Judy Kameon took me to a nice leisurely lunch at Tiara Cafe, where we discussed garden design business for twenty minutes and the season finale of Top Chef for an hour and a half. She likes Marcel, I'm mad for Ilan - we had alot to talk about. But what was really on my mind were the amazing moss/driftwood sculptures used in the cavernous, yet cozy, space. They were high up, so I couldn't see exactly what they were made of, but the hostess said they were moss, and that they were sprayed with water to keep them green. What a great idea - a truly low maintenance plant sculpture... no soil, no pebbles, no flowers to dry up, shrivel, and fall on the floor to be eaten by your cat. These were suspended from the ceiling, which is a very pet - friendly place for an indoor plant to be. Just attach your moss of choice to your wood of choice with your wire of choice, and then hang it in a place where all can admire your handiwork. Mist frequently for vibrancy!

I was looking through images of plantings I'd designed for Elysian landscapes, and I happened upon this image of a garden Judy and I did for the Sianai Temple in West Los Angeles. I've been so attuned to the silhouettes of trees this winter, mostly due to Scrappy Girl's tree fetish - and when looking at the tree sculpture by artist Rona Pondick a lightbulb flashed above my head; Why not create a trellis that looks like a tree in winter? (click on the image to get a better view of the metal tree) You could grow the vine of your choice through the bare branches, and change it whenever you like! I was thinking of using a much more brutal material than Pondick's stainless steel (can you imagine how much that would cost!), like rebar. It's very easily bendable, so no prohibitively expensive welding or casting. I'm going to keep thinking about this - I don't want to do anything corny, of course, which something like this might be, if not done right. I'd like it to look like a child's pencil drawing of a winter tree.
Which means I have to start talking to metal fabricators. Nothing really good is ever easy or cheap, is it? Well, maybe Proenza Schouler for Target.
Nice planting, wouldn't you say? Those strange, martian-like chartreuse puffs are the blooms of Euphorbia wulfenii, one of my favorite plants of all time. These plants are truly chic - both stylish and quirky. A lovely addition to any fashionable garden!

(a new garden during plant installation)
I enjoyed reading about the plants and such on your blog. My question is --How does one get started landscaping--or gardening--or making one's yard look more iniviting that its current sorry state?--We recently renovated our early 1900's row house and our attentions have now turned to the outside--and I am overwhelmed--I want something simple, tasteful, not too much work--thanks for any advice you might have
catherine_illian | Jan 20, 2007 1:35:37 PM

Hi Catherine ... I love helping out, girlfriend, but since I don't know the details of your site or your budget I can't give specific design advice, but I can give you guidance so you can avoid some common mistakes, and tips that will help you shimmy, not toil, down your garden path.
Be a copy-cat - Don't try to be original... that's for people who want to dawdle endlessly in their gardens, collecting rare and fussy hybrids. Peruse garden magazines and books, go to botanical gardens, take walks in neighborhoods that are heavily gardened.. When you see something you like, use it! Artists call this 'appropriation'. Designers call this ...'designing'.
Don't skimp on the big stuff. Most gardens need to be irrigated. A good system will probably be your biggest expense while creating your garden. Unless you want hours of handwatering while it is freshly planted, and all spring and summer long, do yourself a favor - bite the bullet and install an irrigation system.
Think foliage, not flowers - if you want a garden that isn't too much work, don't plant flowers. Many of the coolest plants have small or insignificant flowers, relying instead on dramatic foliage to provide interest. Wherever there is a showy flower, there is work. Instead, think form. Structure. Architecture.
(I'm not done! More info after the jump ...)

My dear friends David and Ellen from Deep End Ranch sent this picture yesterday. Remember how lovely it was there over Thanksgiving? What a difference the worst freeze in a century makes. Even though The Deep End is an Artist in Residence program, it is also a working citrus farm, with acres and acres of Eureka lemons, tangerines, limes, and some avocados thrown in for good measure. The crops are gone, but the trees themselves may be okay ... only time will tell. Let's all think good thoughts for David and Ellen, okay?

The image of the frozen tree is so beautiful, isn't it? (you can click on it to see a bigger version) That's Ellen. Making art through the tears!

I am still pretty shell-shocked over the plant losses in my garden - it's even been a little hard for me to design.
As I've been driving around, certain things have become apparent. The most important is the power of microclimates. Microclimates are areas that maintain a slightly different temp than the overall 'zone' of the property in question. Sometimes these differences allow you to plant species that wouldn't normally work in your climate. In my case, geography has given me a microclimate colder than my zone - so I was hit much harder than most other gardens in L.A.
It was really uplifting, if a little hard, to see gardens that emerged unscathed. The garden in this photo did that with smart planting, and the fact that it gets direct sun and reflected heat from the street - sometimes this reflected heart can make the degree or two difference between succulents freezing and not freezing. I was so happy to see the beautiful Euphorbia 'Stix on Fire' alive and kicking - looking hot enough to stop frost right in it's tracks!

Okay... I have received a message from the universe. Here I am, blogging from Southern California, rhapsodizing about agaves this and aloes that - succulents succulents succulents ... poor everybody else who can't grow them, they're so easy ...
Well, it actually froze last night. 24 degrees.

And I had declared the day before that I wasn't going to "swaddle and coddle" my plants. I was so cavalier. I said - and I quote- "If something bites the dust in my garden, there are ten plants waiting in the wings to take its place" Was I tempting fate or WHAT? So the result is, even some of the things waiting in the wings bit it.
Sheesh. I think my low maintenance bravado may have been masking a lazy gardener. And gardening is no place for the lazy. We who play with plants in So Cal have it easy in many ways, because dealing with freezing is one of the most challenging thing a gardener faces, and I certainly didn't give it the respect it deserved. We haven't had a freeze like that in my area during the twelve years I've lived here. I guess I needed to experience the pain of it firsthand to really learn it.

Message received.

I was going to post about global warming - but I spied this yellow wild sunflower blooming its head off in front of the reddest house I've ever seen. How could I not screech to a stop and click off a snap? One may think this is an example of global warming, but unlike the cherry trees in Washington DC, daisies are often in magnificent bloom during the mild winters here. Last night was the coldest night we've had so far - it almost froze. I had an impulse to run around and cover my tenderest babies, but I stopped myself. Afterall, I'm always going on about my low maintenance garden ways, how could I wrap and swaddle? If something bites the dust in my garden, there are ten plants in the wings waiting to take its place. So guess what - this morning I awoke to a garden fairly unscathed by the cold. Okay, my terrestrial orchids (epidendrons) look like hell, but even my most vulnerable succulents made it. My Darwinist bravado is crap. If I lived in a colder climate, I'd need to go full-on Victorian and build a glass greenhouse - or at least a screened-in porch. My heart just couldn't take the stress of freezes. You Northerners are truly hardier souls!

Will you check out the amazing color of these aloes? During the rest of the year, they are green. Come mid-October I stop giving them weekly water and just sprinkle them with a drop or two whenever I think of it ... otherwise, they just survive on dew. The result? Intense reddish coloration and bloom spikes all over. This is the 4th season that those of us in warmer states have ... the natives & succulent season. I promise I will interrupt my rhapsodizing about aloes to snap some pics of California natives in their full glory - I'll take ya'll on a field trip! I'm not totally against native spaces and wild places, but I am a gardener, so I admit to having a bias.

By the way, I think Scrappy Girl has come up with a wonderful way to garden indoors - check out the tree mural she's thinking about painting on her bedroom wall!

Here we are, another year gone, and a fresh one ready to take us who knows where. I hope we all have fabulous adventures this year, and that we have the time to notice the beauty wherever it is. This morning, I noticed the beauty of the clear light flooding my back patio, silhouetting the grasses and the aloe blooms. For me, the new year always begins with the aloes - during the holidays I'm usually too busy to kick back and get an eyeful of my garden, but the first week of January I start counting the bloom spikes. Right now, I have 17 spikes on assorted aloes in various stages of blossoming. The aloes will be blooming from now until March/April, when my giant Aloe marlothii, Willard, sends up his deep orange candelabra. While the aloes are blooming, their succulent leaves usually take on a reddish tinge. It's all very dramatic. I'll snap some beauty shots of them as the magic unfolds...

(Rolling Green Nursery in Culver City, CA)
Hi Ivette: I have been a fan of yours since the "Germinators" article came out in the Garden Design magazine a few years ago. Where do you get your plants? I find that the major chains have very little varieties to choose from, plus the quality is poor. I am interested in planting a "Mediterrean" type garden of succulents and other drought-tolerant plants. (I live in the Long Beach area, so LA isn't too far of a drive.)
Thanks, and Happy New Year.
julesschroom

I have a fan! I have a fan! And julesschroom, you are a fan with a highly developed sense of taste, because you wisely eschew the major chain 'garden centers'. In my opinion, they are the landscape version of McDonald's. Most of their space is given over to cheap, colorful bedding annuals - if you find any perennials they are usually so high on chemical fertilizers that they die within a week or two of planting. Succulents? Forget it. So the dedicated gardener has to do some investigating. Go to every independent nursery in your area; sometimes the ones that look seedy(pardon the pun) on the outside are little wonderlands of well chosen specialty plants. I also go to the source - the growers. No matter where you live, there are growing grounds within driving distance. This is where your local nurseries and landscapers get their stuff, and many will sell to non-pro's as long as the proper taxes are paid. One way to find them is to check the little stick that tells you what variety of plant you're buying - usually the name of the grower is on it. If it's Monrovia, well, you can't buy from them - but if it is a smaller grower, chances are they are close by and have great plants that grow perfectly in your area!

Julesschroom - read on for LA area growers and specialty nurseries, and thanks for writing in!