Blue Planet Garden Blog

No Lawn Garden Design

When a garden is a reflection of a life, it deserves to be more than just an afterthought to a lawn.

I first met Ruth three years ago, when she was looking for help sprucing up her planting beds and advice on how to deal with the gophers that arrived like clockwork from the open space behind her home.  After listening while Ruth pointed out plant after plant that had been grown from a friend’s cutting or received as a gift from someone special in her life, I started wondering why she was limiting herself to a narrow planting strip only a few feet wide wedged in at the edges of her lawn.  Her plants and the stories behind them were far more interesting than the tired patch of sod that dominated the back yard.

Book Review: Reimagining the California Lawn

For those considering getting rid of their lawn, two things often stand in the way: imagination and horticultural know-how.  Reimagining the California Lawn:Water-conserving Plants, Practices, and Designs by Carol Bornstein, David Fross and Bart O'Brien from Cachuma Press addresses both.

Point Richmond Garden Tour

Without question, May is the unofficial month of garden tours.  Unfortunately, it’s also one of the busiest times for designers, not to mention a prime month to schedule speaking engagements and book signings. Sadly,  I’ll be missing most of the tours this year.  Fortunately for me, I recently enjoyed a charming afternoon filled with champagne, food and plenty of garden chat with my friends Maureen and Jean Michel Decombe in their sunny, urban garden.  My contribution to the opening of tour season is a mini-tour of what Maureen calls her working garden.

 

Book Review: Energy-Wise Landscape Design

 

If you read my blog regularly, you know I rarely do book reviews (although that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t review my book when it’s out in three weeks).  When I was given a copy of Sue Reed’s Energy-Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for Your Home and Garden, however, I couldn't resist the chance to dig into a book I’d heard so much about.

An excerpt from the introduction says it all: This book shows how we can all save energy, simply by making small changes in the way we design and build our landscapes.  Reed includes strategies for conserving both operating energy (the energy used in our day to day functioning such as fuel for lawnmowers) and embedded energy (the energy used to manufacture and transport equipment and services, such as the cost to manufacture concrete).  During my Bay Friendly Qualified Design Professional training last year, for the first time I truly grasped the shocking cost of transporting potable water into a home, the majority of which gets flushed down a toilet or poured into the landscape, so I was pleased to see the inclusion of embedded energy, as it something most of us don’t even consider.

The first part of the book  focuses on design, the second section explains how to build and care for landscapes in an energy-efficient manner and the third and fourth sections cover ideas for generating energy and lighting strategies.  Information is presented in a way that is neither preachy nor condescending and the tone througout is friendly and non-judgmental.

Some information presented here was a more in-depth review of things I already knew (for example, that trees cool down a garden not only by providing shade but through the process of transpiration), but even then, the level of detail provided helped me understand the concepts much more thoroughly.   By far the most useful portion to me are the early chapters focused on landscape design.  This book goes well beyond traditional advice such as placing deciduous trees at the Southwest corner of the home.  It provides suggestions on what to plant (and what not to plant) for all sides of a home, the pros and cons of different hardscape options and strategies for keeping the ground cool.  Here in California, we’re more interested in fending off the heat than in capturing the sun in winter, but Reed does a good job outlining some of the trade-offs you make between heating and cooling your home if you live in a climate with more extreme weather variations.  Detailed information on how the sun's angle of incidence affects temperature at different points in the day, the amount of shade cast by plants and options for creating windbreaks are all included.

If you’re a garden designer, Energy-Wise Landscape Design is a must have for your bookshelf.  Not only will it improve your ability to design sustainable landscapes, but many of the chapters clearly express concepts I’ve struggled to communicate to my clients.  This book will help me better explain how a sustainable design approach benefits both a homeowner and the environment.

Likewise, serious gardeners will appreciate the many practical tips, including Reed’s realization that most of us are not going to redesign our gardens from scratch.  As such, she offers numerous tips for working with less than ideal existing site conditions.

One caveat:  this is a hardcore book with very few pictures, and those are in black and white.  Although Reed attempts to demystify the principles of energy-wise landscaping, many of the concepts are complex.  For me, the book felt more like an entertaining text book (similar to Residential Landscape Architecture) than a garden book I would pick up purely for entertainment and inspiration. 

If you’re serious about living a more sustainable, energy-efficient lifestyle, you can’t go wrong with Energy-Wise Landscape Design.  To learn more, visit the book's website.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Lila B. Designs

 

On Saturday, co-author Rebecca Sweet and I spent a lovely afternoon with sustainable floral designer Baylor Chapman of Lila B. Designs.  She gave us a behind the scenes look at her beautiful Mission District studio in San Francisco.

A simple composition in shades of green

 

  
Fall color in an oversized arrangement for a Harry and David's store opening

 

A (slightly fuzzy) Baylor

 

After seeing the studio, we walked across the street and admired her apartment building's beautiful entry garden.

 I am in LOVE with the curved channels cut into the pavement

Final stop, Baylor's stunning deck, including this succulent wall made from repurposed shutters, a photo of which appears in Garden Up! 

Baylor's succulent wall has been featured in Sunset. They were back again a few days ago to photograph her deck for a future story.

Also with us was author Debra Prinzing, currently working on A Fresh Bouquet along with photographer David Perry.  Debra was kind enough to bring us all copies of her award-winning book, Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways.

 

In the mood for more photos?  Check out Rebecca's blog.

Update 11-18-10:  If you'd like to learn more about Baylor's urban-farmer approach to floral design, Debra Prinzing has a wonderful post here.