The Garden in May

Spring in the Palo Alto garden

It's been an interesting Spring, filled with April showers and mini-heat waves. We should be past the coldest nights here in Palo Alto, though, so I finally felt safe pruning my grapes and hydrangeas. (Although I was a bit late cutting down the grasses, so I won't be expecting great things from them this year.)

Those late rains gave us a nice extension on getting woody perennials, shrubs and trees into the ground; the soil moisture is still good but not so mucky that it's difficult to dig. But don't get complacent! Check now to be sure your irrigation system is functioning optimally — the soil dries out quickly and you don't want it to go hydrophobic while your new plants are establishing.

I failed to keep pace with the weeds this Spring. I'll be hoeing out as much as I can over the next couple of weeks, but I think my negligence has earned me seven years of weedlings. It's incredible how long those seeds can stay dormant in the ground, then pop! as soon as they get a bit of sunlight.

This is a great time to get all sorts of color planted: annuals such as impatiens and marigolds, long-blooming perennials such as Achillea, Coreopsis, Echinacea, Gaillardia, Limonium, Rudbeckia and Scabiosa, and even fall bulbs like Crocus speciosus and Colchicum autumnale. For the former, you simply can't go wrong with seeds from Renee's Garden, or young plants from Annie's Annuals; and for the latter, I have never had anything less than extraordinary results from Brent and Becky's Bulbs (who seem to be offering an early order discount at the moment!). 

It's also the season when the landscape designer's phone begins to ring again, with optimistic voices on the other end hoping for a deck by spring, a pool by summer. And somehow, with the sun shining on our faces again and last year's perennials resurging at our feet, somehow it all seems possible.

Landscaping Small Spaces, Part 5

As much as I love the possibilities afforded by designing larger estate landscapes (as in, trees! I actually get to spec trees!), small gardens hold a special place in my heart as well. Here's the last of five bite-size tips to make the most of bite-size spaces:

Dry out. Because small yards are often planted right up to the house, using water-thrifty vegetation is one way to ensure foundations stay dry. Check with your local water utility for a list of recommended native or low-water plants for your area. Downspouts often may be tied into main lines that collect water in detention basins elsewhere on the property; from there, the water can percolate back to the groundwater. A French or trench drain along the home's foundation may also be useful for picking up extra water. And while these drain inlets often are topped with gravel, recycled colored glass may also be used, and even lit from beneath for a dazzling effect.

There are plety of other ways to add big impact to a small space. What are some of your faves?

Landscaping Small Spaces, Part 4

As much as I love the possibilities afforded by designing larger estate landscapes (as in, trees! I actually get to spec trees!), small gardens hold a special place in my heart as well. Here's the fourth of five bite-size tips to make the most of bite-size spaces:

Get wet. A modest fountain can create a big impact in a small space, especially with interesting lighting. Vertical columns of basalt rock can be drilled to create a naturalistic water feature, or employ a classic or modern container for a more elegant effect. A product such as the Aqua Box makes installation easier than ever. One or more translucent plastic tubes can be installed on end to create subtle waterfall effects, and metal salvage yards can also be a source of interesting fountain elements, from corrugated metal to stainless steel troughs that can spill into a basin below grade.

Next, I'll write about my fifth and final tip for landscaping small spaces: Dry out.

Landscaping Small Spaces, Part 3

As much as I love the possibilities afforded by designing larger estate landscapes (as in, trees! I actually get to spec trees!), small gardens hold a special place in my heart as well. Here's the third of five bite-size tips to make the most of bite-size spaces:

Think big. Small spaces get cluttered quickly, so resist the temptation to landscape on a petite scale. Instead, make a statement with a chunky, oversized pergola; boulders large enough to sit on; or a dramatic container that takes command of the space. Mirrors (or polished steel plates) can be used to reflect light and enlarge views; and large gates or doors, either freestanding or mounted on fences or walls, create the illusion of additional space beyond. Limit your planting palette to just a handful of species; it's far more effective to use a dozen each of three different plants, than three each of a dozen species. And if there's not enough space for all the full-size dining chairs you'd like, consider framing the dining area with a wood bench that will both define the room and provide additional seating when it's needed.

Next, I'll write about my fourth tip for landscaping small spaces: Get wet.

Best In Show

If you were following me on twitter yesterday you know I was at the SF Flower & Garden Show. It's an interesting show for a number of reasons: the new venue, the specter of finality (since lifted), and — I'm sorry, I have to say it — the meh-ness of the gardens themselves.

Why do people go to garden shows? In a word, for inspiration. We want to see the newest plants, the prettiest pots, the brightest flowers. We want to be captivated by bold visions and ooh and ah over their realizations.

(Now, a disclaimer: I have never exhibited in a show like the SFFGS. It is an extraordinary commitment of time, energy, goodwill and money, none of which I have in excess. And anyone who does undertake a display has my respect and admiration — regardless of my opinion of the results.)

Rebecca Coffman's outdoor indoor showerSo to my mind, there are two kinds of show gardens that really knock socks off: one is the garden you, the viewer, could actually implement at your own home but had never thought to. This is the triumph of creativity over reality, doing more with less, making your rooftop into a succulent paradise, using radiators for retaining walls, breaking rules of logic (but not of nature: there's no pretending that the purple Dodonaea will stay a cute little foundation shrub, no matter how cool it looks against the blue spruce). Last year Rebecca Coffman did a nice job bringing the indoors out, and Michelle Derviss took my breath away with her zen spa garden.

Livin' Cheap in BajaThe other type is the garden that you, the viewer, could never possibly implement because it has never existed before and can never exist again. This is the triumph of imagination over reality: doing more with more, creating soaring masterpieces that Kublai Khan would envy. The best example from my recent memory was Gary Gragg's 2006 pipe dream: you couldn't do this at home, you wouldn't, but it really engaged your imagination and inspired that "what if...?" feeling that gives designers like me the bum's rush.

At this year's show, I saw a bunch of pretty plants; I saw a lot of big plants crammed into small spaces; and I saw a lot of ideas — but not a lot that successfully made the leap to reality. I liked Studio Replica's oversize concrete pots. I loved Andrea Hurd's dry-stacked stone wall and arch. I was impressed with Tilden Landscaping's craftsmanship in stone, metal and wood. I was utterly confused by the Urban Garden from UC Berkeley students (hey "kids": show, don't tell). But I didn't see Xanadu; and only one garden really stayed with me after I had left: Rebecca Cole's "Sky's The Limit," which earned too many awards to list.

Alice has some nice images of Rebecca's show (as well as others) over at Bay Area Tendrils; and you can see and read Rebecca's own experience with the exhibit on her blog. The reasons I think it was successful are straightforward: she had a simple concept, executed with a simple palette of colors and materials. Period.
Rebecca didn't try to shove two acres of plants into 200 square feet. She didn't try to pretend that Ceanothus and Lavandula bloom at the same time. She used materials available to us all, creatively, artfully. And we ooh and ah, and go home to figure out how we might achieve a little of the same. In other words, she inspired us.

Brava, Rebecca. You truly are the best in show. And to every other designer reading this: how are you going to raise the bar over the next year?

Royal Paper

AP reports that a Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea', or purple beech tree, planted in 1786 at Versailles Palace for Marie Antoinette has been felled by a storm.

The 82-foot high specimen, whose canopy measured 72 feet across, will be cut up and sold to paper makers.

I love just about everything about beech trees, from their smooth muscular bark to the undulating leaf margins, and the purple-leaved variety is particularly handsome. Unfortunately, in places like Palo Alto and Los Altos I rarely have the chance to specify such large and thirsty trees, which are much better suited to riparian areas with cooler, wetter summers (like, you know, Atherton). On the other hand, if I were king, I suppose I wouldn't be burdened by such practicalities.

If the Sun King and his progeny lived and landscaped a Bay Area version of Versailles today, I wonder what species they would choose?

A Very Wood Day

Look, Ma, no stubs!
Yesterday I spent a lot of time in the company of wood, from pruning my scarlet oak to (finally) stacking up the firewood that used to be our old and decrepit acacia tree.

The stacking was a particularly tedious exercise, puzzling out the best match between the voids in the pile and the weird sizes and shapes of the logs. But somehow it seemed appropriate that the process should be so slow: after all, that tree took probably 30 years to grow. And it occurred to me that gardens are not for the impatient, no matter how "finished" we ever believe they are.

One of the first questions I ask a new client is, "How soon do you want the garden to be grown in?" This is a question of budget as much as time, because there's an exponential relationship between plant size and cost. But even beyond the individual plants, the garden as a whole is a dynamic system, and may not come into its own for five years or more after planting. The new trees and shrubs will create shade where none existed before; flowers can reseed; rhizomes will spread, annuals will come and go, and patterns of water and fertility will change.

All this chaos isn't for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of faith to allow a landscape to do its thing, season after season. Those with something to prove insist on perpetuating an illusion of control, with tightly clipped hedges and perfectly timed blooms. Keeping up appearances makes for a great business; just ask the Stanford Shopping Center, who keeps designer nonpareil Jackie Gray and three full-time gardeners employed to make its environment as lush as it is luxe. But for those of us who are of lesser means, or perhaps more comfortable with nature actually looking and feeling natural, we don't mind the beautiful mess — or the time it takes to evolve.

Love Thy Neighbor

Especially when you're trying to increase your home's curb appeal, it pays to pay some attention to what's happening next door. Let's consider some of our typical neighbors, and how you might take a cue from them:

The Yawner Lawner. A square of grass, a few annual flowers, a couple of shrubs anchoring the front entryway… woo hoo, party time in suburbia. You have a couple of choices here: match your neighbor's lawn right up to the property line and co-host the neighborhood Thanksgiving football game; or show off your good taste with a stylish yet sensible mix of evergreen and deciduous shrubs that — unlike that slab of green next door — shift colors and shapes to show off a different asset every season of the year.

The Fortress. Whether it's a fence or a wall, this one makes a clear statement: "Keep Out." Assuming you're not interested in consolidating your properties into a compound, your best strategy may be to be as open as your neighbor is closed. If you must have screening, try a split-rail wood fence; or better still, use only softscape (plants), perhaps a loose hedge clipped low — Cornus alba has nice winter interest even when the leaves fall — with a structural feature such as a freestanding arbor to actually invite your guests up the front walk, not stop them short at the sidewalk.

The Palace. Its tiered fountains, Baroque statuary, and manicured boxwood attempt to recreate Versailles — albeit on a slightly smaller scale. Just what point the homeowner is striving to make may be a mystery, but your counterpoint can be more clear: simplify. Be authentic. Go native, even. Just as Versailles was designed to celebrate man's mastery over nature, your garden can celebrate the uncertainty, the maddening unpredictability, of a natural system. Sure, the very idea makes you nervous. But with a little professional help you'll pull it off, and your front yard — not your neighbor's — will be the talk of the block.

There are other neighbors we could analyze: The Museum. The Orchard. The Junkyard. (Although if you live next door to Great Dixter… well, there's really no point in doing much more than setting up a lemonade stand.) The point is, whether you want to distinguish your home to raise your property value or just to make it yours, sometimes the nearest inspiration lives next door.

Who lives next door to you?

Spring in the Garden(s)

Photo by Vanessa RoachIf you haven't already signed up for the Gamble Garden Spring Tour, don't wait another day. Not only do you get exclusive access to five of Palo Alto's most beautiful private gardens, Gamble's own grounds will be buzzing with a plant sale, helpful master gardeners, a home and garden vendor fair, and chocolates, tea and cookies. This is the premier event from one of the peninsula's finest garden societies, so register now while advance ticket discounts are still available.

Hey, I know that guy!

For a sneak preview of the class I'm leading next weekend, check out the cover story of this week's Palo Alto Weekly. (You can also download a PDF of the issue, with photos.)

For another angle on the same topic, you can also see my thoughts in a recent MarketWatch article.

But don't stop there: sign up today to attend the class, because I've got a LOT more to share!

Color Counts

This little vignette is on display right now at Gilroy Gardens, not only home to the well-trained "circus trees" but also a dandy theme park that will keep the tots (and hort-geeks like me) entertained all day.

What caught my eye here was how much attention has been paid to the details: the lamp post and building trim match (or at least coordinate with) the blooms of the Lagerstroemia (crepe myrtle). And for good measure, the "garlic bulb" rides to the left are also streaked with violet, just like a real garlic bulb.

Is there a color in your garden that inspires you? Bring a bloom to a good paint store — they can match the color, or at least get this close. Now: did you also notice the Stachys, Lavandula and Helictotrichon down at ground level? These cool silvery tones are a terrific complement to the warm violet. On a color wheel, these two colors aren't quite opposites (think of blue and orange, purple and yellow, red and green) but neither are they adjacent (such as a violet-red-orange combination). Rather, the red-violet and blue-green are two legs in a triadic combination. The third leg of the triad would be yellow-orange; the closest we'll get is the exfoliating cinnamon-tan bark of the Lagerstroemia.

Perhaps because one of my favorite childhood toys was a set of translucent color paddles, I'm able to visualize color combinations pretty readily. But if you're not, pick up a color wheel and keep it on your desktop… pretty soon you, too, will see these subtle (or not so) color combinations that are all around you.

Happy New Garden!

Cold and blustery as it may be, there's no shortage of seed catalogs arriving, brimming with mouthwatering optimism. As usual, I want one of just about everything; I'm especially enamored with High Country Gardens' new pink and orange Agastache, which I can imagine pairing with a blue Agave attenuata, and Burpee's new tricolor basil, a perfect partner for a striped tomato.

What do you want in your garden this year? Or, more accurately, what do you want your garden to do for you this year? Do you want it to save you time? Save you money? Do you want to help save the planet? Or save your soul?

Gardens can do all of these things, and more. If you're into new year's resolutions, make this one: that you will enlist the services of a great garden designer ("great" being subjective, as in, "great fit for you") to make even a small improvement to your yard. I guarantee you, the effects will be anything but small.

Private Gardens Tour this Weekend

The Garden Conservancy annually persuades private garden owners to open up their wonderfully designed and maintained spaces for the public to admire, emulate, and envy. This weekend half a dozen gardens in the South Bay will be open on Saturday, with another pair in San Francisco will be open on Sunday. A highlight of Saturday's program will be Middlebrook Gardens, who are also showing “California Colors”, a celebration of California’s native rich natural heritage, featuring presentations as well as a native plant sale by Native Revival Nursery.

Ahhh, Bernardus...

I'm off relaxing at my favorite local getaway, Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley.

Every time I come here--and it's approaching 10 visits in the last four years--I am awed and inspired by the landscape architecture. Designed by Jack Chandler, it is as timeless as it is tasteful... even as the plantings have been evolved over the years, it still retains a classic beauty. This is a testament to what a well-thought-out landscape should be: not so much a statement of ego as an evocation of place.

As enamored as I am with the planting plan, perhaps my favorite piece of architecture here is the fireplace sited at the center of the social areas. Even when it's not in action, it's a gorgeous anchor; and at night, it is rarely enjoyed by fewer than half a dozen people.

By some standards, the resort's design is conservative; but by mine, it's a perfect blending of ancient and contemporary--and most importantly, it is well liked and well used. Come down some time, and be inspired yourself!