Friday, January 1, 2010

Lawn, not such a bad thing.

An Eco minded lawn and garden.

I’m not sure if we should call this a ‘Healing Garden', a 'Low Maintenance Garden’, an ‘Environmentally Conscience Sustainable Garden’, or just a ‘ Fun Family Garden’.

What ever the title , this newly installed landscape is being enjoyed by family , neigbhors and friends.

It all started with an extremely sports active young family of 4 , a new house at the beach, one horrific head on motorcycle accident and the strong will and undying love of a devoted family.

Upon leaving his new beach side house the husband and a friend were enroute on their motorcycles to see their young daughters play a soccer game.
Coming around the corner, in a bacchanal state , a man in a truck hit the two motorcyclists head on.
One of the fathers was killed , the other left dying on the side of the road with massive head and body injuries.

After months of intense successful surgeries a strategy was prepared for the long road of physical rehabilitation therapies to begin.

This is where the blog Garden Rant, Miriam Goldberger and Eco-Lawn comes in.
I had read on the blog, ’Garden Rant’- http://www.gardenrant.com/ about a drought tolerant, slow growing, deep rooted , non fertilizer dependent lawn that Ms. Goldberger’s company, Wildflower farm - http://www.wildflowerfarm.com/index.php?p=home was offering .

I corresponded with Miriam and she donated the Eco-Lawn seed for my clients project.
From Beach House


We installed a fairly large Eco-lawn area for physical rehabilitation activities and for family fun activities such as ball games , Frisbee and romps with the family dog.
From Beach House


The planted lawn also addressed the problem of the underground septic system, which almost completely covered the back yard and cannot be over planted with deeply rooted trees and shrubs.
Photo: staking out the septic system:
From Beach House


In light of the heavy dew point at this location on the beach , paired with the low water needs of the Eco-Lawn we installed a water efficient irrigation system with MP ( matched precipitation rate ) rotor heads and a drip irrigation system for the out lying drought tolerant plantings.
From Beach House


The Eco-Lawn seed was seeded on Christmas eve day.
Depending on the weather we hope to see green sprouts in a week or two.
From Beach House


Many of the drought tolerant plants and young succulent cuttings that we planted three weeks ago are already forming root systems and some are even starting to send up flowering buds.

Hakea
From Beach House


Protea
From Beach House


Passiflora
From Beach House


Leucadendron Jester
From Beach House


Echium
From Beach House


Leucadendrons, Agaves, Miscanthus, Anigozanthus - planted at another beach garden
that we did last year, inspired this new beach side planting.
From R E D


A LARGE variety of succulents were planted - many came from my garden
From California Gardening



As the months pass by and the landscape establishes itself i’ll keep you updated on its progression rate.

Last photo:
The existing vegetable garden was given a new stabilized decomposed granite path
From Beach House

8 comments:

Shirley Bovshow "EdenMaker" said...

Hi Michelle,
I was alerted to your post via FB. Isn't that a great networking source!

I'm a big fan of Eco-Lawn and profiled it on my "Shirley's Favorite Things" video ( a playoff on "Oprah's Favorite Things") recently.

It's a clever blend of 7 to 8 fine fescues with a deep root system and fine blades- both great attributes for a drought tolerant lawn.

The plants you selected for this project are "painterly combinations" with that great "low water benefit."

I enjoyed browsing through your photo album. Your design work is remarkable and I like that it is "solution-oriented!"

Looking forward to meeting you at the SF show. Until then, I'm sending you a virtual hug.

Here's a link to the video with the Eco-Lawn:

http://bit.ly/80plJw

Shirley Bovshow
Garden World Report

danger garden said...

What a sad and inspiring story. I don't mean to be flippant when I say that the plants you've chosen would certainly go a long way to helping me to heal. And I agree that some lawn (even the good ol'all American water loving variety, in the right place) can be a great thing. I hope this was a very satisfying project for you to lend your talents too!

Helen said...

Great plantings, great photos of the great plantings, and Rah! Rah! Wild Flower Farm -- another small Canadian company makes good.

Christine said...

Love your plant list, Michelle! Do keep us up to date on the mosaics you're making to go along with them.

Linda@ Lime in the Coconut said...

What a bittersweet story and beautiful, healing project. It looks beautiful...loving all of those succulents. Gorgeous little creatures!

Anonymous said...

What a story, the garden you installed is so full of color it has to be healing! I just love the mix of color & texture.

Phrago said...

Hey, I'm lovin' the floral pics in this post, Beautiful! Patrick

ScottHokunson said...

Hi Michelle,

A gut-wrenching story. I enjoyed reading about it and your solutions and look forward to following the progress as it matures. Thanks for sharing it!

Scott