Heard about our recent, unseasonable cold snap?

Here's how we rock a snowman, Bay Area style.

Artistic snow sculpture, courtesy of Anya.  Droid photo, courtesy of her mom, Roxy.

If you follow the world of fashion, you may have noticed that most designers don't seem to dress very fashionably.  Michael Kors (pictured), one of the celebrity judges on Project Runway, is rarely seen in anything but a black tee and black jacket.  Ditto for Vera Wang, whose uniform of choice is a black dress and black tights.

Ever wonder if you took a peek in a landscape designer’s garden if it would embody the same principles she natters on about with clients? I can’t speak for other designers, but if I were graded on consistency, I wouldn’t score straight As.  Following are a few examples of where I follow my own rules, and where I ignore my own inner designer.

Because I live in a part of the country with mild temperatures year round, most of my gardens are lifestyle gardens.  I want clients to spend time in them, not just look at them.  This leads me to Rule Number One:

Make It Comfortable

While I love the look of a weathered bench artfully anchoring a garden nook, let’s face it – who wants to sit on a hard little backless bench?  I prefer comfortable cushions,

and over-stuffed couches and lounge chairs.

Here in my own garden, we spend almost every mild evening relaxing on these lounge chairs.  Actually, you can even find us there on not-so-mild evenings, wrapped in blankets as if we're lounging on the deck of an ocean liner, circa 1925.

This is one of the best ways to create a space that is uniquely yours.  You can follow my client Kathy’s lead, whose collection is so large (and growing) that one of my design goals was to create spaces for her larger pieces:

And just because your garden is small (like mine) or you’re perpetually on a budget (like me) doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate an artistic touch. Art doesn’t need to be big or flashy.  This little starfish nestled into my flagstone path was an impulse buy at a summer craft show, and cost a mere $2.99.  It’s small and subtle, but never fails to delight when a visitor to my garden stumbles on it.

This photo shows a typical palette I would use. The eggplant colored container fountain adds soft contrast to the plants, with a lot of the interest coming from the light reflecting off of the faceted exterior.

I took the following picture immediately after installation, so the plants are still teeny tiny, but in this example you can see that the soft blue color chosen for the privacy screen beautifully reflects the natural tones of the slate stepping stones. The tranquil color works for both the spa side and the edible garden side of the dividing screen.

Which brings us to the point where my rules and I part ways.  If you followed my own recent garden makeover you know that when I added some painted walls to my own garden, I used no restraint whatsoever.  My motto is the bolder the better. 

So while I’ll continue to create natural, tranquil spaces for my clients, in my own garden, serenity is for sissies.

Fall Color

If you’re a fan of both Japanese Maples and fall color, now is the best time for those of us in mild weather climates to choose a tree.  For my money, the stand-out cultivar for brilliant red foliage is Acer palmatum ‘Tobiosho.’

If you prefer the delicate leaves of an Acer dissectum, then your garden won’t be complete without this lovely cultivar called ‘Seiryu.’

Looking for a bit more orange in your fall garden?  You can’t go wrong with ‘Twombley’s Red Sentinel,’ which also boasts a columnar shape unusual for Japanese Maples.

One of my favorites for a small focal point tree is A. Palmatum ‘Sango Kaku.’  After the golden leaves are gone and winter chill has worked its magic, the rich red bark of the aptly named Coral Bark Maple makes a stunning architectural element in the winter, and with uplighting, a dramatic statement at night.

In our dry California climate, Japanese Maples struggle with leaf burn even in the shade and are happiest with regular water, so I think of them as special occasion trees.  For  dramatic foliage color on a low water tree that can handle more sun, these days I'm loving Agonis flexuosa ‘After Dark’. 

This tree’s rich purple foliage makes a wonderful contrast for the grey green leaves so common to low water plants and you don’t have to wait for fall – After Dark features beautiful year-round foliage. It’s somewhat susceptible to freezing, but this tough tree usually bounces back easily.

Container Idea

What else did I see?  How about this fun planter idea for a winter lettuce bowl:

Jury's Still Out

And finally, I was drawn to these unusual pebble pots, but I honestly can’t tell if I love their unique look and rich texture, or if they look like a something a crazed crafter with a glue gun addiction might create.

Thanks for joining me on my fall nursery tour!

Today's post is by guest blogger Shelley Somersett, APLD

Are you ready for a change from the American lawn as we know it?  John Greenlee’s The American Meadow Garden, Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn, is inspiration for designers and homeowners alike, especially in California. An experienced nurseryman, award winning horticulturalist and designer, John provides a detailed guide for the reinvention of sod lawns that includes site preparation, plant selection, installation, maintenance and how species and cultivars perform in different climate zones. The design focus is supported with stunning Saxon Holt photographs of mature meadow gardens both public and private that demonstrate John’s principles of an American Meadow Garden.

John includes companion planting options to achieve desired ornamental plant combinations, including bulbs, daisies, sages and ferns, to name just a few. The design aspects are generously illustrated with images from meadow gardens throughout California, Colorado, Texas, Missouri and Wisconsin. The importance of designing alternatives to the traditional lawn which is a ‘time consuming, water-guzzling, synthetic-chemical-sucking mistake’ is the primary lesson he wants us all to learn.

As a residential landscape designer in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than a decade, I gleefully remove lawn whenever possible. Filled with great information on the beauty and functionality of grasses, this will be a book I reach for often.  As a profession, designers have a responsibility to bring about change to support a healthy landscape environment. We must stop our ‘lawn’ habit. It is essential for clean air, clean water, healthy soil and consequently healthy us. This book provides the tools to help us choose the right grasses for different situations.

Perhaps my only criticism is the inclusion of some of California’s worst invasive grasses, Cortaderia selloana, Pampas Grass and Arundo, Giant Reed grasses. The state spends millions removing these species. We should not be adding them back to the landscape.

The American Meadow Garden evokes childhood memories of growing up on a ranch, running through grass up to my knees with my brother and seeing who could stay upright the longest before the grass caught our legs and tumbled us to the ground where we would lay, laughing and peering up at the sky through Blue Dicks and Ithuriel’s Spear, waiting to catch our breath and try again. My childhood lawn was a meadow. Free from petrochemicals, mowing or blowing. No herbicides required. Our peaceful sea of green teamed with life and with my brother, laughter. 

If you practice sustainable design, The American Meadow Garden belongs on your bookshelf.

All photos copyright 2009 Saxon Holt, provided courtesy of Timberpress

After m

uch research, I discovered a plant-centric approach to feng shui that I continue to incorporate into my designs. My guiding principle is simple – rely on plants and other traditional garden features like terra cotta and wood to ensure all five elements of  feng shui exist within the garden.  My aha moment came from reading the books of Gill Hale (many of which are sadly out of print), which showed me that each element can be represented literally or symbolically via a plant’s shape or color. This chart demonstrates the Creative Cycle, which occurs when all five elements are both present and balanced by supporting elements (those on either side of it on the Creative Cycle).

Here’s a rundown on each element:

Conversely, this classic topiary is supported by the cheerful red door and its wavy, watery shape.

Fire is represented by the color red (what else?) and jagged, triangular shapes.  Fire is both energizing and agitating and is one of the most challenging colors in the garden to work with – in fact, I’ve noticed some designers avoid it almost entirely.  

These next three photos are all of the same garden.  In this picture, the rich red roses are balanced by the square planter (earth) that contains them and the green plants (wood) nearby.

Here the spiky red Kangaroo Paw and Phormium Guardsman are balanced by the wood planter and green plants, the yellow Gaillardia, terracotta pot and the earth-toned DG pathway.

Earth is represented by arbors, fences and solid rectangular shapes as well as the colors yellow, orange and brown.  Traditional garden elements like wooden sheds and planters are an easy way to incorporate wood, as are rectangular garden beds.  Plants with bronze or gold foliage such as this bronze Carex are a wonderful way to bring this element into the garden.  

Adding a touch of fire can enliven an earth dominated area of the garden.  In this photo, the red cosmos add a harmonious energy to the earth colored Mexican Feather Grass. 

Metal represents a gathering energy and is symbolized by domed shapes and the colors white and silver.  Western garden design teaches that white is the color that most draws the eye in the garden – another way of describing a gathering energy at work.  Because of this, I find that a little goes a long way.  A domed arbor is a nice way to introduce a metal element into the garden, particularly one grounded by a rectangular earth element such as a bench.

Water is a meandering element that is easily added via a traditional water feature or by introducing the colors blue and black into the garden.  But water can also be incorporated via wavy shapes like meandering paths:

Or a wave of grass-like plants, like this photo or Silver Dragon Liriope my friend and fellow designer Rebecca Sweet took of my backyard yesterday:

Even when added in a straight forward way, water still craves balance.  Basalt columns (wood shape) add balance to this water feature.

Photo by Tai Williams

I'll end with a DISCLAIMER: The Creative Cycle represents only one small part of fung shei, but it’s the aspect that appeals the most to my designer sensibilities. More importantly, it’s wonderfully compatible with Western garden design principles, which essentially use a different vocabulary to reach the same harmonious result.

No matter what you use for a guidepost, in the end it’s all about good design.