Re: Finding the right garden idiom

Hi Ben,

Your comments were interesting to me, though I can tell that you want a more consistent style than I have desired.  I am really a plant collector though I keep striving to have a garden scene without bizarrely unnatural combinations.  I grew up in the Bay Area (Berkeley) and much enjoyed my mother's large, informal garden.  I now live in coastal Los Angeles, (Palos Verdes) where there are some similarities of climate.  In the back of my house there is a steep, north-facing hill and when we built our house here thirty years ago, I decided to plant natives only on that hill, and try to do without artificial watering.  I learned the hard way that the buckwheats became chlorotic and so did some of sages, many natives couldn't stand the long summer drought,  some wouldn't bloom because of too long a period of shade, others couldn't tolerate the heavy soil and alkaline water.  The only plants that were growing here were Artemisia californica, which smelled good but appeared moribund all summer.  A few ceanothus, Philadelphus lewisii, and some sages are all that remain of the original plan.

I ended up using plants from the five Mediterranean climates of the world.  They seem to look natural and the main thing to me is that they will thrive under my conditions.  In the watered area around my house, you would be horrified to know that in one place I am combining Nandina with a bromeliad (Aechmea) and very small, frequently blooming Aloes.  Idealogically it's wrong, and that bothers me a little, but I like the way it looks!  The colors and textures harmonize and contrast in a way that I find appealing.  So maybe you don't want to be too doctrinaire about it all.  Or maybe you do?  To each his own Is how I see it.

Best wishes!  Cathy Ratner
On Dec 23, 2008, at 8:34 AM, Ben Wiswall wrote:
Hi all,
Just a query for anyone's thoughts on regionally appropriate garden style:
We've lived in southern California for almost ten years now; my spouse is native to Atlanta, Georgia and I grew up on Long Island, NY.  It took a while, but I now feel at home as a gardener here.

However, I still find myself searching for the right garden idiom, the _expression_ of what I love about California, and I haven't quite found it.

My first plant love as a child was for wildflowers in the pine barrens and salt marshes of Long Island, and an interest in native flora both in and out of the garden has remained with me as an adult.  
Using California natives can be challenging -many seem averse to domestication- but they can create a charming scene: a grove of sycamores (Platanus racemosa) shading hollyleaf cherry, ceanothus,  heuchera and iris, for example. If you have space for a grove of sycamores, it's a nice basis for a garden, and creates a microclimate comfortable for both humans and numerous native and exotic plants.

Sycamores are riparian, however, not very water-wise or reflective of the dominant chaparral vegetation of southern California.  In most cases, they will rely on water imported from northern California, whereas many non-native trees can get by on far less water.

I'm very impressed by photos I've seen of gardens by prominent designers in Provence, in particular Philippe Cottet, Nicole de Vesian, Michel Semini, and Dominique de la Fourcade.  They each have a way of distilling the native landscape, refining and humanising it yet still remaining true to the surrounding countryside: De Vesian's garden La Louve, in particular, seems to be a humanised maquis.
I would love to create a similar garden in southern California: not an imported quotation of a Provencal garden, but one which like those gardens seems to have a dialogue with the surrounding countryside.
Sort of a clipped and tended chaparral garden, I suppose, hard shiny green contrasting with soft grey green, with a bit of shade from the noonday sun.

Anyone have any ideas on the subject?

Ben Armentrout-Wiswall
Simi Valley, inland Ventura County, California

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