Last year I posted pics of the Cummings family garden makeover at its earliest stages. For better or for worse, life got in the way and It was in need of a lot of love when they called me back over to give it a face-lift. We made some significant changes after seeing what had survived and what had not. In addition to wanting two palms to flank the living room window, the homeowners wanted a smaller palm at the sidewalk. I cleaned up all the planted areas, added higher mounds of flowers, filled in the holes and planted new succulent arrangements in her special Talavera Pottery.







Currently, the garden is in full bloom and is being well attended to!

All the best,
M

I finally brought out the little heater to warm up the shop! My friend Lisa is a huge fan of the little heater and spent many an afternoon last year parked in front of it keeping me company.

As the warm arm turns to gloom and chill the garden projects are of course fewer and farther between. Recently though, I was asked to transform two small outdoor spaces at a Cupertino condo into zen-like gardens. Anna, the owner, is a busy professional with very little time to garden. When she is lucky enough to be home, the last thing she wants to do is sweep, rake and trim the bushes. The front and back spaces had become a bit scary and she hired me to make some sense out of it. With her needs in mind - low maintenance, zen-like, calming, pretty - I put together an Asian inspired garden with Heavenly bamboo, grasses, fern, Heuchera, Anemones, and climbing Jasmine. I installed a beautiful Buddha in one corner and a Chinese lantern in the back. We hung a wind chime, potted front door plants and hung a 15' x 6' length of bamboo matting to disguise a rather unattractive fence. We used many bags of beautiful gravel to give the space a cohesive look that will sparkle a beautiful dark grey when it gets wet. I love me some gravel!



In the back I had my wonderful gardener remove four patio bricks so we could plant a tiny meditation space for Anna to contemplate and admire. Removing the bricks was a great idea in theory, but getting them out of the ground was a nightmare. Thank God for Cristian and his pick hammer!



During our clean up we found several beautiful small rocks, including one that had a heart carved into it. It fit nicely in the Buddha's hands. I really love to use what's already there as much as possible and I'm always finding treasure! As the plants grow and mature they will fill in nicely while not being too crowded, allowing for a continually calm and quiet space to reflect on the day. I am bringing over two vintage chairs with cushions and an amazing antique ceramic elephant table to put in the front patio and we'll continue looking for the perfect back porch furnishings. It's a work in progress!

To see the rest of the Before and After photos click on Read More.

Have a wonderful week!
Melisa



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I completed a good sized garden project recently for my wonderful clients Karl and Angel Barrios. Their front and back yards were in desperate need of attention and despite having a weekly gardener, the back lawn had completely died. I mention this because it's an important point and I could do a whole 'nother blog on it specifically. It's not that people aren't taking care of their yards, a large portion of the time they hire a gardener to help with that aspect of their lives. However, if the gardener doesn't have the expertise he/she claims to have or generally just doesn't "get" or care about what taking care of a yard means, dead lawns, broken sprinkler systems, diseased trees, bug infested flowers and overgrown shrubs are the unfortunate result. "Mow and Blow" gardeners have taken over and that's exactly what they do - nothing more. I have had more than one client fire their gardener and hire someone better through the garden makeover project. Seeing for themselves that what they're paying for isn't keeping their yard alive is really frustrating for the owners.

This particular project had quite a few moving parts and they were so happy with the outcome that I can definitely say it was my favorite thus far.





When I met with Angel to talk about what she was looking for, she had mentioned she really loves the French look, specifically, Provencal. While French country gardens aren't very defined - they are more wild with lots of olive trees and smaller pots - it gave us a great jumping off point. We discussed the types of colors and textures we'd need to make a start and then moved on to finding the right accessories and furnishings. While you can attempt to plant a "French" garden, it doesn't really become one without the right accessories. We had a lot of fun searching for the right table and chairs and along the way ended up with a very cool vintage cupboard to store gardening tools in.



The front yard had quite a few overgrown plants that could not be rescued. While the transformation wasn't as dramatic as that in the back, removing the big shrubs, planting native wildflowers, adding a redwood mulch and creating little rock vignettes really made it seem clean and sweet. As with all the makeovers I do, the plants are in their "infant" stage currently and need space to grow and become full. I'm excited to go back a year from now to see how wonderful it has all become!

The front porch was a much smaller but necessary project. Previously a jumble of mismatched plants, pots and ephemera, it is now a clean, cohesive little space with colorful and appropriate plants.





A large part of the project involved sorting through what to keep and what to discard. It's important to pick a direction and keep only the objects that work. I try to tell my clients that just because you like something doesn't mean it works in your garden - i.e., plastic deer, flamingos, gnomes, angels, etc. Putting too many of the wrong accessories around will degrade your garden and make it look like a crazy elderly person's mini golf course. Not pretty. One or two well-placed things make all the difference. When in doubt, edit! Angel had a lot of very cute things but some of them weren't going to work. I was so proud of the way she learned to weed through what was good and what was not so good!





In the backyard we had to do a lot of digging, rototilling, removal and tear down in order to prep for the new plantings. We added 5 tons (10,000 pounds!) of grey pea gravel to the whole back to cover the bare dirt and create a French type country space. We excavated a sizable amount of flagstone from under the deck area that had been discarded and were able to construct a sitting area underneath their gorgeous, mature, Eucalyptus tree as well as a path from the deck to the tree area. We found loads of small, medium and large stones that I used to create interesting focal points along the fence line and to fill a bare area we planted with succulent-type plants next to the driveway. In going through pots I found some beautiful ones I used in the final garden. Adding vintage French folding chairs, candles and hanging lanterns, a French style tablecloth I "found" in the shed in Angel's yard and a few wonderful, glass jars on top of the cabinet really brought all the elements together to create a fun, chic, cozy space.



The neighbor's fantastic bougainvillea bush hangs over the fence significantly so we got permission to train it onto wire to cover the pergola over a small table and chairs. When it's filled in it will create a shady, lush and colorful roof. We hung the lanterns from the wood beams to give it a romantic feel. During the excavation we found that a bird had made a nest in one of the bushes we needed to remove so we left it alone until the babies had flown away. It was awesome to hear the babies chirping in the nest and to see the mother hovering nervously nearby. We made sure not to disturb it in any way!

We had quite a lot to do to the trees - removing a very sick one and trimming disease off others. We planted a really pretty Weeping Cherry in the place of the Crab Apple tree we removed. It has graceful limbs and cascading leaves that make that corner of the house much nicer. When it flowers it will be a amazing!

The sprinkler system in back was repaired and a brand new lawn was laid down to complete the project. In the late Fall it will be time to bury Daffodil bulbs under the gravel so that when Spring comes it will be a riot of bright yellow and white flowers everywhere!

We put new lattice under the raised deck to hide the unsightly underneath and cover the bare areas, and we dug many, many holes to plant everything from Agapanthas and sunflowers to lavender (of course!) bat-faced flowers, Penstimon and Hydrangea. In the shady areas we also added Heuchera for lushness.

Angel was an enthusiastic learner and I tried to teach her about "dead-heading" the flowers - removing all dead blooms as soon as you notice them to encourage more growth - watering, and general upkeep. She dug holes, raked gravel, and sat with me to painstakingly plant the woolly thyme between the pavers. It was awesome!



In the end she and Karl were extremely happy with their results and I'll continue to check on the progress of the plants to make sure all is well. I have total faith that she has now been converted to a gardener! Speaking of gardeners, she also fired hers and hired a new one to help out.

I am always willing to recommend good gardening services and caring gardeners as well as do a walk-through of your gardens to let you know what you really need in terms of weekly and monthly care. I can help navigate the conversations with the gardeners and provide project management to make sure work is done on time and professionally. If you are considering what to do with your garden, be sure to give me a call!

Enjoy the rest of the photos!

Melisa


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I've been living across the street from the Cummings family - Eric, Donna and their three young and gorgeous children - for several years. Their front garden has pretty much always hovered between "in progress" and "dead" which made me sad considering how much time the family spends out there. It's also completely counter to how Donna and Eric really are - a fashionable, hard-working couple with great taste in art and home furnishings. With such a busy work and family life, they just had zero time to focus on redoing the yard and so it sat in a state of limbo.

So many times I would be out in my own tiny front patch planting and trying new things and I would imagine all sorts of things I'd like to do to their yard. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and I had to stage an intervention! Donna and I got together to talk about ideas she had, colors she loved, and how the flow of family life might impact the watering and types of plants used. They had let their raggedy old front lawn die in the hopes of someday getting a new one so it was essentially a giant patch of dead lawn and two chunks of dirt.

The overall garden plan encompassed a new front lawn, sprinkler system, drip system for new front and side plantings, stripping and painting the chipped and damaged front window trim, and a few well-chosen accessories to tie it all together with a bit of Spanish/Mexican style that they love.

The planning process was an easy one and they were truly dream clients. Donna told me that she couldn't wait to see the front yard shaping up and finally getting it to a place they could be proud of.

Taking into account the way the family used the yard, Donna also asked if we could put a path through the middle of the lawn since they usually walked across it to get to the car. We chose to do a flagstone path with woolly thyme planted in between the pavers.

The tiny side garden makeover took 1000 pounds of gravel! I planted it with native grasses, lavender, salvia, a new, small root tree with a great dark purple color, Jerusalem sage, and two personally chosen, 60 pound boulders dappled with moss and lichen.

The front of the house got two very special painted pots from Talavera Pottery in Berkeley, and a pretty, weather-worn, sky blue folding chair I scored on Craigs List. The front of the house was given soft hills of soil and planted with canna, lavender, salvia, penstimons, lobellia, allysum, and several beautiful kinds of spreading plants I chose for their outstanding colors. Deep, dark purples, bright pinks, orange, yellow, toffee, and reds all mix together to add warmth and a sense of fun to the garden. The multi-colored leaves on many of the plants are stunning by themselves. There is so much to look at!

As the home was photographed mere weeks after it was completed, it's hard to visualize how amazing it will look when the canna grow tall and multiply, the tree is matured and in bloom, and the penstimon and lavender have spread out and grown full. The intent of the garden is to be lush, colorful, and to draw bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.

During the makeover the family was on vacation so I was really anxious to get their feedback. When they returned, I got a wonderful email from Donna that said: "The garden is amazing and it exceeds my expectations. I can't wait to see it grow and become more "lush" as you said, because I think it's absolutely perfect right now! Thank you for all of your hard work."

I was thrilled! Now, when I'm watering out front, I can look across the street and smile because I'm making San Mateo more beautiful one patch of dirt at a time!

Melisa

To see all of the Before and After Photos click Read More






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