Design trends

Fourth of July Lessons

A local black-tailed deer celebrating Fourth of July

Earlier this year I designed the new planting area in front of the Ben Lomond Fire Station. It hasn’t been planted yet but I can picture the red, white and blue flowers that will bloom there in the future. Perfect for the Fourth of July and the rest of the year. The plants needed to be ultra low water and low maintenance. So what plants fit this criteria? Well, California natives, for one, as well as Australian and Mediterranean plants for summer color. They come from similar summer-dry climates so will do well in these conditions.

While we celebrate Independence Day on this Fourth of July, I just had to ask my friend who grows corn if his was ‘knee high’. His report is that some of his corn is above knee-high but not all. Maybe he’s spoiled coming from the Midwest originally. But this column isn’t about growing corn, it’s about climate smart plants that hold up to the heat. So let’s get started.

All this talk about “drought tolerant” plants or “water smart” plants is misleading in some ways. What really matters for the success of a plant in your garden is that they are climate smart. You can call the new California garden climate tolerant or climate adapted but it all comes down to the same thing. The plants you choose to grow in your garden should be able to naturally tolerate periods of lower than average water. This doesn’t mean no water during extremely long dry periods. No plant can live without water. One of the best tips is to garden where you live.

All of us live in a summer-dry climate. Summer-dry gardens are naturally dry for long periods. Knowing which type of plant community you live in can make the difference between success and failure in your garden. Choose the right plant for the right place whether it’s a California native from an area with similar soil and exposure or a plant from another Mediterranean-like climate with growing conditions like yours.

Plant communities have evolved over time with geologic changes in climate, topography and soils. We have several district areas here- mixed evergreen forest, redwood forest, chaparral and sandhills.

If you live in a mixed evergreen forest you garden with trees like coast live oak, tan oak, madrone, bay and buckeye. Understory plants include ceanothus, coffeeberry, hazel and poison oak. Your soil contains serpentine and granite. Many other unthirsty plants like salvias, lavender, santolina, society garlic, giant feather grass, rosemary and rockrose do well here. California natives such as western mock orange (philadelphus lewisii), wild ginger and western sword ferns grow here also.

Mixed evergreen forest may also be found along canyon bottoms near streams where big leaf maple, white alder, cottonwood, and western sycamore trees grow. Most plant here grow lush in this deep soil. If you are looking to add something new to your garden here consider giant chain fern, aquilegia, dicentra, Pacific Coast iris and fuchsia-flowering gooseberry.

Chaparral areas are the hottest, driest slopes of these mountains. Dense thickets of manzanita, coyote brush, chamise, coffeeberry, ceanothus, monkey flower and sage are native here. These plants are adapted to little water and often have tiny, thick, waxy, light green or grayish leaves. Soils tend to be rocky and shallow with overlaying rock or a subsoil that is mostly clay. Plants here need to have an extensive root system that reaches widely and deeply for water. If you live here a classic combination would be the spring blooming western redbud and Julia Phelps or Dark Star ceanothus. The combination of magenta and electric blue flowers is unforgettable.

The sandhills near Quail Hollow and Bonny Doon around Martin Rd. are part of an ancient sandy sea floor that was uplifted, eroded and exposed. These sandy soils lack organic matter and nutrients and their white color magnifies the temperature of the summer sun. Unique, native plants like silverleaf manzanita and Ben Lomond wallflower live here. Buckwheat and sticky monkey flower do well here.

Remember right plant-right place. Don’t try to force nature although most gardens do look better with some summer water.

Design trends

Horticultural Heritage of the Santa Cruz Mountains

This Tasmanian tree fern was 50 years old at the time of the CZU fire.

I was talking to someone recently who said she lived in Bonny Doon. When I told her I used to live on Robles Drive but lost the house in the CZU fire. she asked, “Did you live in the house with that huge Tasmanian Tree Fern?” I told her yes and added that it was 50 years old at the time of the fire having been planted by the original builder of the house. I guess it qualified as a heritage plant. There is so much horticultural history in our area. I’m fascinated by it all.

This area is rich in history. I love to look at old photos and try to identify what the early settlers planted around their homes in the Santa Cruz mountains.

I’ve spent hours reading through the history of the Alba Schoolhouse online. Besides the history of the actual schoolhouse, which dates back to 1895, there are many first person accounts of who grew what crops and how the land along Alba Road was used and is part of our local horticultural history.

Did you know that vineyards stretched along the west side of Empire Grade opposite the eventual route of Alba Road? In 1884, as many as 2000 gallons of wine was produced? The Burns family also had cattle on their ranch. A 1915 photo of their house show palms and hollyhocks, too. Ben Lomond became known for fruit other than grapes. Orchards of prize winning apples, peaches and plums were planted as well as strawberry plants. These crops thrived in the sunshine created by the clear cutting of timber.

Out on Bear Creek Road, the Ercoli villa featured yucca which I saw in many early photographs. Most likely they originated from the deserts in the southern California and Mexico and were brought north by the missionaries.

California fan palms and canna lilies appear in many early landscapes. The Middleton house in Boulder Creek was heavily planted with native western sword ferns. Black locust trees planted for their fragrance and flowers and are still seen here today where they have naturalized. Originally planted for erosion control, particularly on strip mined areas, their durable timber was used for homes.

Many settlers arrived from the east coast, the midwest and Europe and brought with them seeds and starts of plants. As early as 1871, nurseries in San Francisco were importing plants such as pittosporum tenuifolium and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco allowed many more plants to become available to homeowners. Hebe from New Zealand was all the rage. The brochure for this World Fair describes a Palace of Horticulture and Tower of Jewels as …” a great garden, itself, a marvel of landscape engineering skill… one side of a magic carpet on which these beautiful palaces are set with its floricultural splendors for a wondrous beauty, has never been equaled.”

The 1915 Panama Pacific Expo introduced more than plants to the public. In 1916, construction of a home in Brookdale featured timber, flooring and doors shipped from the Expo to this area by Southern Pacific railroad. When the house was finished in 1926, photographs show a beautiful home surrounded by hollyhocks, roses and wisteria.

My interest in early local horticulture started after looking at a friend’s family photographs from the early 1900’s. His family had a resort with a natural spring and rock-lined forest paths close to Highway 9 in South Felton. This was very near the Big Tree Grove resort ( now Toll House ) that opened in 1867. I remember looking at the photos and marveling at all the flowers surrounding the dwelling. The redwood trees have now grown back but at that time there was lots of sunshine, a by-product of clear cutting. I could see roses, lilacs and Shasta daisies in the photo surrounding a wrap around porch.

Beginning in the 1930’s, peat moss was removed from Scotts Valley and taken to San Francisco to supply soil and fertilizer for difficult indoor plants such as gardenias. The land from Burger King on Scotts Valley Drive over to Safeway on Mt Hermon Road was a peat bog. When the peat ran out, sand and gravel were quarried and sold. There were apple and cherry orchards at the north end of town and vineyards on both sides of Highway 17. The subdivision, The Vineyard, was named to memorialize the past land use.

I’d love to hear from those whose families lived in our valleys in the early 1900’s and what they know about the plants and crops that were grown back then. You can tell a lot about landscape plants from old photographs. It’s a fun trip down memory lane and part of our horticultural heritage. You might even plant a historical garden for the fun of it.

Design trends

A Day in an Enchanted Garden

Decorate your own old garden shed with yard sale items.

I’ve visited this garden in Bonny Doon many times including when my friend Kate was part of Valley Churches Garden Tour back in 2018 and it’s still as spectacular as ever. So on a perfect June day recently several to my landscape designer friends and I spent the afternoon enjoying delicious nibbles and being inspired by this awesome garden.

Because I’ve always enjoyed the stunning view of the bay from Kate’s house and garden, it always amazes me that when Kate and her husband bought the 5 acre property in 1981 they had no idea it had such an incredible view. You should see it now. The view was a surprise to them after they cleared some of the Douglas fir that grew close to the house. Now the area between the cultivated areas of the garden and those outside the deer fence are filled with lavender. After the CZU fire when a neighbor’s house nearby burned to the ground, they have removed more Doug fir on another slope for fire safety.

When you first enter this garden and are greeted by Kate’s English springer spaniel puppy “Buddy”, as you walk past the storage shed. Now this isn’t just any ol’ shed. Kate is a yard sale shopper extraordinaire and it is decorated with repainted watering cans, vintage gardening tools and wall art, bird houses and pots of all sizes, shapes and colors.

There are so many “garden rooms” in this garden– from the Japanese maple garden filled with perennials of all types to the sunken vegetable garden that occupies the old above ground pool area that was sunk in the ground and surrounded by decking. When the pool developed leaks that persisted no matter how many times it was repaired, Kate had it removed and created an incredible sunken vegetable garden using galvanized raised garden planters of all sizes and shapes. From fruit trees to artichokes to tomatoes and perennials to attract pollinators, this garden has it all.

The generous decking surrounding the sunken garden has a gazebo covered with fragrant climbing roses. Colorful perennials, dwarf fruit trees and more roses grow happily in containers here alongside a seating area with a view of the bay.

Strolling past dozens of perennial and succulent beds, you encounter the fruit trees. Kate swears by the Frost peach which is resistant to peach leaf curl. She has others such as Donut peaches but despite her diligent winter spraying it was recovering from peach leaf curl. The Mission Fig tree looked quite happy as did the pear trees.

Then you enter another area with Japanese maples and a gazebo. Kate has moved several Autumn Moon Japanese maples from this area as it gets too much heat and sun and many were not thriving. Don’t be afraid to move a plant or tree that is struggling to a better spot in your garden. The one Autumn Moon that remains near the gazebo was a vision of burnt orange and bronze on my visit in early June. In the fall its leaves will turn vivid orange and red.

The shade garden

Next came the garden room in a shady spot with blooming rhododendron, Chinese ground osrchid, hydrangea, coral bell, Exbury azalea, hosta, hellebore and a recirculating 3-tiered water fountain. With small pebbles underfoot, it’s a lovely spot on a hot day.

Surrounding this home are wrap around porches that Kate has filled with potted ferns and rattan garden furniture. She spends a lot of time reading out here with her puppy Buddy nearby. Her extensive collection of hydrangeas grow happily to border the deck. What’s not to love about this garden?

Get ideas and inspiration from other gardens, both large and small. They all have something to offer.

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