GARDENS

Walnut Creek, a sprawling suburban town at the foot of Mt Diablo with ranch-style homes, has a variety of cozy neighborhoods tucked away under oaks, redwoods, native and non-native plantings.

The job here was to create attractive destinations to work and relax in this spacious, but under-used backyard in Hayward.

How fortunate we are to have the opportunity to live under the canopies of the magnificant California oaks! They bring us green shade through the hot summers, and the elegant sculpture of their branches embrace the site all year.

The challenge at this site was to create a usable, social space in the cramped and sloping backyard. A re-located fence, graded and re-paved patio with seating wall allowed the space for an elegant California cottage garden room to blossom.

I created the planting design for this project in partnership with the artisan Berkeley firm, Indian Rock Landscapes. The clients, young professionals with a new family wanted wide-open play spaces for the kids, and areas to relax and entertain.

How do you design garden space when the site conditions demand that nature prevails?

Seaside, CA, near Monterey, not surprisingly, has sandy soil.  That loose, low phorphorus soil, along with moderate moist temperatrues, is perfect for growing succculents and plants from South Africa and Australia.

This beautiful, Japanese style garden on the bluff above Puget Sound has thrived for 50 years among the native Western Red Cedar, except for one important area at the front of the house, where plants were lost.

This house sits on the edge of a steep incline in the Oakland hills, and so, except for this small deck area near the street and balcony at the back, there was no garden area. The challenge was to create enclosure, privacy, serenity and the feeling of a larger garden in this small space.

This was one of the first projects that I worked on with Indian Rock Landscapes as a design partner, and a very satisfying one.

Indian Rock Landscapes invited me to collaborate on a new design for a garden in the elegant Claremont area of Berkeley, where the climate is mild and sunny, and a happy home for most plants from Bougainvillea to succulents.

This neglected, slopey yard on the back side of the house clearly needed some love and inspiration.  The owners wanted to use the sunny space to grow  citrus, vegetables, and flowers.