the shrubs were tall enough so that the play area felt even more secluded, and we added a swing so that the adults could enjoy some of the fun here, too.

Flowering shrubs creating privacy and suspense in front garden

Flowering shrubs create privacy and suspense in front garden

As Rita Sackville-West, the English garden designer and writer, observed about the lack of fencing or boundary in the American front yard: “Americans must be far more brotherly-hearted than we are, for they do not seem to mind being over-looked. They have no sense of private enclosure.”

Flowers and children in the front garden

Flowers and children in the front garden

This is an interesting thought, but I don’t think that my attitude towards gardening and design is born out of the reluctance to be “sisterly” or democratic. When a design has fulfilled the first demand: To satisfy the homeowner’s needs and marry them pleasingly with the constraints that the terrain, the architecture and the environment present; my second and vital desire is to make this outdoor space enjoyable and appealing to all senses and make every square inch of it count. But how could I enjoy this space when it’s indistinguishable from those on either side and when it is not mine, but the public’s?

I view the front yard as an opportunity for creativity rather than as a space given over to convenience or to the obligatory anonymous, park-like setting of the past.

In my next article I will continue to share some of my experiences and thoughts on this topic, and if you are interested, please read more about this in a couple of weeks.

Filed Under: Gardening tips, Landscape Design Tagged With: dealing with community setback regulations, drought tolerant gardening, drought tolerant plants, garden design, homeowner-friendly landscape design, landscape design with berm, lawn removal, privacy planting, sustainable garden design, Sustainable landscape design, sustainable landscape design approach

From lawn-scape to entertainment garden: How much fun can you have in your garden?

March 15, 2010 By Christiane Holmquist

This project was one of the most satisfying transformations that I have worked on, and in this neighborhood it presents a dramatic deviation from the traditional Rancho Bernardo landscape which consists of large lawns and foundation plantings.  To be frank those lawns and usually clipped foundation shrubs don’t create much interest, and I hesitate calling these “gardens”; they rather invite me to yawn.

Lawn garden BeforeEntertainment patio AfterFortunately, the homeowner shared this feeling and wanted all his lawn removed:  He felt that he had neither an enticing space to indulge in his love for tropical plants, nor that the existing patio offered sufficient room to entertain his family and friends, and that a lawn would not serve him any longer.  Although the outside of the home did not reveal the client’s taste, I noticed many modern art objects inside his home. A little bored with the ubiquitous curved and “free-form” lines for pathways, lawns and patios, I hoped he would be open to a more modern or contemporary approach to the desired re-design of his landscape, and I was excited when he said he was.

Utility Enclosure and Walkways I was now free to examine whether an orthogonal or right-angled arrangement of spaces and elements would work, and it turned out that the combination of both would produce the best results: Since the existing patio was not only crammed into the smallest portion of his back yard but also too close for comfort to a more private and quieter sitting area that he wished to create by his bedroom, the dining and entertainment terrace needed to be moved out into the garden, into the previous lawn area had been.  A patio of the desired dimensions would only fit if set at a 45 degree angle to the architectural lines of the house.

Walkways through the gardenSide yard BeforeThis invited to repeat the angular layout in the walkways that connect the main patio with a small breakfast area by the front entrance as well as with the quiet-zone by the bedroom:  Colored smooth concrete pavers of varying size cross a garden that is populated with a variety of tropical and subtropical plants. Even the fenced utility enclosure jots out at a 45 degree angle from the house.

Back Patio BeforeQuiet Zone After

While the quiet-zone at the bedroom received a traditional shade cover with a slightly sloping roof, the homeowner splurged in a custom peaked-roof trellis over the dining patio– a fun variation from the traditional flat roof that is more economic to install.

In order to keep the water bill moderate and with an eye to sustainability, I combined many brightly colored sub-tropical moderate water-users: the magenta-flowering succulent Rock Purslane Calliandra surinamense, intensely blue Catmint “Blue Wonder” , orange-red Lantana, Blue Hibiscus Alyogyne huegelii, Golden Wonder Senna Cassia splendida ‘Golden’, Firecracker Broom Russelia equisitiformis and Cape Honeysuckle Tecoma capensis, with thirstier tropical plants such as Princess Flower Tibouchina, Pink Trumpet Tree Tabebuia impetiginosa, and flamboyant Canna Lily Canna.  Most of these plants are easy to maintain (the Canna perhaps needs a little more attention to keep it clean looking) yet moderate in their water consumption.  With separately timed (drip) irrigation stations a combination like this conserves water yet allows the garden the tropical feel that the client desired.  And since he knows that his drip irrigation system is quite adaptable to add-ons, he is happily continuing to bring in exciting finds of his own selection.

Filed Under: Landscape Design Tagged With: brightly colored sup-tropical plants, drip irrigation, landscape design, Landscape Design in Rancho Bernardo CA, landscaping in San Diego County, lawn removal, moderate water consumption, Water Conserving plants

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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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