Re: Finding the right garden idiom

Ben,
 
Just personalizing my thoughts on this. 
 
For me, it's not emulating some bucholic scene in Italy or France...it's not a strict 'natives only' pc adherence...and it's not about a particular landscape style/look.  I live on a tough lot.  Steep and very, very rocky so I have to make do.  I also like 'exotic' and 'different'...spikey and spiney.  I'm more geared to the whole process of tracking down a particular plant, acquiring it...collector mentality.  Then finding a place to plant it (but in an aesthetically pleasing way to me).  Then again, plants just up and die on me sometimes for no apparent reason and I've got a huge vacuum to fill.  So for me anyway, the yard takes on its own character.  I just sort of push it along.  I also think that's why I prefer to call my yard a yard and not a garden.  Also different parts of the yard have their own characteristics, so there isn't necessarily an overall theme.  I've lived here for two and a half decades now and still have barren areas that need to be developed.  All in due time I suppose...especially now that I'm retired and have more time to devote.
 
Anyway, in this rambling, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I like all aspects of the process called "gardening" but don't really pursue a specific look for my yard...it just sort of takes on a look of its own that I'll admit, I'm happy with and take pride in.  One last thought I want to re-emphasize...if there has been one thing consistent in my own personal horticultural evolution it has been EXOTIC.  I like exotic.  Unusual looking, unusual combinations, uncommon...so in that way, my yard does NOT have a dialogue with the surrounding environment but yet does not look out of place either (at least I feel that way).
 
Here's a site where I recently placed a dozen photos of my yard.  http://yardshare.com/myyardthumb.php?yard_id=384
 
-Ron Whisenhunt-
 Spring Valley CA
----- Original Message -----
From: b*@pacbell.net
To: m*@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 8:34 AM
Subject: Finding the right garden idiom

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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