dana point renovation: part 2

by november of 2007 most of the initial renovation of the dana point residence was complete. we tore out one of the two lawn areas and replaced it with columbian gold flagstone, removed almost all of the flax and fountain grass in the side planter, demoed the raised planter along the back fence / bbq area and replanted it, and replanted all of the pots on the property. i would have to say that the trickiest part was definitely the demo of the old plants and the lawn simply because dealing with that amount of green waste was rather new to me. it takes an awful lot of sheer strength and sweat to manipulate that much earth and plant material. the other most intense part was moving the heavy flagstone from the street all the way to the back of the property. i think at the time it didn’t dawn on me to use a wheelbarrow and my helper and i just humped back by hand almost 2 pallets of flagstone. yikes.

columbian gold flagstone planted with creeping thyme

iron arbor planted with trumpet vines and columbian gold flagstone

the real fun part about this job was that the client was pretty easy to please. they basically just left it up to me and were way cool about whatever i decided to do, even if it deviated from the designer’s plan. i more or less stuck to the plan, but made a few adjustments here and there based upon plant availability and personal preference.

Euphorbia ingens underplanted with blue chalk stick and aeoniums

there were 4 large pots like this to utilize. we left this one in the planter and potted it with the largest Euphorbia ingens – candelabra tree – we could buy, the other two went to either side of the outdoor fireplace and were planted with 25 gallon spiraled cypress evergreens. the 4th pot was moved under some trees in a shady area and planted with Clivia miniata – kaffir lilies – that were salvaged from the landscaping.

spiral cypress evergreens accented with succulent pots

succulent pot filled with string of pearls, sunburst and kiwi aeoniums and afterglow echeveria

this is where i first started getting a taste for using succulents in pots.

string of pearls, kiwi aeonium and afterglow echeveria

the area behind the bbq was planted with clumping blue grass – Paspalum quadrifarium – and Abelia grandifloria “Edward Gaucher”. initially i thought this planting turned out very nice. i really like when plants fill in an area and can soften the hardscape. after the planting began to take off the owners kept asking me to cut it back until i just couldn’t keep up any more. i think this meant their view of the dana point harbor was being impeded. very nice planting and plant choice, but poor selection based on sizing needs. though after several years of gardening in southern california i have realized beyond a doubt that the most important aspect to homeowners is their ocean view, and they are willing to do anything it takes to maintain and enlarge this aspect of their home.

clumping blue grass - Paspalum quadrifarium and Abelia grandiflora "Edward Gaucher"

the area to the left of this photo that was originally planted with overgrown breath of heavens was replaced by a row of 1 gallon boxwoods and back planted with Gaura lindheimeri. i really love Gaura. it’s a great plant that takes off quickly, flowers profusely, has great movement in the breeze and can tolerate cutting back seasonally. sometimes it tends to get aphids pretty fierce though.

Gaura lindheimeri and "Green Beauty" Boxwood

the owner eventually thought the Guara’s got too big as well and had me replant the area with hybrid tea roses. we basically moved the roses from a different section of the yard where they were getting too much shade. we then moved the Guara’s to the shadier area where the roses were and they basically crapped out instantly. and then i replanted that area another time. too be continued in part 3 of course. the lesson to learn is this: it is incredibly difficult to choose plants perfectly based on size requirements and sun and shade requirements unless you have a ton of experience doing so. i am so fortunate to be gaining insight regarding this exact thing. each time i put a plant in the ground i learn something new in regards to soil type, plant material, water requirements etc…. it never ends.

the last photo i leave you with are some pots that we replanted with some horsetail – Equisetum hyemale. before i planted the pots with horesetail they were planted with a variety of dying annuals that were starved for attention and had seen better days. a good lesson i have learned regarding horsetail is to never plant it unless you can completely contain it – unless of course you don’t mind that it runs everywhere and becomes a complete nightmare to deal with. one time i had this woman ask me to remove horsetail that was running rampant on her hillside. let’s just say the roots break off rather easily and make it mind numbing to get rid of. keeping it in pots or in raised contained planters is the best and most aesthetically appropriate way to deal with horsetail. oh yeah, and keep it well watered at all times.

Equisetum hyemale - horsetail

there are of course other areas of the project i didn’t explain or take photos of. that will come together in part 3, as you will see that yet again we transformed this yard when the owners decided to sell in 2009 and new owner moved in rather quickly. this is usually the end of a good thing, but in this case since i was doing the maintenance as well, i was called upon to help restructure what i have just showed you. and all for the better.

until part 3 …

enjoy the gardening

scott

cabbage echeveria

potted cabbage echeveria

the ruffled edges of a cabbage echeveria

the succulent flowers of a cabbage echeveria

i use a lot of cabbage echeverias in my succulent pot plantings. it does well in part to full sun, flowers so nicely in the summer time, and can be repotted, moved and easily handled with no ill effects. recently, i took one out of a pot at a client’s house because it was standing in water. i intended to come back the following week and repot it, but noticed it had rooted into the ground by itself just laying on top of the soil. and a week or so later it began to flower. it’s an amazing plant with great color. it’s tough and adds character to any garden.

enjoy the gardening – scott

day in the life

i thought it might be interesting to do a post about what a day in the life of a gardener is like in southern california. like i have mentioned before, i consider myself a gardener as well as a landscaper. i enjoy all aspects of gardening, not just sitting back and letting others do the hard labor. i love to feel the muscle strain and soil soaked fatigue washing over me at the end of the day. i think at this point there is truly no going back to an inside occupation. no tie, no desk job. i always told my father when i was younger that i would never wear a tie to work. i remember that he laughed and said, we will see. i did wear a tie for just a few years, but i kept being choked out by the starch in my collar. so i traded it in.

so a day in the life. today i picked up the truck at the top of the hill and drove down to meet the crew in laguna beach. over the weekend i leisurely worked at one of my client’s properties cleaning and pruning, so i had the guys help me load my truck with the green waste and then headed to the dump. yay, the dump! a good friend of mine and ex-tree pruner used to say that “it is never a good day until you’ve stood in a trash can”. i second that statement for sure. nothing like getting the attention of a young cutie by standing knee deep in a green waste trash can, stomping down leaves and twigs. so i drove to the dump to unload the truck and sent gilberto and ozzie out to do some maintenance.

weighing in at the green waste dump

i often enjoy driving to the dump. it’s a nice break. i get to drive and blast some Opeth or Mastodon, i get to clean out the truck and “get all OCD” about the truck organization and just relax knowing that work is getting done in my absence. i cruised back into laguna from the irvine dump and met up with guys. for an hour i pruned a boxwood hedge with my kick ass gas powered kawasaki hedge pruner. that thing could seriously lop a finger off in an instant. we cut some grass, pulled some weeds, watered the pots and beds.

lately we’ve been eating lunch at a little hole in the wall mexican joint on glenneyre called laguna feast. if you come to laguna and want some true authentic mexican food i suggest you eat here. they have the best salsa by far. can’t be touched. we are locals there by now and know the owner and his staff too well. i’ve been getting the wet burrito lately – awesome tender pork with green sauce on top.

after lunch we pruned hard for the rest of the afternoon. pruned back some trees and shrubs away from a retaining wall so that people could park closer to the house and not so much in the street. in the back of this same property i’ve been watching english ivy infiltrate the yard for some time now. i think the previous owner either planted a small ivy plant, or else as i’ve seen before they just set an indoor ivy topiary on the ground in the back for lack of anything else to do with it. either way the ivy has been creeping across the back planter for about 2 years now and it had actually begun to choke out other plants and to climb up trees.

ozzie tearing out english ivy

the only way to get rid of ivy is to cut and tear it out. of course it depends how long the ivy has been growing and how thick it is. in this case it was easiest to just get on our knees and pull it out by hand.

me, contemplating the piles of ivy

each day i like to tackle something at each of the properties that i care for. whether i am fertilizing, dead-heading, watering, pruning, weeding, planting, amending soil – it doesn’t matter, i simply enjoy transforming and making a garden look better each time i am there. there is no such thing as a no maintenance garden. there is always something to do. always something to improve upon and make nicer.

i started out the business doing all of the work myself, but eventually was fortunate enough to have so many clients that i just couldn’t handle the work by myself. the day passes pleasantly with a little help as well. day after day it is a grind, just like anything you do over and over. but i tell myself when i get frustrated or tired that it could be worse. i could be sitting behind a desk fearing that the ceo is going to fire me, or that there is some secret meeting going on i am unaware of that is going to determine my fate.

gardening allows me to choose my own fate, plain and simple. i find solace in bringing people happiness through their gardens. gardening is what i do. i make it my business to do the best job over and over again and to constantly better my properties. when we loose the drive and motivation for what we do, we had better find a new source of inspiration to drive us forward. being with the plants and being outside everyday is what does it for me. i would rather work in an orchard picking fruit off trees all day long than be stuck inside with a tie on wishing i could feel the sun on my face.

get outside, dig in the dirt.

we ended the day with some simple sweeping up and weeding. everything is completely important when it comes to good gardening. no detail should be left undone or incomplete. i get ridiculed sometimes for my overly compulsive nature. but i just know how i like things done when it comes to gardening. it doesn’t mean i am not constantly bettering myself and learning – i am, trust me. i am humbled all the time. i realize i have a ton to learn. and all the time to learn it. my intent is true, my drive is pure. gardening, that’s it.

scott

dana point renovation: part 1

in late 2007 i was put in contact with a dana point resident who needed a landscaper to help him design and redo his yard. i don’t remember who initially gave the gentleman my name, but i am thinking it may have been my friends at plant depot. upon meeting him and checking out his property i was overwhelmed to say the least. at the time i only had one part time helper, and he had no idea what he was doing any more than me. and, i was completely new to major landscape renovation projects. needless to say, i was completely eager to jump into anything over my head for the experience of it. the owner wanted a complete redesign and brand new installation – front yard to back. all new plants, all new potted garden, everything. i was super busy doing a ton of landscape maintenance at the time, so i deferred the design work to a landscape designer who had recently given me some smaller jobs. i was happy to be able to flow her the work, as it saved me the daunting task of coming up with a plan. like i said before, i was overwhelmed. coming up with good artistic ideas on top of doing the work was too much at that time.

once the plan was drawn up it was immediately given to me with no questions asked. the owner was the type of guy who just wanted to get the work done, and to get it done now. he didn’t seem to know too much about plants, nor did he care, and trusted the designer and myself to implement something new and fresh. however, he did ask me to come up with a bid for what i thought would be the total project cost. i remember thinking as i handed over the estimate that that was going to be the end of the job right then and there. thanks, no thanks, too much. he simply handed me back the estimate and said, great, when can  you start?

below are photos of the landscaping before we did anything to it.

front planter along driveway - overgrown lavender

back lawn area and planter - huge flax and fountain grass

raised planter along back fence

raised planter along back fence 2 - breath of heaven mish mash

raised planter along back fence 3

raised planter, lawn area and side planter - roses

overgrown potted area

there are of course a ton of other areas around the house the we eventually reworked as well. i won’t put too many pictures in now as to confuse the reader. i am going to stick with the main landscaping areas that were most impacted and changed. like i said, up until this point in my landscaping career i was mainly doing maintenance and smaller planting jobs. you know, a few potted plants here and there, a few plants in the ground here and there. nothing like this. this was a full tear out, lawn removal, flagstone installation, new lawn, sprinkler reworking.

was i sure i could handle it? no. and yes. that is how we learn. we take on things bigger than us. i remember losing a little sleep as i wondered how in the heck i was going to tackle this project. my heart thumping as i lay in bed prior to doing the job. these are the times that make us strong. make us forge ahead. it really is a double edged sword. we feel like giving up before we’ve even started. too much, too big. too much room for failure. ahhhh. and then we just go, move ahead. and that is when the greatest learning takes place.

i leave you at the end of part one with a quote from one of my favorite authors and from one of the most empowering books i have ever read.

– scott

“each aspiration presupposes the admission of a lack, each challenge presupposes a barrier to be overcome. the more adventurous will often choose greater challenges, and so in their minds the contrasts between what they want to achieve and their present status can seem to be impossible.”

- from “The Nature of Personal Reality” by Jane Roberts

agave americana

i haven’t posted in quite a while. been busy. been distracted. became busier. and busier. going to really try and make an effort to publish more often. i have a ton of content to push again. so, i though i would start with some simple pictures of an agave american. this one is located on pch in south laguna beach up on a hillside of a vacant lot. i have been driving by this agave and noticing it for a long time now. this spring it started pushing a flower and i just knew i had to go and visit it and pay my respects to its majesty. truly an amazing and brilliant plant. a soul to behold.

attack of the agave

agave americana "marginata"

heart of the agave

defending its flower