The Traveling Plants: Lotusland, Santa Barbara

Right outside of Santa Barbara in Montecito sits a botanical treasure trove of whimsical delights and perpetual eye candy called Ganna Walska Lotusland. Now before you pack your bags, let it be known you must make reservations prior to showing up and you can only explore the grounds with your tour guide which lasts an approximate 2 hours (unless you are a member and attend other events at the private venue). Be ready to be saturated with information and sights as you wander through all 26 incredibly varying and different gardens.The land was purchased by famous Polish opera singer in 1941 and was a life's work for the next 43 years. The 37 acre botanical Disneyland contains subtropical and tropical plants from around the world including rare cycads, cacti, palms and euphorbia. Described as a delightful labyrinth of landscape adventures- from both a plant nerd standpoint and an artist / designer's standpoint it is a truly wonderful experience.

One of the best lessons and inspiration I took from this visit is the impact of being bold. Of mass plantings, restraint and patterns. It brought me back to importance of design basics and letting the bold simplicity sing. Much like a recipe that calls for only a few ingredients- just the right combination of a few spices prepared in the right way can be an amazing experience- so can be said with plants and design.

The Japanese Garden. Niwake pruning taken to the highest art form.

Water Lily Pond in bloom.

Dramatic (drought tolerant) entrance

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Meyer Lemon Pergola... LOVE!

Neptune fountain with mermen (not mermaids, mind you).

Traditional parterre. Another impressive feat of this garden is its mission to be organic. This is great to see more traditional gardens going this route- looking at soil health, the right plant in the right place, compost teas, attracting beneficials and being okay with a little insect damage here or there.

The Dunlap Cactus Garden. 300 species of cacti, 40% started from seed. Merrit Dunlap longtime friend of Walska, donated garden (a collection he started in 1929) in 1999. The garden opened in 2004 on his birthday and died shortly thereafter.

Working succulent clock with zodiac "numbers". Whimsical topiaries in the background.

Topiary Garden

The Amphitheater Garden. Grotesque stone figurines from 1600s France and a fully functioning stage with podocarpus wings.

The Bromeliad Garden.

The Blue Garden.

Mass plantings of blue fescue and senecio create a carpet in the Blue Garden. Recycled stag glass from the old water delivery factory line the path and blue atlas cedars and palm punctuate the landscape.

Pan in the succulent garden.

Cycad Garden. Some lineage can be traced back 300 MILLION years. Living fossils- many which have to be hand pollinated since the insects that originally pollinated them are extinct! Though may look palm-like they are more like a conifer than a palm.

The Epiphyte Garden

Agaves aloes and succulents frame this dramatic side entrance.

A Gallery of 3 Before + Afters

Springtime is a busy time! New gardens to create, consultations to be had and checking in on my gardens to see how they've grown. Here's a few of them to hopefully help serve as ideas for some of you to conserve on water while getting more use out of your outdoor spaces.

SUNNY SANTA CRUZ FRONT COURTYARD  

BEFORE
Bindweed, overgrown garden space and fieldstones.

Conceptual sketch (which was then drawn into CAD and bid and built upon).                              

DURING

AFTER

We reused their existing fieldstones and created raised drystack sonoma fieldstone beds and flagstone paths and seating areas with integrated edbiles CA natives and friends. I was happy to see the seaside daisy, yarrow, cleveland sage and friends growing so well alongside herbs and edibles planted by clients. A true delight to see them enjoying and using this cheerful space.

MODERN SANTA CRUZ XERISCAPE

BEFORE.

In this Eastside Santa Cruz backyard we swapped out miles of lawn (yes, they got a lawn removal rebate from the city) for gold gravel, succulents and edibles (including a fruit tree espalier, raised vegie beds and a few citrus trees).

AFTER

The custom concrete bench creates a great accent and destination in garden and we had fun designing new geometric poured concrete and poured steps to imitate flagstone.the variegated Pittosporum 'Marjorie Channon' planted against fence perimeter will fill in to create a nice 8' tall screen. These photos were taken just after installation completion and I will be posting photos on my web once plants establish and concrete is sealed.

 LIVE OAK SANTA CRUZ WOODLAND FRONT YARD

BEFORE

Across the street from a native open space area, what was previously ivy, lawn and volunteer trees underwent a major transformation. We brought in soil to create a soft raised berm, built a patio at porch for seating space, introduced boulders, CA native and mediterranean plants that blended well for this woodland inspired garden.

AFTER

Easy Australian fuchsia lines the border with variegated mirror plant, Cedros Island verbena and reed grasses. Toyon line the fence and CA flowering currants, ferns and heuchera occupy the planter areas. For specimen plants we have a native dogwood, a forest pansy redbud and a native vine maple. Instead of repouring the driveway- we used cobble stones to continue the line of the driveway flare.

                                                                                                                                             





Happy Gardening! Keep your eyes peeled on my website for a new Before + After page. I will be posting photos of the above designs on my website within the next year once they become more established. And follow me on Facebook for more current news. Cheers!
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Chihuly in the Desert

I had the pleasure of visiting the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix this month and the icing on the cake was getting to see the Chihuly art exhibit. I have seen Chihuly's glass work in museums, hotels (famous Belagio ceiling) and even his exhibit at the D Young several years ago- but nothing compares to seeing the grandness of the installations in the outdoors. The juxtaposition of the colorful bold glass in the stark desert landscape created a kinetic kind of dance and made me question what was the sculpture and what was plants. Cacti and succulents have a very architectural and sculptural habit and like art, beg to stand alone and be admired for their form. Their sharp thorns (and competition for water) keep them at bay from disturbers- both of the mobile and plant variety. One large piece, a squiggly fiery burning sun made me sweat even more than I already was- reminding me of the dry hot exposed heat I was trekking through- and I gained a stronger admiration for these tough tough plants. Pictures being a thousand words and all, here you go...

 Titled white belugas, these looked like stranded milk bottles washed ashore.

Barrel cactus and yucca blanketed by Palo Verde blossoms

Yellow glass art with lavender in foreground

The wildflower section showed many plants we see here in Santa Cruz and the bay area, including our CA poppy.

Container Gardening!!

Gateway drug to gardening... Containers! ANY body can do it, it's easy, economical, manageable, less risky... and really, we can do a lot with pots. Containers are great for renters (not permanent / easy to take with you), condo/apartment dwellers (with lack of soil), and/or people wanting to jazz up their porches, patios and balconies. They are also wonderful for: adding depth, height and interest to a landscape, working with and creating microclimates for frost tender plants and, for water wise gardens, allowing us to still have our favorite water loving plants- just in their own happy zone... really pots are simply awesome. And don't even get me started on all the fantastical styles, colors, materials, shapes and sizes they come in. So here are some sketchy illustrated and wordy pointers on container gardening.

Make it Pretty. For cozying up and bringing lushness to an outdoor space with too much hardscape and bare walls- well yeah, containers can do that. As the design rules go, groups of odd numbers are best (unless they are flanking an entry way or focal point, in which case 2 works)- 3 being the golden number for a cluster of pots, especially in a corner- I like to go with similar or same exact style/color pots in three varying sizes- though varying colors in the same material and color story can have a fun impact as well. For choosing plants in a pot I usually stick with three (or 5) and like to refer to a term I WISH I coined, but heard from a nurserywoman, who surely heard it somewhere else (ah yes, the derivation has yet to be tracked down)... anyway, rambling aside, it goes like this: The Thriller, The Spiller and The Chiller (See sketchy and 100% original ADh+d drawing, right). Your thriller- she is the star of the pot- the tree, the specimen, the tallest and brightest. Then your spiller- she's a cascader- for example, your ivy, bacopa, campanula, creeping jenny, or sedum. Finally you got your chiller. He's, well... chillin... anchoring the pot-scape together between the pendulum swings. Together, when done right, the three sing.  Succulents are especially great for this as they do well with part sun and won't hate you if you neglect watering- a good succulent triad as illustrated on the far left is aeonium, echeveria and a cascading succulent, such as a sedum. Go-to "thrillers" include Japanese Maples, Citruses, Abutilons, and Cordylines/Phormiums to name a few. And remember When choosing plants be sure to select contrasting and compatible colors and textures (not all the same shade of green).

Make it Edible. Edibles will grow in your container like a boss. Some invasive ones like mint, you may

even prefer to keep strictly in the pot. Some tried and trues: Herbs, Lettuces and Chards (great for part shade), Annual Veggies (I grow tomatoes in containers every year with excellent tasty results), Berries, Dwarf Fruit Trees and Citrus, and Perennial Veggies (many peppers, including serranos are a great "perennial veggie" for containers in the bay area).

Make it Both. So long as plants are grouped by like-requirements and they all get along and are respectful of one-another, there's no reason we can't mix and match the cutting flower with the herbs, the fruit tree with the spilling succulent. Try it out and if something doesn't work, try something else. Nothing is permanent in container gardening.... although happy plants can last a whole lot longer potted up than you may think. I have a client with lemon and lime trees which have been planted in the same pots for over 15 years and still continue to bear fruit prolifically throughout the year. Plus there are bonsai plants that are FAR older than you and I living their lives in containers. Fun Fact: The oldest living bonsai is a 5 needle pine residing in the Tokyo Imperial Palace collection and is approximately 550 years old!

AND Since a picture is worth a gazillion words AND Miss AndiPlants is Miss SuperBusy + TiredofTypingPants, I'll leave you with these few drawings AND these short words of encouragement to throw some soil and plants in your pots this fall. What have you got to loose (except maybe a few plants?)!


Cheers, and happy gardening!!

Sustainable Materials 101: Urbanite

Urbanite. It's all the rage these days in sustainable design and I guess we can see why. Urbanite is simply a fancy word for broken up concrete, often times from old patios, driveways, etc. that up until recently was commonly hauled to the dump. What's so great about it? It's plentiful, economical, ecological and is an all purpose hardscape material. Thanks to recent trends and internet forums, craigslist, etc. it's becoming more and more common practice for construction companies to leave their urbanite from jobsite demolition to be picked up by sustainable landscaping companies or DIY home owners. And everybody wins- they save tons of money on dump fees, people get an affordable hardscape material and the earth gives a great big sigh of gratitude... also I'd like to think that the concrete is probably happy to be reincarnated into something lovely and have decades more use in a new garden. I've collected a few images below of creative uses of urbanite, although the sky is the limit. Enjoy.

Contemporary. Below urbanite and pea gravel are a perfect marriage. Left: industrial modern elements blend seamlessly with the ubanite and gravel patio. Right: Narrow saw cut concrete strips may seem an awkward shape to deal with and utilize in design, but this garden artfully paired and placed the urbanite strips with pea gravel to create a contemporary clean geometric design that looks as though the strips were intentionally poured in place!

Pathways and Patios.
Below the rough edges of broken concrete are softened and warmed with plant material. Sweet cozy and inviting.

Planters, Benches and Raised Beds.

 Left, urbanite is mortared and capped with poured concrete top to create permanent custom seating. Foundation Design in LA.


Below drystacked urbanite vegie beds are super fantastic... what better thing to do that rip out the concrete, keep it on site and reuse it to GROW FOOD. What's not to love about that. Dry stack beds below are by Terra Nova Landscaping here in Santa Cruz. You gotta love their keyhole planter (bottom)

So there you have it, a lite crash course in urbanite.

To find creative ways to re-use materials in your garden contact your local landscape designer, or hey- how about me, Andrea Doonan Horticulure + Design at www.AndreaDoonan.com