Category Archives: garden design

flowering shrubs, Flowering trees, flowers, fragrant plants, fruit trees, garden design, vines

A Private Arboretum in the Santa Cruz Mountains

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Recently I had the honor to tour a remarkable garden in Scotts Valley. This horticulturalist calls himself a hillbilly gardener but he is no such thing. Some of his plants come from as far away as Oklahoma, Texas and Hawaii. What a thrill to see spring growth emerge from the new leaves of his unusual trees, flowering shrubs and perennials.

Our first stop was to admire his large collection of echium candicans or Pride of Madeira. These stately shrubs reach 5-6 ft tall and 6-10 ft wide so they make quite a show when the huge flower clusters are in full bloom. Being deer resistant and drought tolerant they are perfect for our mountain environment. The color of the spikes varied from pink to lilac, sapphire blue and purple. This gardener is resourceful. He got many of his seedlings along Hwy 17 where they had reseeded after being used as brush to stabilize the slopes after the ’89 earthquake. The bees were really happy visiting the hundreds of blossoms on the beautiful spring day that I was there.

Tucked under wild cherry trees collected in Texas, are second generation iris of dark purple and pure yellow. Originally from his grandmother’s garden in Virginia, these iris are descendants from a light blue variety and a pale yellowish-beige douglas iris.

This extraordinary gardener also has a huge wild rose from Missouri covered now with fragrant white flowers, a wild olive from Texas and a sand plum from Oklahoma.  There is a yucca about 4 ft tall that he and his brother started as cuttings when they were teenagers in Port Arthur, Texas. He is also the proud father of a couple of bald cypress complete with "knees". This tree of southern swamps and other low nutrient areas grows woody projections above the ground or water level to act as a structural support and stabilizer allowing them to resist very strong winds. Even hurricanes rarely overturn them.

A beautiful Canary Island palm, planted from a seedling in 1996 that he had nurtured in a gallon can, is now over 9 ft tall.  Akebia vines grow up oak trees, passiflora and white wisteria vines up redwoods, a yellow banksia rose rambles up into a madrone and madevillea laxa is happy growing up an oak, too. A willow-leafed hakea salicifolia, indigenous to New South Wales and Queensland, graces his entry with its tiny, white fragrant flowers.

Other trees this gardener loves include Causarina, native also to Australia, sugar pine, incense cedar, Western red cedar, deodar cedar, staghorn sumac and a maytens tree.  His mother in Pennsylvania taught him to plant his first garden at age 4 and he cherishes his Eastern white pines, pinus stroblis, and giant sequoias, three of which he grew from seed.

And I can’t forget his collection of salvias. The red flowers spike of salvia confertiflora bloom year round. The beautiful salvia mexicana will soon to be covered with rich, blue flowers. He also grows salvia chiapensis and a salvia-like plant native to Hawaii called salvia lepechinia. This deliciously scented plant will be covered soon with reddish lavender lipstick-like flowers adored by hummingbirds like all the salvias.

A new greenhouse where he has a small collection of orchids will soon house new seedlings that are sprouting in a germination station under lights. Of the many Hawaiian seeds he has collected are maile, a flowering plant that is probably the oldest and most popular material used in leis by early Hawaiians, milo- a chocolate and malt powder popular in many parts of the world, gossypium tomentosum, coral vines, hibiscus and the koa tree.

There were hundreds more cool plants I learned about and got to admire that day. I’ll be visiting this garden again and again for the next round of wonders. it’s a marvel.

 

fall foliage, Flowering trees, garden design

Make that View outside a window interesting

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This is the time of year when all things seem possible. You might be planning improvements to  the vegetable garden. Maybe you’re also thinking of adding a focal point like a small accent tree or garden art to one of the perennial beds. And you really need to do something about that view outside the picture window. It needs more year round appeal. After all, you spend a lot of time looking out there. The solution may be simpler than you think.

Creating interest outside a window depends not only on plant choices but also. Keep the garden simple and restful. Editing some of the plants will make the garden lower maintenance, too. Plants that have overgrown the space need constant pruning. Move them to a better spot.

Limit the number of elements in the garden. Rather than trying to include everything in the garden try for a unified look with the fewest number of things. Make each one count.  Place objects to define a space. This doesn’t mean creating separate garden rooms necessarily but more like a set of boulders to signify distinct parts of the garden.

Another tip that makes an area more restful visually is to limit your plant palette. Plants that you can see through make a space seem larger. Some plants like Japanese maple, nandina and dogwood are naturally airy while other plants like camellia can be pruned for openness. Low growing, mounding groundcovers help unify the garden. Plant soothing greenery for year round appeal with seasonal color from perennials and shrubs.

Simple gardens can be beautiful year round and low-maintenance, too.

 

garden design, soggy soil

How to Handle Excess Water in the Landscape

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We had enough rain to bring those soggy areas of the garden you’ve been vowing for years to do something about to the top of the to-do list. Whether they’re caused by excess rain on your property, from the neighbor or from poor soil drainage, they can be a challenge or an opportunity when designing the garden.

One way to handle runoff is to intercept the water and drain it way with an open ditch, French drain or underground pispe. Better still- develop an on-site collection system. Dry river beds can be designed to aid in rain water harvesting. Above ground water tanks and submerged collection tanks are becoming common to save excess water flowing off the impervious surfaces of your roof, patio, walkways and driveway. Another method of retaining water on your own property is to channel it into a dry-well, a hole filled with drain rock. From here, the water can disperse slowly into the surrounding soil.

Soggy spots can also . Sometimes the same property can have a complex pattern of soils that vary sharply from one area to another. Or soil can become compacted from heavy equipment and need to be broken up with a backhoe, excavator or by hand with a pick.

In some cases, natural topsoil may have been scraped away as is sometimes the case after septic work leaving the hardpan underneath exposed. This can be broken up and lots of compost dug in to keep it loose. New topsoil may need to be added to increase fertility and drainage.

If you still have a naturally wet area, you may choose to live with it and select plants that thrive in damp conditions. A rain garden, one type of on-site collection system, is a depression made in the soil and planted with wet tolerant plants. It can be as small as 100 square feet. To create one, dig a shallow bowl or build a berm to hold the water. Run-off water diverted to a rain garden is slowed so is can seep into the soil. They also filter out pollutants than run off from buildings and driveways.

Choose plants that will thrive in in wet winter and dry summer conditions. Native plants that will do well include trees like alder, sycamore and Calif. fan palm. 

Native shrubs that tolerate these conditions are spicebush, pacific wax myrtle, western mock orange and sambucus.  While native perennials to try are western columbine, wild ginger, carex pansa, deergrass, red fescue and wild grape.

Ornamentals that don’t mind having their feet wet include bee balm, New England aster, ligularia, lobelia cardinalis, hosta, calla lily, lysimachia and Japanese iris. Grasses and grass-like plants that work in this situation are acorus, chondropetalum, fiber optic grass, cyperus and equisetum.

Think of all that rain and moisture as an opportunity in your garden.