Category Archives: Design trends

Design trends

Rethink the Lawn

Water is a precious and vital resource. Our bodies are about 60% water and our brain – a whopping 70%. Less than 1% of the water on the Earth, however, is suitable for human consumption. With the population increasing and the water supply staying the same, water conservation indoors and out is important. A well planned landscape makes water conservation outside the home even easier. Since up to 70% of summer water use comes from landscape irrigation it’s a good place to start.

Both San Lorenzo Valley Water – http://www.slvwd.com – and Scotts Valley Water Districts – http://www.svwd.org – offer many tips and incentives to conserve water. Scotts Valley Water District has a great list of low water-high performance plants. Check out their website for rebate information.

This garden sitting area looks inviting after the lawn was removed.

The fun part begins when you redesign the area where you took out the lawn or modify the plantings in other beds to include same water use plants. It doesn’t make much sense if you have some plants that require more water than others in the same bed. You have to water to the highest water-use plant to keep everybody happy.

Hydrozoning is the practice of clustering together plants with similar water requirements to conserve water. A planting design where plants are grouped by water needs improves efficiency and plant health by avoiding overwatering or underwatering. And as you move farther away from the water source your plantings should require less water.

When redesigning your landscape start with simple things. Rock, stone, and permeable paths and driveways add visual interest to the landscape and don’t require irrigation. Improving your property’s soil quality aids in saving water regardless of the plants grown there. Organic materials added to the soil help establish a strong root system for plants. Nutrients in the soil allow the plants to become stronger, too. Adding a layer of mulch increases the plant’s efficiency by retaining moisture and keeping the soil temperature stable.

Choose the right plants for your location. California natives or plants from similar climates in the world are low maintenance, low irrigation plants and usually need less tending, fertilizer and pruning. Your choice of groundcover can make a big difference, too, in how much water the landscape saves. Keeping grass areas to a bare minimum reduces the amount of water needed to keep the landscape looking green and fire safe.

Replace an old lawn with edibles.

Your method or irrigation helps conserve water. Hand watering where possible, especially new plantings, directs the water exactly where it needs to go and you can shut off the hose as soon as the plants receive enough water. A soaker hose is another efficient option that reduces evaporation during the watering process. An automatic irrigation system with a rain sensor, weather based controller or soil moisture sensor are the newest way to save water.

There are lists of drought-tolerant plants and water smart grasses, as well as replacing lawns with drought tolerant or native plants on the Scotts Valley Water District website. Permeable landscape materials such as mulch, decomposed granite, permeable pavers are other ways you can keep your yard looking beautiful and also be water efficient.

Now is the time before it gets hot to look at your irrigation system, plant choices and rebate options to save water and money and recharge our aquifers.

Design trends

What’s Blooming Now?

Blireiana Flowering Plum

Seems like overnight the flowering plums are in full bloom. Even though we had a stretch of warm weather and many think it was a false spring, this is about the same time as usual for their bloom The saucer magnolias (magnolia soulangeana) have been flowering for a couple weeks, too. What’s not to love about this time of year in our area? What else can you plant that is sure to bring spring fever to your garden?

Winter Daphne will fill your entire garden with a powerful honeysuckle/nutmeg scent.

I don’t have a variegated winter daphne anymore but this is one great shrub for under natives oaks as they don’t require much summer water.There’s something special about a plant that will bloom in late winter, hold up to rain and scent the garden all at the same time. With beautiful rosy-pink flower clusters and attractive yellow-margined variegated foliage, winter daphne make a great foundation plant for dappled shade gardens. They are deer resistant and have low water requirements. These gorgeous little shrubs get a bad name for being finicky to grow. Less is more when it comes to their care. They thrive in partial shade in humus-rich soil with good drainage. Don’t keep them soggy during the summer or they succumb to crown and root rot. They don’t transplant well but are quite deer resistant. Daphne are not long lived, usually lasting for 8-10 years but what a life they live.

This double hellebore is just one of hundreds of varieties.

Here in my own garden the hellebore flowers are holding up well. One of my favorites is called Cinnamon Snow but I have a couple that bloom with spectacular double flowers and they are beautiful also. All of the varieties of this buttercup relative accept wind, rain, cold and less than perfect soil while getting by with only moderate watering in the shady summer garden. Deer aren’t attracted to them either.

Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub

Another tough plant that can take weather extremes is the Lily-of-the-Valley shrub (Pieris japonica). There are many varieties of this winter bloomer. Some have pure white flowers, other sport various shades of pink or dark rose. Mine is the smaller variegated foliage model with dainty, drooping clusters of pure white flowers in early spring. Right now it is covered with flower buds so dense that you’d think it was already blooming. The new growth in the spring has a beautiful pink tint. This shrub will hold up to the wildest weather. Another plus for the Lily-of-the-Valley shrub is that is useful for fire-scaping in the landscape and it isn’t on the menu for deer either.

A favorite of birds and indoor floral arrangers is the evergreen mahonia. Plant a mahonia if you want to attract winter hummingbirds. They are blooming now with bright yellow flower clusters that will last for months. Each flower will set a purple berry looking like a cluster of grapes. The edible berries make good jelly, too. There are 70 varieties of mahonia including our own native Oregon Grape which grows in the understory of Douglas fir forests. Mahonia aquifolium is resistant to summer drought, tolerates poor soil and doesn’t create a lot of leaf litter.

I’m a push over when it comes to striking foliage plants. I find them every bit as vibrant as flowers. Bright flowers may be the frosting on the landscape but brilliant foliage is the cake. Here is one of my favorites that will add color to your garden this month:

Leucadendron Jester, a sport of Safari Shine is a drought tolerant shrub that’s especially showy this time of year when the flowering bracts turn deep red. Growth is slow and compact to maybe 3-4 feet. It looks like a striped carnival has hit town with its broadly edged creamy white to buff yellow leaves that take on coral pink tints in cold weather, especially towards the tips. It’s hardy to 20 degrees.

Other winter blooming plants include abutilon, euryops, witch hazel, edgeworthia, michelia, loropetalum and grevillea.

Design trends

Landscaping for the Allergy Sufferer

Contrary to popular belief acacia trees are not to blame to spring allergies.

Everybody blames the Acacia tree for their allergies but they are not the real culprits for the allergy sufferer. Redwood pollen is dispersed at this time of year. Strong winds can cause the yellow redwood “flowers”, which are actually the flowers ofe the male cone, but boy can they put out the pollen. And because redwoods live in such a narrow band of coast line, there is no allergy shot for those highly affected by them. But back to what you can do in your yard if you suffer from allergies.

Yes, the acacia trees are in full bloom. Being one of the first flowering trees we see they get our attention. Blooming acacias are often blamed as the cause of allergic reactions at this time of year but acacias are largely pollinated by insects and their heavy pollen doesn’t tend to become airborne. It’s the non-showy, quiet plants you have to watch out for. If you’re an allergy sufferer some plants are worse than others for you.

According to historical records for our area the pollen count is mostly moderate in February. Depending on the weather, Pollen.com and Pollenlibrary.com show medium high counts only for a few days this month. If you’re an allergy sufferer you don’t need a website to tell you what the count is. Our native red alder is in bloom now and it, along juniper and birch, are the main culprits at this time. Grasses, ragweed and other weeds and most trees bloom and shed pollen in March, April and May. Then comes summer, then fall and with it other problems for the allergy sufferer. To further complicate and make matters worse for the allergy sufferer, climate change is making pollen season longer and more intense. You can’t control what’s growing outside your own yard but here are some tips for what to plant and not plant in your garden.

About 25-30 popular landscape plants are responsible for the majority of plant-related allergies in California. During the height of the pollen season- from late February to June- there are often thousands of pollen grains in every cubic meter of air. One can breathe hundreds of them with every breath. Though pollens can travel many miles, the majority tend to stay in the general area of their origin.

Redwoods are a major source of pollen

Redwoods, oaks, alders, ashes and other wind pollinated trees like olives, birch, box elder, cypress, elm, juniper, maple, fruitless mulberry, pine, walnut, willow and privet are the major source of spring pollen. Most native plants are good in the sneezeless landscape but if you have bad allergies or asthma it best to avoid wind-pollinated ceanothus, elderberry and coffeeberry.

Although Ca. Native ceanothus are good plants for bees and birds their wind pollinated flowers aren’t so good for the allergy sufferer.

You may not be able to avoid those culprits growing on other properties but you can get the most out of your own backyard by creating a sneezeless landscape. Replacing existing plants may be impractical but planning future plantings with these things in mind will save you a lot of headaches down the road and let you enjoy the sunshine outside in your garden.

Flower type is a good way to judge plants. The best looking flowers usually cause allergy sufferers the fewest problems. Plants with bright, showy flowers are usually pollinated by insects, rather than by the wind. These flowers produce less pollen and their pollen is larger and heavier, sticking to the insect rather than becoming airborne and lead to sneezing, a runny nose and watery eyes.

Some trees that are good for anti-allergy gardens are apple, cherry, dogwood, magnolia, pear and plum. Shrubs like azaleas, boxwood, lilac, rose-of-Sharon, hydrangea and viburnum are also not likely to cause problems. Good flower choices include alyssum, begonia, clematis, columbine, bulbs like crocus, daffodil, hyacinth. Also good are dahlia, daisy, geranium, hosta, impatiens, iris, lily, pansy, petunia, phlox, roses, salvia, snapdragon, sunflower, verbena and zinnia. Lawns of perennial rye grass, blue grass and tall fescue blends are usually OK as they will not flower unless allowed to grow to 12 inches or higher. Bermuda grass, on the other hand, can pollinate when the lawn is very short, sometimes as quickly as a few days after mowing.

We don’t know what’s going to happen rain-wise for us this spring. Symptoms can become worse for the allergy sufferer if the body reacts to the disappearance of the pollen following its initial appearance only to have to have more of it later in the spring. According to Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist with the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic, “You become sensitized to it, so when you’re…re-exposed, you can get an even more violent allergic reaction.”

Here’s to a sneeze-less spring for you allergy sufferers.