Buddha in the Garden

 Sitting quietly, way on the back of the gravel garden, is Buddha. Most of the winter he is surrounded by white azaleas. The rest of the year, by various cool shades of green succulents and tropical plants.
 

It is hard to see in this picture, but there is a perfect umbrella of duranta over his head. Duranta, if you are not familiar is a flowering shrub that has arching sprays of blue flowers (at least this one does). I always seem to miss it in bloom back here. Buddha's hands form a perfect cup to hold enough water from the sprinklers to keep blooms fresh for a few days and I try to keep them filled with long lasting flowers when I pass through this garden.

But Tilly seems to think that Buddha is there solely to offer her a little refreshment, for her own personal benefit, just like the rest of the gardens, and everyone else in the household for that matter.

A Gravel Garden Update

 I was recently asked for an update on the Gravel Garden by a reader, so here it is. As is the case with any low maintenance area, not much changes back here, at least not quickly. 

 You can see though, that the screening shrubs between our property and the neighbors are continuing to thin. This is in part due to the demise of the oleanders in the area due to oleander scorch disease and just the normal growth of the overhead plants shading out the under plantings. We planted Carolina cherries (Prunus caroliniana) to replace the dying oleander and continue to plant vines and shrubs along the fences to encourage a dense thicket, but the right combination takes time to grow in and fill in the gaps in this shady space. The dry weather has not be helpful. The automatic sprinkler system can only provide so much water to these large specimen plants and even the drought tolerant ones are a bit stressed these days and not as full as they could be under optimum conditions. There is a large old Brazilian Pepper Tree to the right in these pictures that covers most of this area with shade that is looking very stressed and I am planning on giving it and the orange tree in the back a good long soak with a hose-end sprinkle this weekend to give them a little relief.

I've added layers of hedges and although I was overly romantic and optimistic when I first put this garden in a few years ago with planting a row of white hydrangeas and a drip system, but it has not quite unfolded as I had envisioned. Since then I have tried to wean myself off of reading so many blogs from the rainy part of the country where 'Limelight' hydrangeas grow like wildfires do here. I planted some 'Yuletide' camellias last year in this shady area and I am still contemplating some more shrubs to fill in that can tolerate the shade. Because both neighbors' yards that border this area are far removed from their homes, they don't pay much attention to what goes on here on their sides of the fence, so it is pretty much my issue. One neighbor's yard is actually a horse stable and riding area with lots of chickens, which kind of adds an interesting atmosphere to the backdrop of this garden.

Overall, with the challenges we are facing with the drought this year, the Gravel Garden with its low maintenance and low water needs along with lots of cool shade make it one of the easiest parts of the property to manage. It handles as much or as little time and energy as I want to put into it quite gracefully and provides a lovely space to hang out on top of it all!

Creating More Screening

July 2010

February 2013

My ongoing problems with the dying oleanders continue. Here are two shots of the Gravel Garden and you can see the loss of foliage that is exposing our neighbor's yard where the oleanders used to thrive. We've planted some Carolina Cherries (prunus caroliniana) that should fill in fairly quickly once they take off, but it may take a while for them to get established. There are some white hydrangeas in the bed that I had hopes of growing large and billowy, due to illusions of grandeur that I get from reading Deborah Silver's amazing blog, Dirt Simple. I have to come back to reality and realize that this is not Detroit, but Southern California and although this was once a wet, soggy area (thus my dream of hydrangea heaven) it was most likely due to a broken sprinkler pipe that has been fixed, making this area as dry as the rest of the yard. I will be looking for a new inspirational shrub to plant here.

Elevation Changes

I have always gardened in places that have some kind of elevation changes. Southern California is a very hilly place and many homes either are built on a hill, have hills within the property or backup to hillsides. I wouldn't have it any other way. Although hauling supplies up and down hillsides like in my Laguna garden can be a daunting task, it did keep me healthy for years without going to a gym. Our home in SJC is also built on a slight slope and was terraced long before we arrived. Walking into a garden area should be an amazing experience, but a dramatic change in elevation only enhances that experience. This is the view from the Gravel Garden looking up into the Back Yard. If you look closely you can see lots of hints of what is to come while looking through the light pillars at the top of the stairs. I still get a sense of anticipation coming around this bend and looking up into the next garden, and I do it every day.

Rain

We are getting even more rain here in Southern California! Rain this time of year is rare, and this is the second day of it so far. Not good for the garden in SJC where there will be a couple tours this weekend and next week. The blooms on the roses are soggy, the iris flowers look like wet hankies and the daylilies starting to sag. Oh yeah... there are mushrooms coming up in the gravel garden! Not complaining - just saying. Good thing gardeners are so understanding!

The Good, The Bad....

I must admit that this is not the prime time of year for my gardens, especially after all the rain we have had. The perennials and shrubs are cut back and the grass is dormant in some spots. What were overflowing flower beds in the warmer months are now just muddy patches. That overhanging limb on the California Pepper tree has to be cut off because it is so low to the ground that you can't even walk under it anymore. The grassy paths are too muddy to walk on without boots. (Sigh)


But I must admit that the one part of the garden that looks good all the time is the gravel garden! After all the rain there was a lot of debris from the overhanging trees but it all kind of just worked its way down through the gravel. Even though the row of hydrangeas are dormant, there is enough other foliage to keep the area from looking bare. I am growing more and more fond of this place all the time!

Furnishing the Gravel Garden

There seems to be a curse on the Gravel Garden. I have been having a heck of a time getting the thing finished! It seems that everything I order for it in the way of adornment, including the table, chairs and lighting has been riddled with issues and problems. I finally am at least at a point where it is somewhat what I had envisioned; a cool, romantic location to spend warm summer evenings with friends over a good meal and a bottle of wine. (My original fantasy included a meal from the home grown vegetables from the garden, but I have abandoned that idea until some serious fencing is appropriated for the veggie garden.) Now if only we would get some "warm" summer evenings!

Conceding

My peaceful Buddha sits in the very back of the serene gravel garden in a flower bed that I have replanted every year we have lived here. The white carpet roses do fine but I have a terrible time keeping any other groundcover thriving there. While adding some gravel to the back area, my son went ahead and covered the bare soil with some of the remaining gravel. I must admit it looks better than it did and there is a good chance I was not going to get around to adding more doomed plants anytime soon. The beauty of it is that I can always take up the gravel if I get ambitious in the future and want to add more plants, but for now, this will work fine for me. I concede!

New Shrubs for the Gravel Garden

Progress on the gravel garden has taken a backseat to other projects in the gardens, but last week I was at a nursery where they were just unloading a shipment of white hydrangeas. Just what I have been looking for in the gravel garden. This is the lowest spot on the property and it stays quite damp due to the drainage and shade. I am hoping they will do well here without much trouble because they add a lot of subtle character to this green wall. The cool colors and shade will hopefully make this a retreat in the heat of summer!

Another Update on the Gravel Garden

All of the hard work is done in the gravel garden. The gravel is in and it is just lovely. It has a delightful ambiance and a pleasant crunch underfoot. I think it works well because of the dappled shade and green walls that keeps it from feeling too hot and bare.
The row of boxwood that seems random off the center of the space was a solution to what I though would be a problem slope area. I was afraid that people would slip on the grade created from the tree roots. It turns out that it is not slippery at all and all my concerns were for nothing. I am leaving the boxwood in because I kind of like the character they add. I can always move them later if they don't work with the furniture which is my next project. When people come over we always drag them down there and I'm sure that they think we are crazy, after all, it is just a bunch of gravel where there once was grass, but we love it!

Gravel Garden Update

Progress is slow going on the gravel garden due to my crew being busy with other chores. We have removed all the grass and that is it piled on the left side with a mulch cover. It is going to break down into compost for a long border bed going in there. one of the issues we've run into is the dramatic slope of the area. I always knew it had somewhat of a slope, but once the grass was gone it seemed much more pronounced. I am afraid that my harvest table will sit at an uncomfortable slant, so the area needs to be leveled out. On the right side is the beginning of the DG (decomposed granite) that will be used under the gravel as a base. Slowly but surely!

Our Latest Project

Say good-bye to this lawn in the Buddha Garden in SJC! We are replacing it with a gravel garden and I am very excited about it! I was on a garden tour in Beverly Hills a few month ago and had the opportunity to walk through a lovely shady gravel garden and I fell in love with the ambiance of the cool, crunchy gravel and the occasional iris coming up through the stones. This area is rarely ever used and seems to be more of a walk through space when coming from the back yard (up the steps to te right) to Palm Alley and on to the pool area. I am looking for the just the right harvest table and chairs to go here and am figuring out a way to hang a chandelier from the pepper tree!