The garden, design & construction, August 2009

Turning the bare yard into a garden:

Prior to starting the pool removal Sharon and I attended a lecture given by Alrie Middlebrook, an expert in California native plants and owner of a nursery and landscaping company (http://www.middlebrook-gardens.com/).  One of the myths about native California plants is that they are boring and not very colorful.  In Alrie's lecture she went through the seasons, month by month, and showed photos of plants that bloomed at each time of year.  This increased our already high interest in planting a native garden and I arranged to meet with Alrie.  We discussed our expectations for the project and I hired her to do a basic design of the yard. After several design iterations, driven primarily by my budget constraints, I hired her to perform the installation effort.

During the design phase our priorities included:
--a large patio area suitable for entertaining a moderate size group
--a more intimate patio area suitable for a portable fire pit
--a path connecting the patio to the far end of the yard
--plants along the fence that would grow into a privacy screen
--interesting and colorful plants, some of which would attract hummingbirds and butterflies
--a few fruit trees

Alrie's design incorporated all of these desires.  She included several raised mounds to provide some texture to the garden and to improve the drainage for the plants.

Alrie's crew performed substantially all of the work in the new yard including a large flagstone patio.  About 2 weeks after the pool demo was completed, the crew began work.  The first step was to demo the existing patio that consisted of a combination of concete and brick.

Alrie's project manager Randy visited a few times each day to keep the project focused.  While the patio crew laid down the flagstones, another crew dug the trenches to install a fairly elaborate irrigation system consisting of ten zones (2 were for future growth).   Next they constructed the firepit area and the garden path using decomposed granite.  The raised planting mounds were formed from topsoil provided by Richie Bobcat's soil broker.  Then several boulders and landscape rocks were distributed under Alrie's direction.  While the crew installed the screening plants along the edges, Alrie artfully arranged the smaller plants.  She included a few dozen of Sharon's succulents and cactus.

After the plants were planted and the drip irrigation connected, many yards of pro-chip mulch was delivered and distributed about the garden.  This mulch is made from recycled wood that is dyed to resmble redwood chips.  It makes a very attractive groundcover.

The Mostly Finished Garden:

Less than two weeks after the patio demo began, we looked out at the finished job.  This picture is taken looking north from the patio:

The hot tub and firepit area looking NNW past the big leaf maple:

Looking NNW from the edge of the patio:

Looking NNE, espalier pear in front of garage:

Bob's Contributions to the Effort, Sept 2009:

Early on we had hoped to share some of the responsibility for planting but I am very glad that we contracted out this huge task.  However there were a few tasks that I felt that I could accomplish.  The first was constructing a grapestake fence using slats that were saved from the demo of an old fence at the north end of the yard.  This short fence breaks up the long expanse of the yard and helps to anchor the metal arch that will support the climbing roses.

The plan called for two grape plants that would eventually grow enough to screen off the cement storage area to the east of the garden.  I built an arbor using 4x6" posts and coated aircraft cable.  I added a reed fence from Lowe's as a temporary screen.

A large area was left unplanted at the north end of the garden.  This was left to add raised planters for vegetables and herbs.  But we decided that this job would wait for spring.