Samples of some stone wall building techniques

In the photos below are three different projects showing two types of stone wall building.
1. - building a stone wall with a cmu ( concrete masonry unit ) sub straight
and
2. - building a solid stone wall - .. note the reinforcement bar extends up into the stone wall , thus lending tensile strength.









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solid stone wall - no cmu






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Upper wall is mortared stacked stone - no cmu substrate to bond to ( c . m. u . = concrete masonry unit )

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A word by any other name

A word by any other name.

Garden Coaching or is it Horticultural Consultation ?

A client calls you and asks for you to come to their property to advise them in how to manage the horticultural needs of their garden.

You walk the property with the homeowner and if they have one, their maintenance gardener .
You take photographs, you write notes, you identify their pruning , fertilizing and disease control needs.
You show them how to properly cut back their rose bushes , tip prune their thinning jasmine vine and divide their orchid collection.
On occasion you pull a core sample of soil and bag it for testing, trouble shoot and reprogram the automatic irrigation timer, and if a specific disease baffles you on site you take a cutting sample and take it back to your office for further microscopic inspection and indepth research.
You follow up with a written report . Make two copies if you are working with a homeowner who has a maintenance gardener . Provide the client with a binder with the first report so that all the subsequent reports can be saved in the main ‘bible binder’.

You develop a relationship.

Below is one photograph of a section of a large estate garden that I have been doing the horticultural consultation for , on and off , for the past 10 years


A sample of a report :

And Now for something Completely Different !

And now for something Completely Different

I do not often recieve the opportunity to work on historical renovation projects but 3 years ago I had such an opportunity in San Francisco.

The house is registered in with the S.F. Historical Society as one of the city’s original Italianate Victorians.

The current owners purchased the house 25 years ago and underwent a year long renovation project in 2004-5 to seismic retrofit the home and refurbish some of the exterior and interior woodworking , plumbing , electrical and heating systems.

My own personal taste and style runs toward contemporary pan pacific . In other words, I like sparse pared down clean line design.
I appreciate old world craftsmanship and antiques but it is not a style that I am influenced by or try in any way to replicate.

So it was a challenge for me ( and I love a challenge ) when I was asked to collaborate with the owners in creating an old world Italianate styled garden complete with water spewing cast concrete sculptures , pedestal urns and ornately carved wood work .

..... all ‘so not me’.

Last week I visited my clients home and garden and took these pictures.
I am going to be working with them again on another historical victorian renovation at another location in the city.

Let the silly ornateness begin !


The fair maiden wishfully awaits for those to enter into the garden from the gates beyond.


The pathway is bordered by English boxwood. The fence is hedged with Eleocarpus and a low border of white agapanthus.
The huge old draceana tree was a remnant from the original back yard planting. It was the only plant that was kept from the past old garden.


The fair maiden.
During the installation the crew sensed my lack of excitement over ‘the fair maiden’ and I would often find baseball caps sitting on her head, my sweater draped around her shoulders and other silly little dress up pranks to lighten up the mood.

I’m not a fan of plaster cast statues but my clients love then and chose this for their center piece.
They also had a really fabulous contemporary art piece by Richard Wareham that I was dying to place in the garden , but they really wanted a little slice of Italy in their back yard and so it being their garden we were happy to place ‘the fair maiden’.


Upon walking into the garden , past the fair maiden, you enter upon the dining terrace surrounded by turned balustrades and surfaced with Italian travertine stone tiles.


The set of gates that ‘the fair maiden’ watches.

An abbreviated post

Upcoming Garden Show.

An abbreviated post.


The site plan below and the accompanying sketch are revived design layouts for the upcoming 2008 San Francisco Garden show.

More info to follow as things get buttoned up.


Site Plan - 1/2 inch scale



Perspective sketch - no particular scale

west coast green expo

The West Coast Green expo held in the heart of down town San Francisco was an exceptional treat for all who attended.
Tons and tons of useful ‘green’ information and a wide variety of sustainable building materials and resources were on display.

I was particularly excited by a prefabricated house and surrounding garden that was set up outside the Bill Graham auditorium on the city hall concourse.

The energy efficient modular house was designed by Michelle Kaufmann and the gardens were designed by Nicholas Thayer of Late Afternoon Garden Design .

Below are some photographs taken of the “Lotus” house and gardens.

A recycled boardwalk zigzags through a sunken California native sedge mini meadow.
This bio swale acts a sponge to absorb rain ( when it does rain ) and recharges the native aquifer.


This photo shows the front door and an ingenious light fixture that shines both upward and downward when turned on. -- I must get one for my own house !


I did take a few photos of the interior of the house , but for sake of this “garden” blog, I am going to restrain myself from posting them and keep to the subject of the garden and garden architecture.
But ......
There was one element within the house that captivated my interest, and that was the Electronic House Controller.
I punched in a couple of easy commands and found that the automatic watering system was connected to this controller . .. pretty cool, though I don’t know how this might work if you have a maintenance gardener who visits your yard monthly and needs to fiddle with your irrigation controller and you are not home to let him/ her inside the house.
As a landscape designer I like to install all our irrigation controller outside for ease of maintenance ( and sense of personal privacy)


At the front of the garden was a rain water pond catchment system. It stores water later for use on the ‘green roof’, which was planted with a wild grass and meadow mix.


A detail shot of the glass hockey pucks - a ‘aesthetic design augment’.


As you left the master bedroom ( the only bedroom ) one came upon a secluded deck with two stylized Andirondack chairs from the retail shop of Room and Board.
They are made from recycled plastic and were surrounded by an edible bamboo hedge.


I was EXTREMELY happy to see an outdoor tub by Concreteworks included in the Eco House design.
I am planning to do the 2008 Garden Show in San Francisco and also have an outdoor tub by Concreteworks set into my garden vignette.


There were also several containers set into the landscape by Concreteworks.
I too will be using these and other containers of theirs in my upcoming display garden.




It was nice to see the scale of the tub and the containers in an outdoor setting.

Squaw Valley Mountain Retreat

Squaw Valley Mountain Retreat
photos taken Sept. 2007

During the summer and fall of 2006 we were happily working on a project in Squaw Valley California.
Squaw Valley is the former location for the 1950’s Winter Olympics and is located very close to Lake Tahoe.

This past weekend I went up to Squaw and visited our project.
Below are some photos :

This shot was taken at night time .
The propane fired Fire Ring kept us toasty warm while the privacy screen shielded us from the neighboring house.



A view of the outdoor terrace : Sierra granite stone sitting ring, Quartz flat stone terrace,
Sierra stone fountain hand carved by Miguel Chavez and the metal privacy screen.


Another view showing the adjacent bar and kitchen


This is the view that one has overlooking the ski runs of Squaw Valley


The adjacent outdoor bar and kitchen


A detail of the stone work in the sitting ring


A close up shot of the stone fountain.


The stone stair case leading down to the lawn area.


In the sentence above I mentioned that the stair case leads down to the "lawn" area.
Well it is a 'lawn', except that it is an artificial one .
We choose an artificial lawn for a variety of reasons, but primarily it was chosen for its lack of maintenance.

Bloom dazes - Warm September 2007

B L O O M D A Z E S
SEPTEMBER 2 0 0 7

I will be on holiday for our traditional Bloom Day event so I am posting a few days early.

On this warm September evening there is still a lot of plants blooming in my garden despite the fact that it is a garden designed with foliage in mind and not flower power.

Many of the succulents are in bloom as well as Tibouchinas, Abutilons, Iochromas, Daturas, Brugmansias , Passifloras, Bougainvillaea and Ginger's.

Here are a few samplings from my Northern California garden.

Bulbinella - a vivacious succulent - If you are a gardener and want job security, then plant this plant !



A Datura juxtaposed against a Canna Pretoria leaf


Bromeliads are also showing a lot of color


Bromeliad



A white Passiflora - there are also several ripe fruits on the vine too.


The last couple of days I have spent scoping out several garden nurseries.
I am ramping up for a planting project and I like to go to the nurseries before I design the planting plan so that I know what is in stock .
I also enjoy the inspiration too.

This photo below was taken at Cottage Garden Growers in Petaluma.
It is a retail nursery but provides a small discount to professionals in the trade.
I like this nursery a lot because it is so beautifully designed and laid out.
I also like and admire the owners who have worked their butts off to get the nursery where it is today.

The succulent area


One of the nursery owners has a penchant for succulents and is extremely creative.
Here he has taken a bird bath and has planted it with succulents.





And another one


There is a beautifully designed raised bed adjacent to the succulent area in the nursery that has a very cool underwater garden scene.
It is planted with succulents, restios, native flowers , perennials and drought tolerant shrubs.
Woven into the tapestry of foliage a school of core ten metal fish swim.


The two photographs below show my most frequented wholesale nursery, Landscapes Unlimited in Petaluma CA.
I have been purchasing plants from this nursery for about 20 years and have always had professional friendly service .
The staff is exceptionally caring and goes the extra mile in assiting landscapers by brokering in plants that they do not grow themselves.
This view below shows one tiny section of the nursery - the one gallon size perennial section





This nursery is so big that you drive your car through the isles when pulling your own plants.
As mentioned above, it is a wholesale nursery, and a strict one at that. If you do not have your C-27 license or landscape architectural license you cannot purchase from this nursery.

Happy Bloom days all !
Michelle