Hi All,
Thanks for the generous responses to my query! Thanks especially to Ron and Sean for the photos, and also to Deborah re. Canyon Oak. I have planted two Canyon Oak (Q. chrysolepis) and one Island Oak (Q. tomentella) as experiments: they're both small to medium oaks that will tolerate some summer water, so hopefully they will become more common in future gardens.
Regarding photos, let me post these links to the Provencal gardens that interested me: the first site is:
Nichols is a photographer, go to his site and search on the site for Michel Semini, Nicole de Vesian, Philippe Cottet, and Dominique de la Fourcade, and you will see some beautiful garden shots.
Philippe Cottet has his own site, cottetlandscapedesign.com
And there is a good one of D. de la Fourcade's own garden at
I am by no means a native purist, but native trees do create a wonderful sense of belonging, a sense of place, where they are appropriate. Picture a southern plantation house surrounded by ancient Live Oaks, dripping with Spanish Moss: without the oaks, it's just a big white house with pillars.
Shortly after moving to Los Angeles from the east, I remember driving along the 10 Freeway once, and looking out over the landscape (cityscape) thinking that not even the weeds were growing here when Columbus landed. The humanized landscape of southern California was superimposed over natural California without any point of connection or continuity, as if the past didn't exist.
I belong to another list-serve dealing with California native plants, but I feel a little out of kilter with that group, many of whom seem to have a romantic longing for the pristine ecosystems of the pre-Columbian past. I like native plants, but I also (mostly) like civilization.
The challenge for me in gardening here is to fuse both native and non-native plants to create a garden that both reflects the nature of California, its bountiful sunlight and scarce water, and my own vision of that reality. It's hard to find natives that are comfortable with some summer irrigation, and it's very hard to have a garden here without any summer irrigation.
Many of you have read Olivier Filippi's book A Handbook For Dry Climate Gardening. I like the book, and I was fortunate to have talked at length with Olivier years ago at an MGS meeting in Pasadena. Still, he lives near the northern edge of the mediterranean climate zone: I wonder if Olivier would be so enthusiastic about gardening with no irrigation if he lived in Marrakech instead of Montpellier.
Anyway, check out the websites if you like, let me know if you think those Provencal gardeners have anything to teach us Californians.
-Ben Armentrout-Wiswall
Simi Valley, inland Ventura County, California
PS I think I've already posted it on this list-serve, but if you'd like to weigh in on my garden, check out What to do About the Lawn at:
PPS For those of you who celebrate the holiday, Merry Christmas!
