Ribes: For Those Impatient for Spring

While time ticks by slowly for most garden plants through the remaining months of Winter, California natives have emerged ready for Spring.  Ribes sanguineum, Pink Currant, I'll admit looks rather lackluster at the end of Summer.  Leaves turn rust-colored and sparse.  But come February the garden becomes a fairyland of hanging pink ornaments.  Delicate little earring droplets drip off the edges of branches while hummingbirds rush to visit each one.  Instant enchantment!

Violets and Douglas Iris sit at the Queen's feet, adding splashes of lavender to the scene.  I'll be honest and admit that I can't remember what variety this is.  I'll venture a guess at 'Claremont.' 

This lighter variety grows happily in a large container planted just over the Summer.  I love how lady-like this one is with her pink gloves on for tea!

Ribes speciosum, Fuchsia Flowering Gooseberry, has been going strong since January.  The outgoing, wild sister of sanguineum, this spined, arching shrub shoves out seemingly millions of these racy red drops.  The Summer months find these flowers transformed into fuzzy orange balls, slightly transparent and filled with black seeds.  To call them berries does not do them justice- more like special gifts from space aliens.  I can attest, however that they are sweet and quite tasty, although the seed to fruit ratio is about equal.  The perfect plant for a low-traffic part-sun area of the garden in need of color.  I imagine its brambles could deter roving bands of cats from entering through that hole in the fence you've been meaning to repair.  Or if I've totally lost you there, plant one for hummingbirds who have been known to nest in these.  It's a win-win!







 

Contemporary Admidst the Chaos

 

While most of the East Bay is awash in Arts and Crafts style homes, more contemporary spots peek through the dark wood shingles and redwood lintels that dominate our area.  This '60s style home needed a garden to match its architecture.  Out go the roses, boxwoods and Japanese Maples (poor things- Japanese Maples in a West-facing garden seems so cruel).  The chaos of the existing garden becomes clean and exciting- spots of red dominate in summer with ribbons of Zauschneria.  Mimulus aurantiacus and California Poppies Maritima form lift their orange faces to the Spring sunshine.  Calamagrostis foliosa and Senecio mandraliscae (String Bean Succulent) provide an evergreen (and everblue, respectively) background.  

In keeping with my current fascination on the theme of "clashing colors are beautiful colors," Verbena lilacina flowers happily alongside the reds of Summer and oranges of Spring, giving off its light scent year-round.  Hummingbirds are gonna flip out over all the new choices they'll have, while skippers can sip the Verbena's nectar and drop their eggs over the grasses.

 photo taken from shelterrific.com

It's not always about the plants, however.  The traditional bread-loaf shaped mailbox gets switched out for a sleeker version.  I found this local designer's mailbox and love the simple yet functional shape.

Another colorful, low water garden to better match the surrounding landscape, its visitors and most importantly, its owners.

Plant List: Dreamy Cottage Gardens

 English-style cottage gardens seem to be a popular style amongst many gardeners and who can blame them?  The British transcend garden geeky-ness to a level not seen elsewhere.  However, many of the plants that thrive across the pond take way too much water and fertilizer in these parts.  But us Californians are in luck- we've got an army of gorgeous flowery natives that not only run rampant in our meager garden conditions, but provide just as much flower power as the old garden standbys.  In fact for the last few centuries, many of our natives have gone abroad to fulfill the envies of British plant geeks.  A list for your amusement:

Penstemon palmeri (above) sends a rocket of soft pink, fragrant flowers into the mix.  The shape of the flowers look like a snapdragon that takes its vitamins, yet still creates a romantic ambiance in the garden.  What a wonderful contrast it would make with Monardella villosa!

Instead of surrounding the garden with the traditional yew hedge, consider a Calycanthus occidentalis.  The broad leaves provide a contrasting backdrop to the water lily-like crimson flowers, which smell like a barrel of red wine.  It goes deciduous in the winter and typically will require more water than the more drought-tolerant natives.  Takes shade! 

Platystemon californicus is a tiny-flowered annual that creates a pool of cream-colored flowers, puddled amongst the bases of larger flowering plants.  Pair with annual Phacelia or perrenial Penstemon heterophyllus for a shot of blue/white contrast.

Ceanothus became popular in the English garden in the mid 1800s and has become a staple for British gardeners.  A Ceanothus going from the dry, arid Californian landscape to the cold, drizzly British one attests to its stiff upper lip of adaptability.  Just remember, however that they're not overly fond of water.  Prune one into a small tree as a focal point or have a shrub in the background, waiting for the bevy of bees to visit in early Spring.

 
We can't neglect the old British garden favorite lavender, right?  While not native, lavender adapts well to our Mediterranean climate and does give the bees a run for their money.  Have you considered, however replacing the lavender with Salvia clevelandii?  The photo was the best I could do- I'm enjoying the scent so much whenever I run into her that I forget to snap a decent picture!  She's in the upper portion of the photo, floating above the Eriogonum grande rubescens, Erigeron karvinskianus and a lovely pink Echevaria (note:  last of these two not native).  The hummingbirds flip out over this one, but I plant this one for me more than anything else.  Yum!

Hangover in the Garden

You know the kind of night out where the next morning you wipe the crust out of your eyes, grab your head and wonder what.  in.  the.  world.  happened?*  Well, that explains the current state of the front garden.  The photo above shows the garden in full party mode.  Yeah, more Clarkias!  This is amazing!  Par-tay!

And now?  Well, see for yourself...

Aaah, make the pain stop!  You'd think that as a garden designer, I would have pages of sketches and scaled drawings detailing what goes where, charts to indicate bloom times and colors, etc.  I do those kinds of things for all my clients, but as the shoemaker's children run barefoot, my garden sits in the summer sun helpless.  Dried Clarkia petals litter the ground as a reminder of the swell time and I promise myself that this is the last garden hangover.  Never again!  Sketches and drawings, trips to the nursery and thoughtful transplantings on the way. 

*Special note to Grandma:  I don't really know what that's like, I'm just guessing what that's like...

Spring Forward!

 I heart artichokes!

I thought I'd start out the week with some happy blurts of color to chase away the Summer fog!  Enjoy!

Olive-Route Press' welcoming display

A handful of flowery confetti sprinkled throughout the garden

Tomato teepees keep Tulip poppies company.  Wow!

Show and Tell: Kicks of Color

Here's one of my latest drawings for a bungalow garden.  Circles rarely communicate what I'd like them to, so I've begun adding color spots showing the approximate foliage and flower color.  It ends up resembling a bunch of little cells floating about! 

I really enjoyed creating this design, with bright kicks of red and yellow amid bits of blue, with varying shades of gray foliage all around.

A Garden For the Senses

As promised, here's a few more photos of the garden I just completed.  My client and her darling canine companion were looking for something that could allow for proper romping and fetching, but also a place to provide cut flowers and veggies with floral scents wafting through every once in while.  In other words, a peaceful spot to entertain or just slowly wander and enjoy the surroundings.

 Before

First, let me give you perspective on what we were dealing with.    An ivy-infested fence bordered one side and actually encroached on 4' of backyard!  A small sidewalk path also encroached needlessly into the space.  A dead lemon tree still stood to attention and seemed to be memorialized with borders of red bricks sunken into the ground.  The side of the house was ringed with older shrubs, but didn't offer any privacy to the windows above their canopies. 

So here's the fun part.  The area in the foreground above became a large grassy area, punctuated by redwood steps.  Lemon verbenas, roses and a new lemon tree watch from the sidelines.

The bricks were re-used as mini-retaining walls for the beds of Ribes and Douglas Iris and as a primitive path to the new compost bin.  A row of Pacific Wax Myrtles, Abutilons and Philadelphus will over time help create a new privacy buffer where the ivy once was.  The patch of dirt in the photo is now sprouting lettuces and will over time be surrounded by Chamomile and Strawberry.  The redwood steps draw a line through this L-shaped garden and join these disparate pieces together. 

Airy trellises surround the blank expanse of the house will create green walls of Cecil Brunner roses and Kiwis. 

Now the only thing to do is wait for everything to grow in, although it looks like the garden is already being enjoyed, since I received this photo the other day.

I'm so happy it's in and can't wait to see the progress!  A special thanks to Christian from Misty Morning Gardens, who took my design and carried it out to a "T" and my client, Hannah who guided the design process in wonderful ways I could not have imagined (not to mention baked us cookies while we worked!  Am I lucky or what?!).

Sneak Peek: The Fragrant, Edible Garden

I'm buzzing about today, so don't have time to blog and flit about my favorite garden blogs.  I didn't want to leave you hanging, though and thought I'd drop in and leave a "sneak-peek" to a spectacular garden I just completed.  Well, at least it will be completed when the tomatoes are planted!

Redwood steps settle into a lawn of Agrostis pallens.  Native sod, how cool is that?!  It's already looking gracefully floppy.  More to come!

Une Bonne Trouvaille (A Good Find)

I found myself searching for interesting new eye candy yesterday and happened upon a place of wonderment.  Oddly enough, I was a part of it!  Paradisexpress is my favorite new blog and the fact that they included me in their delightfully curated mix made me feel quite honored.  Luckily for us language challenged, the text is provided in English as well as French. 

Dreamy, delightful things await you here!

Show and Tell: Waterbug Tile Set

I never told you about these concrete tiles I designed?  Oh... well here you go!  I'd love to do the backsplash of a fountain wall with these someday, surrounded by lush ferns and bits of water collecting in the crevices of the "insects."  Their design allows for a number of orientations and I've never been able to decide with way I like them best.

Berkeley Jewel Box Garden

I stopped by a garden yesterday that I had completed a few months back and man.... was there a party going on! A black carpenter bee was humming about the collinsias and the white poppies were dancing away with the phacelias. Because it's a small and shady spot, I wanted to leave the design open for variation- creating seasonal bursts of jewel-toned blossoms to attract hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.


The trellis I made to match the Arts and Crafts style of the house is still waiting for the native grape to take some initiative, but it's coming along.

I love the red stems that contrast with the leaves. I can't wait to see him turn red in the fall.
A dry stream bed weaves its way through the plantings- aren't those pink poppies spectacular?