Our Garden Part I...

Our garden is coming along nicely. We have done two major projects thus far. The first we tackled was a garden fountain. We utilized a raised bed in the middle of our front garden in the back of our house. The fountain is basically a large urn with water that runs over the side down into a hidden pool below grade. Surrounding the fountain, I planted Santa Barbara Daisy. It blooms in a small white flower that slowly turns to pink as it ages. It fits that spot well since it is a prodigious grower and spills over the side hiding the wall that surrounds the raised bed. In the right back corner of the picture is a large pot with nightshade jasmine. I have not had a lot of luck getting it to flower profusely, but I am going to keep trying. The orchid on the table top is sprouting a flower spike, so I am excited to see it flower once again. I bought that orchid about 3.5 years ago from the SF Orchid Show. It is one of the few transplants from the Marina appartment.



The second project that we have tackled is our new succulent garden. I have really grown fascinated with succulents. The texture and color is amazing. When people think of desert scape, very few people think of the wonderful variety of plants that grow in that harsh climate. I decided to do mini-desert scape in our yard. I was inspired by the large succulent garden at the SF Botanical Garden in the Golden Gate Park. As you can see from the pictures, the garden is a raised bed with a rough hewn stone wall surrounding. The layout is a gentle arc with a raised spine allowing maximum light to hit as many plants as possible. The arc was positioned to get a lot of light starting at sunrise to late in the afternoon when the sun dips behind the garden wall and house. There are 40 varieties within the garden with a total of 50 plants. The garden is mulched with small rock which sets off the coloring of the plants quite well.

What's next? Well, I would like to repaint the garden wall to a soft creamy yellow much like one would see in Tuscany. I think that coloring would allow our plants to pop. The present green just blends with the plantings too much. Also, I would like to put in a patio area in the back and another water feature. It remains to be seen whether this will happen this year, or it will become next year's projects.