Refreshing a Winter Focal Point

October 2014

 Somehow it has worked out that most of our entertaining at the SJC house takes place in the winter months. Dozens of relatives come from all over the country to visit and dare I say hundreds of friends stop by some time between Halloween and Valentines Day. Needless to say, they are certainly missing the prime time in the gardens which I would have to say is spring, followed by summer and then fall.

November 2014

By the time winter rolls around most of the prettiest scenes are tired and taking a rest. Roses are either spindly or cut back, most iris are sleeping and of course the clematis, wisteria, flowering shrubs and vines are either bare or devoid of blooms at best. Even the willowy grasses are often cut back to bristly stubs. I am thankful for the azaleas and camellias, of which I have planted many, and there are always the plants that look good consistently year round which add the foundation to the gardens. I do try to add some seasonal color in the way of cool season annuals that I probably would skip if not for the onslaught of guests. As you can see by the top picture, the Moonlight Garden was showing signs of a long hot summer a couple weeks ago, so a carload of bright white perennials and annuals in addition to some organic fertilizer has brightened up this focal point and will go a long way to keep this garden looking good until the spring plants start to wake up. If you look closely, my 'Golf Ball' (more like Basketball) pittosporum look terrible, having been covered with blight all year. They are supposed to stay small and round, hence the name, but these became so large and gangly they were trimmed back at the wrong time and have become a mess. I'm debating whether to remove them all together or just cut them back and
give them another chance. But enough about problems! I've been out every weekend with a watering can and some seaweed fertilizer to make sure this area is robust for the upcoming months and all our guests because next weekend there will be soccer balls, baseballs and maybe even a few Frisbees landing among the newly planted daisies and phlox and they need to be as robust as possible!

Just for fun here's a look at years past. If you are on Pinterest and 2010 looks familiar to you, it has probably been pinned a few thousand times!

2009

2010

2011

2012

Plastic Grass or a Tree?

 The other night it was so refreshing to wake up and hear the sound of rain! Walking through the gardens after a rainfall is something I can barely remember since it has been at least seven months since we have had a drop. We didn't get much but it was enough to wash the dust off everything and you could almost hear the plants giving a sigh or relief, however so slight. But now the weather report is showing another heat wave coming this week with temperatures reaching the eighties again. So much for getting out the sweaters!

 

 Last week I was someplace and I overheard a conversation between two young couples discussing how they were coping with their yards and their concerns over their landscaping and the drought. One was talking about how they were looking at synthetic lawns and the other mentioned that they had just let their yard "go" and would wait and see what happened. I can only imagine how hard it is for the average homeowner to know what is the right thing to do, both from an ecological point as well as an economic point but just as important from an aesthetic point of view. A landscape is a large part of what adds value to a home as well as value to the way a home is enjoyed by a family.

If I had to suggest to someone what to do to add value to their landscape in this day and age when trying to reduce the lawn and water use is to plant trees. I must admit I love to plant trees and in my lifetime I have probably cut down more trees that I have planted than most people have ever planted, but that's okay. Just plant trees is my motto! The more the merrier. You can always cut them down later! Once established the right tree will live just fine without you and as long as you don't live where you block people's view, they can grow without needing much pruning (although I have put many of my tree trimmers children through college, but that's okay). They never need fertilizing and they give back much more than they take. 

I see people struggling with trying to remove lawns and put in something that will be attractive when I think, just look for a tree (or two or three or five) that will do the job, put them in and be patient. Trees do take some patience, waiting for them to grow, unless you have access to the space and enough money to put in a full grown specimen, but I like to plant babies and watch them mature myself. The right tree requires no pesticides, provides food and homes for the wildlife, adds all kinds of good stuff to the environment to offset your carbon footprint and cools the air and soil around it. Just do some research and pick out a yard partner for the next 25 or 30 years.

These pictures show what our back yard looked like in 2006 when we moved in and what it looks like now. I planted three California pepper trees from 25 gallon pots, a liquidambar, and an arbutus tree. The boxwood hedges and perennials are reminiscent from the gardens that I put in for interest while the trees grew to size, but at this point I could remove everything else in this yard, put down a lovely, crunchy pea gravel and never water again.  If not gravel than at least a red fescue that would take some water to become established, but then only occasionally during the summer require watering and let it go un-mown giving it a lovely meadow feeling. Add a few hammocks and we would probably be out there all summer long under the shade trees. I still haven't made up my mind yet.

Taking a Look Back

December 2006

April 2014

Every once in a while it is nice to look back on what a difference we have made in the world. I happened to look at the latest group of pictures I took and I was amazed at how thick the jungle of trees had become in the back yard in SJC. When we moved in it was pretty barren and boring, at least to my eye and I couldn't wait to get some refreshing shade going back there. I guess I've accomplished that! It is now a shady, cool and interesting garden to explore, relax in and just enjoy. I love it! But I guess after all this time I could get a new, larger door mat for the dining room!

Agaves Grow

While discussing the street side garden in SJC, I must include an update on the beautiful blue agaves that were planted three years ago. They are in a far corner, away from guests navigating getting in and out of their cars as well as children at play due to their ferocious spikes and thorny edges. They are so beautiful and producing lots of pups. There are additional succulents nearby as well as some lantana planted to intertwine with their blue spikes.

Three years ago this is what they looked like. All good things come to those who wait!

Three Years

Last week my son sent me some photos he took of the gardens in SJC in February of 2008 when we had just started on the conversion of the lawn to garden project. This was when we affectionately named this little island in the mass of lawn "Flying Rabbit Island".

This is a picture taken from the same angle three years later. It's funny because sometimes I still think the pepper trees are so small and yet they have clearly grown a lot over the years. I often encourage people that consult me about new projects they are planning in the garden to start a blog. It is a wonderful way to document your progress and look back on all you have accomplished even if you are the only one that ever looks at it!

The Front Door Garden

There was a little lawn area to the side of the front door when we moved into the SJC house three years ago that was one of the first areas I tore up and changed around. I added the flagstone paths because it was a natural shortcut to the back and made sense. The birdbath was already there and I added a few flowers and grasses for interest.



The next year I added the white birch tree and some flowering plants as well as the John Seeman sculpture.


This year it is starting to grow into it's potential as a pretty little garden that is full of roses, iris and perennials. It is a spot that I see a number of times a day, every day as I come and go so I put a little extra effort into making it a garden that makes me smile.

Watching Growth

This is a shot of the SJC backyard about a year ago, six months after planting the bed on the left and a year after planting the bed on the right.
This is what it looks like today. I love to plant trees because they add so much structure to a space and this California pepper tree on the right is no exception. There are three of them nestled together in this bed, all growing at different rates. This one is the largest and is starting to shade out the plants below, which will mean a bit of an adjustment in what is growing there. That is fine with me. The way the tree is growing allows us to walk under, or sometimes through, the weeping foliage adding another sensory experience to the garden. I love it!

Looking Back

This is a corner in our SJC backyard. This photo was taken when we first moved in, a little over three years ago. I thought it was too spiky for my tastes and wanted to soften it up a bit.

This is what that spot looks like today. It is a place where my DH and I sit on many evenings with a glass of wine to see the back garden from a different perspective than where we usually sit, on the patio. In a few weeks the lilies will be blooming and it will be a riot of color. Much softer, no?

Now and Then

This is an angle of the backyard in SJC when we first moved in two and a half years ago, looking out from the patio. There was a single queen palm that was smack dab in the middle of the view looking out from the dining room window. It wasn't too bad until it grew tall and all you could see was the trunk.
This is what it looks like today. It is hard to see in this picture, but there is a small 'Cherokee' liquidambar tree in the middle of this bed that will provide fall color to the dining room window when it gets bigger. The rest of the bed is filled with roses, shrubs, herbs and perennials.

Window Planter, Before and After

This is the small planter under our dining room window in SJC and what it looked like when we moved in two years ago. Nothing wrong with this tidy little hedge, other than maybe a bit boring.
This is what it looks like today. The color of the house is always a challenge to work with when placing blooming plants next to it, but this 'Royal Sunset' climbing rose works well as does the Spanish lavender. The lavender will bloom like this for a few months and then be cut back and the gray-green foliage will be a backdrop to the carpet rose 'Amber' that is planted with it. Overall I'm quite pleased with this combination.

361 Days Later

The above picture was taken November 2nd, 2007 just days after we finished putting in Flying Rabbit Island where there used to be just lawn. Here are pictures of what it looked like then.

This is what it looks like today. Although the California pepper trees have not grown much in a year, all of the shrubby perennials have filled in nicely. The plants to the right of the picture were recently cleaned up and cut back after a summer of blooms.

Before and After

This is a shot of part of our backyard in San Juan Capistrano as it looked when we moved in year before last. It was all lawn and palm trees.


This is what it looks like today. If you look closely you can see the palm trees that are in the center of the top photo peeking through the two pepper trees in the lower photo. This is what we call 'Flying Rabbit Island' and is my answer to creating our own view. When we moved here from Laguna we found that we really missed our ocean view. Staring at the swimming pool is just not the same. So I added this little island in the middle of the back lawn to give us something to look at when we were sitting in our rockers on the little patio off the living room. Although it is not exactly the most colorful time of year in this part of the yard, it still is interesting and one of our favorite spaces.

A Season's Growth

This is the little garden area outside my front door in SJC. This photo was taken on May 21st, 2008.
This is the same area on September 1st, 2008. It is hard to see in this photo, but the white birch on the left side has grown a number of feet, the purple fountain grass is in full bloom and the thyme growing in the cracks of the walkway has filled in considerably. I am planning a whole overhaul for this area because we have a new sculpture going in here where the birdbath is now located

A Year Later

The top picture is of a little planter near my front door in SJC. The bottom picture is what it looked like about a year ago when I first planted it with succulents and perennials. The green leafy geranium without any blooms is a scented one that originally had burgundy splotches in the center of the green leaves and is called 'Chocolate Mint' which is exactly what it smells like. It is very aggressive and needs to be kept in check continuously. I guess it doesn't get enough sun to keep the coloration although it is not that shady here. The daylily is out of bloom and the chocolate cosmos are long gone along with the coral bells and hardy geranium. There is a little battery operated watering system in here and, opps!, the batteries died and so did many of the less than drought tolerant plants. I've added low growing sedums since they seem to do well and the ornamental grasses have filled in nicely. Not quite as colorful as the original plan, but much easier to maintain.