Mediterranean Inspired Modern

The homeowner of this Italian inspired villa in the Oakland hills was looking for a planting plan that reminded him of the great gardens of Italy.  

This small version of a 'Grand' Italian garden is planted with a hedge row of Olive 'Little Ollie', Phormium 'Black Adder' Lomandra 'Seascape' and Aeonium.

The sunken patio was made using left over pre-poured concrete pavers set in decomposed granite.  The raised concrete beds are planted with Mexican Sage.

Moroccan Modern

 

This fun garden design project called for a contemporary fell with inspiration from the home owners love of Moroccan culture and color.  The photos above feature a Navajo flagstone patio, blue pergola with 3"x3" slats on the back and roof to provide a respite from the sun and a small grill canopy of clear corrugated plastic to allow the grill master to stay dry in the rain.

Along the edge of the patio and decomposed granite walkway are two "L" shaped veggie boxes and a perennial garden just beyond the boxes.

To increase storage space a multi-use she-shed was incorporated into the design.  Suddenly bikes and camping gear have a place to be stored and easily accessed.  The steel lined dg path extends to a side gate that leads to the front of the house. 

'Orange Cross' Kangaroo Paw hang out along the back side of the pergola.  A great foil for the Moroccan Blue.

All Grown Up

This San Francisco garden makes us appreciate winters in our moderate climate.  A recent renovation in 2015 converted the lawn area into a patio space surrounded by herbs and blooming perennials.

After a single growing season, our Bay Area gardens come to life with flowers and foliage attracting beneficial insects, birds and bees.

This Berkeley cottage garden designed in conjunction with Planted Earth was installed about 3 years ago.

The Lawn is Gone

This garden in Oakland was planted in spring 2014.  The lawn was converted into a native garden enhanced with non-native succulents and drought tolerant perennials.

The lush and cheery feeling this small garden evokes encourages bees, butterflies and birds to stop in for pollen and nectar from flowering perennials. Coyote brush, Yellow current, Sticky monkey flower, Coral bells and Santolina are among the native perennials in bloom.

New Project: Albany Japanese Garden

The home owner of this Albany property wanted a garden that would draw him off the back deck into a tranquil seating area surrounded by low water and low maintenance plantings.  

The Arizona Buckskin Buff flagstone patio is off center toward the back fence.  In order to get to the patio, one must cross the creek by either a flagstone 'bridge' or stepping stone in the center of the creek.

A wooly Thyme pathway connects the 'bridge' to the patio. 

Another special feature in this garden are the recycled Cedar tree roots.  There is a large stump remaining from a Cedar tree that was taken down long before the current owner arrived.  As we were planting we came across large pieces of the root system.  We removed them and peeled the outer layer of bark to expose the beautiful treasure beneath.  Here is one incorporated into the creek bank.

Repeating Acacia cognata 'Cousin It' will provide the grounding shrubs for this Japanese garden.  Varying shades of green foliage capture the essence of serenity.  Blooming perennials such as Kangaroo paw, Salvia and Rock rose provide color and interest attractive to beneficial insects and birds.

Before Images

Mai tai, anyone?

This is a garden we designed and installed in the spring. It is a small front garden and back patio planting strip of a condo in the really hot area of Oakland by Fruitvale, the so-called "Banana Belt." It was midday when I took the photos so the lighting is pretty harsh, but the bright colors still show up pretty well even though some of the photos are a little blown out.

The back is secluded and one side is part-shade, so we went for a more lush planting than in the front. We were going for "tropical retreat." The planting had to be in scale with the small space, and well-behaved--not too messy or fussy. Also, unlike the front, we worked with some of the existing plants--a large plum tree, a beautiful and very vigorous bougainvillea, and a globe cypress in the corner. We added semi-tropicals like rainbow coprosma, a tangerine flower cultivar of abutilon, purple lorapetalum, golden acoris, and a Tasmanian tree fern.



The client wanted colorful and dramatic plants that could take the heat against the house in the front, and would remain fairly tidy and low maintenance. We used kangaroo paws, salvia 'limelight', and a leucodendron 'safari sunset' for the focal points and surrounded them with chartreuse green sedum groundcover, orange-flowering arctosis, silvery dusty miller, and parrots-beak flowering lotus to spill over the walls. A purple hopseed bush against the house and purple loraptalum spilling over the wall added some darker foliage for contrast.
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This planting happened in the spring of this year, so you can see it filled in pretty quickly!