Before & After: Lawn No More

The view from this Potrero Hill second floor deck shows the remnants of a lawn turned weed patch surrounded with border plantings of Euonymous, Rosemary and African Bush Daisy. The lower shade garden features 'the Blob' beneath the Incense Cedar.

The homeowners wanted to feel invited down into the back garden for reasons other than weeding! To make the space more usable and inviting, we replaced the lawn with a patio of Three Rivers Flagstone and spruced up the boarder plantings by adding low water perennials and grasses that add year round interest.

We spruced up the lower garden by redefining the raised beds and adding steps and small landing make transition from sun to shade easy and inviting. Woodland plantings such as variegated Rhododendron, Coleonema, variegated Dianella tasmanica, Plectranthus and Oakleaf Hydrangea that will fill out the space and add to the woodlandy contrast of the sunny patio space.

Antoinette Approves!

Before and After: Rockridge Brown-shingle woodland garden

Before:


This classic brown-shingle in Rockridge was being fixed up and sold. The seller and his real estate agent hired us to design the garden for the sale.


After: It's been over three years since this garden was installed (and we do not know the current residents of the house). The huge redwood in the front was existing, but we replaced the ugly broken concrete sidewalk with a Connecticut Full-Range flagstone path, and planted a 'Forest Pansy' Redbud tree (the tree with the heart-shaped purple leaves), and added more white agapanthus, a red flax, orange New-Zealand wind grasses, and purple flowering African daisy. Closer to the house we added some rhododendrons, and an oakleaf hydrangea to compliment the existing tree fern.

Lawn begone!

This client in El Cerrito wanted to get rid of her lawn. It was weedy, went brown in the summer, and was a constant maintenance hassle. She wanted sturdy, drought-tolerant plantings, and a level, wider walkway. The front steps were small and slanted, so we designed a larger walkway and bigger stairs, and had the front patio covered with Connecticut Full-Range tiles to match the Roman pattern we did on the walkway.

Before: This crabgrass lawn looks good in spring, when it's green after the rains. But come summer, it all goes brown and weedy since there was no existing irrigation.




After: This garden was planted sparsely so that that the plants will have a little separation around them even after they "grow in". The pictures below show it newly planted, so everything is small but it is very neat and tidy. The client likes structural Meditterranean plants with bold colors and clean lines, like protea, flax, and leucadendron. We planted a Meyer lemon tree against the house to provide a sense of scale in the garden. This garden will not require much maintenance to keep it looking clean and colorful. I can't wait to see it in a year when everything is established. I think the house is scheduled to be painted in the meantime as well, so it will be a fun transformation.




Close-up of the Roman pattern of tiled Connecticut Full-Range flagstone. It consists of 4 different-sized tiles and has a very "clean" look.

San Francisco Garden

Welcome to my garden.

My San Francisco Bernal Heights garden is bursting at the seams this summer. The winter rains and recent spurts of warm sunny weather have brought the garden into its own.

Planting a combination of California natives, drought tolerant and low water plants from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa creates a colorful garden with year round interest.

Hardscape elements include a small deck, dry creek, sitting stones and bench. Each sitting area is tucked into the garden offering a space to enjoy the immediate surroundings or the view of the city beyond.

Utilization of bloom color, leaf texture and leaf color creates contrast and interest in the planting areas. Repeating colors of fuschia colored blooms from the old rose in the background and geranium in the foreground as well as the yellow pom poms of the interspersed Chrysocephalum have added continuity that tie the garden together.

As you exit through the gate, you enter into the gravel patio garden featuring a basalt water fountain and blooming perennials. These are the main attraction to the local yellow finch, finch & hummingbird populations.

Also incorporated in our gravel patio garden are a seating area for outdoor dining, fire pit and sitting stone.

This amazing Calandrinia spectabilis is one of the most rewarding succulents in the garden. It gets no irrigation!

New Sign!

We got a new sign to put up in our gardens after we install them. Look for them around town.


This is the same garden from the last post, now in its full summer glory. It only has quarterly maintenance and still looks fab--proof that you can do drought-tolerant and low-maintenance without sacrificing color or 4-season interest.

Piedmont garden installation, before and after

This is another installation we did last summer. This site, off Moraga Avenue in the Piedmont area of Oakland, had a slight slope on either side of the front walkway that needed stabilizing and structure. We added some rocky outcroppings to create some interest and flat areas for planting.

Before:




During: Rockwork phase of installation




After: we planted low-maintenance but colorful grasses, flaxes, and Mediterranean flowering perennials like salvias and lavender against a backdrop of evergreen shrubs like manzanitas and breath of heaven. We planted a large fruitless olive which will soon provide screening from the nearest neighbor's house. Our lovely Patricia strikes a pose while doing some maintenance there. This garden is very low maintenance--we go quarterly to do some weeding, check the drip irrigation and set the timer accordingly, and some light pruning, dead-heading, and separation of plants. Another great property of this garden is how colorful it is even now, in early winter. Come summer the catmint, thymes, salvias, and lavenders will be blooming but until then there is still enough winter interest because of the colorful foliage.

Montclair before and after

Here's another garden we installed this past winter, in Montclair hills area of Oakland. Montclair has neighborhoods like this one that are in the middle of natural California woodlands, surrounded by beautiful redwoods, oaks, and bays. If not fenced in, the gardens are visited by deer, and often are shaded by mature overhead trees. This front terraced garden had the original planting in some areas from when the house was built, in the 50's or 60's, namely the juniper hedge at the top of the hill (see below) and in general had an overgrown, outdated feel. We left the ivy on the steepest part of the hill but ripped out the juniper hedge, added a little mossrock terracing to stabilize the slope, and planted Choisya ternata, Mexican Mock Orange, a deer-resistant evergreen shrub to give it a lusher look and some flowers. There was also an ancient privet (the bare branched tree in the first photo below) that we took out, and replaced it with a purple Japanese maple. Then we added in some woodland deer-resistant shade plantings, like rhododendrons, ferns, variegated Japanese pieris, a Daphne, and foxgloves. This garden is still brand new, so I can't wait to see what it looks like in a year or so after the plants are established and the maple leafs out.

Before:


After



Before


After