Tag Archives: succulents

Concept for a sloping site

We’ve been busy doing consults. They’re not affected much by social distancing since they’re outdoors and we email back the drawings. Staying home in a wonderful new garden space is not a bad thing! New Style A bold, modern desert look is up next, transforming an ordinary suburban landscape into a bold, water conserving statement.Continue reading “Concept for a sloping site”

Staying home… in the garden

Between working remotely on projects, our garden is the place to go. There’s always something happening if you look closely enough. Every day is different: new flowers in, old flowers out. Different birds. Strange insects and spiders that appear as you sit and watch the plants.

Grow your own sculpture!

Learning to sculpt beautiful things from base materials is hard. It takes a long time to learn, you play with sharp tools and can easily hurt yourself. Or worse, you might create something really boring and be stuck with it basically forever (you would never throw out your first sculpture, would you?) Agave salmiana TheseContinue reading “Grow your own sculpture!”

Fragrant snakes!

Sansevieria Trifasciata has lots of names. Snake plant is probably the most neutral. For the others, pick a scary nemesis: mother in law, devil, djinn, make it possessive and add “tongue”. There’s bow string hemp, too. And St. George’s sword. Then there are all the variations in color and form, each with its own name…Continue reading “Fragrant snakes!”

Using orchid cactus and succulents to cover a wall

Typically designers use use trailing ground covers to cascade down walls, the most common plant probably being rosemary. But what about something more interesting, something that does not require as much pruning back? Something that will make people stop in their tracks and say, “wow!” Something like, say, orchid cactus (Epiphyllum)? Epiphyllum, true to theirContinue reading “Using orchid cactus and succulents to cover a wall”

Resilient landscaping for Southern California

This didn’t start out as a laboratory for resilient landscape design. It was just a low-maintenance garden for aging people to enjoy. Then one person was no more. The other lost mobility. Parts of the garden received no irrigation. Pruning back and weeding likewise disappeared. Yet the garden survived, mostly intact.

Textures for a Los Angeles garden

Southern California’s mild climate creates an opportunity to go wild with plant color, texture and shape. All manner of subtropical plants from arid climates jump onto the plant palette, and more are introduced every year. This garden has one zone adjacent to the main living area that receives moderate irrigation; the rest of the gardenContinue reading “Textures for a Los Angeles garden”