Here's a link to my Photobucket album for May. I apologize in advance - I always forget PB loads my photos in reverse order, so the first photo you see is at the backyard, moving up the side yard and ending at the front yard. Needless to say, I meant to do it the other way around!
Here it is already moving into early summer. The orange CA poppies are setting seeds and the agapanthus are starting to send up flower spikes. The first flush of roses is already at its peak and the lavender is fading fast.
Click on the first picture to enlarge it, and you can then select "slideshow" to cycle through all 20 photos.
http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c116/jkom51/May2007/
May in a coastal NorthernCA garden
Very nice!!! I love your silver/ white vignette, and your use of silver throughout your garden - I really don't see much of it here in the Easterly parts as I did in Arizona - of course, so many of the plants there are silvery - anyway, you've done a great job.
And no lawn to mow! YAY!!!
Delightful! You not only have lovely plant combinations, but your hardscapes are terrific contrasts as well.
Such a treat for those of us whose gardens are just getting going!!!
I love you garden , how long did it take you to get it that way? all those combinations ,you do live in a great zone for all those plants, I am restricted to very winter hardy plants , allthou I have a azelia shrub bought some years back that will still bloom for me,the nurseries dont get them anymore here , to cold, O well, it is starting to warm up now ,and my lilacs are in bud, so we 'll have flowers soon.
jkom - ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!
It's what I hope my garden will it be when it grows up!!
I too am going for the 'no lawn' garden. We have a meditteranean climate in Adelaide Australia so really need drought tolerant plants here. How's the rain fall in N. CA? I lived in the LA area for a while which is very similar to South Australia (except the pollution - LA "wins" that race!). We are just coming out of a terrible El Nino drought - praying for a wet winter.
Do you get much rain in summer? Any water restrictions?
Thank you all very much! In answer to the questions:
I did a lot of planning and research for almost a year before we started the landscaping. However, as the install continued, I did a fair amount of substituting - it's almost all container plants, and I worked with what was available from the retail outlets (a mix of big box garden centers and local nurseries).
Plants are grouped by site (sun/shade/water; microclimates) requirements. Rainfall here is 21” annually, from mid-Oct thru April. NO rain in the summer at all. Regular droughts and expensive water are a way of life here.
Our lot is approx. 45' wide by 147' long, deep slope on a hill. Half the hardscape was there - all hard straight lines. We used the cottage-style to soften them. When we designed/installed the remaining hardscape, we put in curves wherever we could, to add interest.
Because of money and time, we installed in phases. This made it easier to complete the hardscape for each phase first. The front was done in early 2002. The sides were done in late 2002. The first half of the backyard was done in mid-2003. The last half of the backyard (we have a small cottage with a very large backyard!) was not done until early 2004. We added a few finishing hardscape items in 2005.
Because coastal Northern CA has such mild weather a garden must look good all year long. Many traditional cottage-garden plants can't survive our bone-dry summers and damp cool winters, so we tend to use different plants as our landscaping "bones".
The majority of plants I use are evergreen - January and February are really the only times there isn't much flower color. I'm a big believer in foliage providing texture/color interest, and also try to really use the concept of "layers" - e.g., tall, medium, short - even in small beds.
And I'm ruthless - if something doesn't work, I move it or shovel-prune it! I don't use a lot of chemicals. There have been many plants that haven’t survived my combination of Mediterranean climate and minimal watering. I am always fiddling with the plants, adding or moving them around for maximum effect with minimum maintenance needed!
To conserve water as much as possible, we replaced 8” of adobe clay almost everywhere with top quality compost. Everything is heavily mulched and watered by soaker hoses. With our moderate climate (heat spells over 85 degrees for more than 3-4 days only happen a few times a year) I water usually every two or three weeks. That’s not a typo: 2-3 weeks after a deep soak. When we do get a real week-long heat spell, then it’s once a week.
Water is expensive here. A unit (13,464 gallons) is about $2.10/unit. It costs $15/mo in the summer to water approx. 2000 sq. ft. of garden beds and of course, in the winter, it isn’t needed at all. It’s easy to tell what it costs since for the first 12 yrs we lived here, we had NO landscaping at all! I was happily surprised by how little it costs in water, with good planning, to have such a lush cottage look.
Labor out here is costly. A 1990 estimate on a pro install of landscaping a lot very similar to ours in size and needs was $50,000 to $75,000 - no pool or outdoor kitchen, nothing fancy; just good basic stuff! Figure with inflation that figure is probably closer to $65-90K these days.
We did use a gardener for some stuff, such as French drains, some of the concrete block beds, and a dry concrete patio, but 70% of it we did ourselves. So we're very proud we brought it in for well under $16K.
jkom, congratulations on such incredible planning - not only for beauty, but also for figuring out how to keep your water bills so low! I'm also impressed with the patience you showed in putting it altogether. It really was worth the wait.
I really appreciate all your info, too. We get about the same amount of water that you do, but we get much colder in the winter and we do get rain usually in the summer as well.
Again, congrats and thanks so much for sharing photos and information - you could go into business helping people plan their gardens!
Thanks for the info!! You could be an Aussie gardener!!!! In Adelaide, we get the almost exact same type of climate! Tight water restrictions too. The idea of a good, slow watering every couple of weeks is definitely the way to go. Better for the plants and better for the water bill! Enjoy your Spring and Summer. Hopefully you received enough winter rains. We are now in Autumn going into winter next month and the promise is that we will have a long, wet winter this time!! Thank goodness! Keep posting the photos - very inspirational!
Quick follow-up question for jkom: How do your Hydrangeas, Lamium and Aucuba do during the summer and their water needs. Have they proven just as hardy or do you give them a bit more supplemental water? I would like to add these plants but thought they were a bit thirsty. Lamium is my favourite shady ground cover and Aucuba is lovely to brighten a shady spot as well. Thanks
Aucuba will live in dry shade, one of the few interesting foliage plants that will, in fact. Trick is, it must be established first, then can take drier conditions. Interestingly enough, some cannas are surprisingly drought resistant as well when established. On a vacant lot nearby some yellow cannas get no summer water, but although they look pretty tattered by the end of summer, come the winter rains they perk right back up again!
Hydrangeas and lamium are more thirsty, so they are set up nearest the soakers, mulched and watered a little bit more than the others - maybe every 2 weeks regularly, rather than 2-3 weeks.
One lamium exception is the rampant "Yellow Archangel", or lamium galeobdon. It goes dormant without water, but given any moisture comes right back again with a vengeance.
I've found with good moisture-holding soil and mulch, most plants do surprisingly well with less water than advertised. Bearded iris, for example, are a mainstay in all my beds, and seem to need very little summer water at all.
I'll have to look out for the Lamium galeobdon. Not familar with that one. Will get an Aucuba for shady spots. Your soil would be a lot healthier than Australian soil. Australia has no (currently active) volcanos so the soil is very depleted in nutrients. I've actually bought a product called bentonite which is a volcanic rock by-product to amend our sandy soil and that seems to be working well - especially at moisture retention. The big push here is to buy water crystals and wetting solutions which definitely help in the short term but aren't permanent solutions. Are there similar products in the US and are they becoming popular??
I use moisture crystals in my pots, but I'd consider them way too expensive for the garden. Also, they break down rather quickly and then you're right back where you started.
Pretty much everything I read when doing research agreed with the old saying, "If you have a dollar, spend 90 cents on soil and 10 cents on plants." I debated really long about whether to bring in amendments to improve the soil, or just have the top layer removed and bring in compost instead. I did the latter, and have never regretted it.
In fact, in the one bed I didn't do it, I ended up sorry for the oversight. I have to feed and water that bed twice as often as the rest of the garden beds because although the soil was looser (it was the one bed the previous owners actually gardened in) it was also exhausted!
I think it's worthwhile to spend the time/energy to improve the soil, having seen the good results from it. My neighbor amends her soil just a little with steer manure, and her garden definitely doesn't show as much vigor as mine.