Garden Designers Roundtable: Lawn Alternatives

Welcome to the Garden Designers Roundtable! This month's subject, "Lawn Alternatives" is near and dear to my heart, as my regular readers know! And a special welcome to our guests from the Lawn Reform Coalition, who are joining us today.

As usual, I'm being quite literal with this topic; drawing heavily from gardens I've designed for myself and others. What ARE the alternatives to a lawn? Got a minute? I'll toss you a few! Each example is a bit of garden that used to be (or could have been) a lawn.

Instead of a lawn, you could have a meditation garden with bamboo and a bubbling water feature. We're not against GRASSES you know!

You could have a vibrant, colorful front garden that the whole neighborhood adores. It's private without a fence, and requires only monthly maintenance to look wonderful.

How about a paved sitting area that nestles right up to the garden? I smile to think how many hours I spent in those chairs, talking into the night with friends and family. Not to mention tiptoeing out to catch the sunrise with my first cup of tea.

If your lawn is on an awkward slope, you could turn it into a terrace for dining or sitting by the fire. Surrounded by garden on all sides, this adds valuable living space, especially on a small lot.

This creekside clearing could have been a patch of lawn, but how much nicer to have a dining room with a huge plank table? No need to worry about too much shade, damage from furniture (or to it).

Instead of a front lawn you could add layers of interest with ornamental AND edible plants (yes, those are artichoke leaves!)

Or a kitchen garden in a sunny spot, with herbs, espaliered fruit trees, and flowers. Raised beds make raising healthy veggies easy when space is limited.

A healthy lawn needs sun. Without a lawn, you can turn a hot, dry corner of your garden into a shady oasis. Think about it! On a hot day I'd like to be sitting in this corner, not mowing it!

On the other hand, make use of the sunny spots you can reclaim: plant a rose garden!

Or a sea of thyme...

Or a sturdy border of hardy shrubs and grasses as a sidewalk buffer. Adding elements like a low wall and a curved fence (taking full advantage of a slight slope) breaks up larger expanses and gives structure and purpose to plantings.

The view from my old front porch. Before it was lawn down to the sidewalk. After it was a private garden centered around this water feature. I never missed the lawn for one moment.

So I guess what I'm saying is that your alternative to a lawn is...space. To garden, to live, to dream, to tuck your latest nursery treasures. You aren't limited to a 3' bed against the fence any more. Good design, thoughtfully applied, will give you so much more to work with. Where will you start? Which patch of scruffy green in your life is getting the stink-eye? What could go, right now? That's where you begin.

Thanks for visiting! But don't stop here, oh no. There is sooo much more, as the other Knights and Ladies of the Roundtable AND the Rock Stars from Lawn Reform Coalition have a few things to say as well:

Lawn Reform Coalition
Susan Harris : Garden Rant : Takoma Park, MD
Susan Harris : Gardener Susan’s Blog : Takoma Park, MD
Billy Goodnick : Cool Green Gardens : Santa Barbara, CA
Evelyn Hadden : Lawn Reform.Org : Saint Paul, MN
Saxon Holt : Gardening Gone Wild : Novato, CA
Shirley Bovshow : Eden Makers : Los Angeles, CA
Ginny Stibolt : Florida Native Plant Society : Green Cove Springs, FL

Garden Designers Roundtable
Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA
Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT
Rochelle Greayer : Studio G : Boston, MA
Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA
Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX
Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber : Bristol, UK
Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO
Ivette Soler : The Germinatrix : Los Angeles, CA
Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA
Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN
Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT
Tara Dillard : Vanishing Threshold: Garden, Life, Home : Atlanta, GA

Garden Designers Roundtable: Top Landscape Plants

Welcome to this month's Garden Designers Roundtable, where we are talking about the plants that we turn to again and again in our designs. My working palette is pretty vast, but these are the ones special enough to be used in my personal gardens as well.

Easily the most-used small tree in my repertoire is Arbutus 'Marina' a hybrid of our native Madrones. This was the first thing I planted in my last garden, and in four years that small shrub became this shapely specimen, with peeling red trunks, clean evergreen foliage and a long season of bloom. I also use it extensively in the standard form, and would love to see it used more as a street tree.

One of my favorite groundcovers under Arbutus is Elijah Blue Fescue (Festuca glauca). It appreciates a little shade and water to look its best; and makes a wonderful 18" mound of blue that is tough, soft, and looks great year round.

A good companion to blue fescue in a grassy landscape is the lovely Carex testacea. Its blades shift from olive green to coppery orange and back again throughout the year. This one will reseed freely if you don't keep its long flowing seed stems trimmed; you've been warned!

Soft, friendly Coleonema 'Sunset Gold' looks great planted near orange sedge; its golden plumes (and in the spring, small pink flowers) are a bright spot in any garden; it needs sun for best color.

A relatively new addition to my palette is Dianella; I use several varieties, like this Dianella caerulea (Blue Flax Lily). It's wonderful in a pot and happy in those spots that aren't quite sun and not full shade. The little blue flowers on airy stems are charming.

Somewhere in the background of my gardens you might find Dodonea purpurea (Purple Hopseed Bush). I adore the deep burgundy of the leaves in winter, and the graceful shape of the leaves and stems. They tend to be a little shallow-rooted and can tip over in wet/windy weather; firmly staking them until they are past their youth will keep them safe. In time makes an interesting small tree.

 

I really appreciate plants that look great in winter and early spring, when the rest of the garden is resting. Euphorbias, like this "Helena's Blush" fill the bill nicely. I would use them even more if they didn't smell, well, stinky. Ah well, nobody's perfect!

Except, just maybe, Nandina 'Firepower' a short, large-leafed variety that is simply gorgeous all year round. Happiest in part shade, with just enough sun to bring out the peach, red and copper tones in the leaves. Doesn't need much water, stays compact, with no pests to speak of.

Another contender for little Mr. Perfect is this variety of Pittosporum tenuifolium called "Golf Ball." Naturally neat and compact, looks shiny perfect all year round with little or no pruning. Those black stems and soft green leaves are killer, and if I were to make a small hedge, THIS is what I would use...

...not this. I am not a fan of boxwood usually, but this is my bright, shining exception. I like to dot variegated English Boxwood around a landscape (often zig-zagging along a path at wide intervals). Their leaves have a particularly luminous quality that just lights up the place, especially in shade. It is slow growing, tough, and needs only an occasional pinch (never sheared, thank you) to look great.

And of course, Succulents are like sprinkles for the landscape...bright, colorful, sculptural, undemanding and now available in SO many varieties that the possibilities are endless. They are often that perfect missing color or texture, especially in dry corners.

So now you know my short list...but don't stop here! My fellow Garden Roundtablers are spilling their secrets too, including guest blogger Nan Ondra; such an honor to have her here today. Enjoy!

Nan Ondra : Hayefield : Bucks County, PA
Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA
Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA
Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA
Ivette Soler : The Germinatrix : Los Angeles, CA
Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO
Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK
Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA
Rochelle Greayer : Studio G : Boston, MA
Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

Garden Designers Roundtable: Expanding Small Spaces

This month the Bloggers of the Garden Designers Roundtable have some big ideas about working with small spaces!

In California the trend has been toward larger houses on smaller lots, and there are many condominium communities with charming but small outdoor living areas that serve multiple needs year-round. Being able to squeeze a lot out of small spaces is an important skill for designers, and can often be more challenging than designing something larger.

I think one of the most important aspects of working with small spaces is thinking about them three dimensionally. My 12' x 13' courtyard was created when the previous owner added two matching wings to the house. It has two sliding doors that enter at different heights, and two small windows.

Imagine this space as a solid cube and consider the area that would be carved out for a person to move comfortably through it. Whatever is left is potential garden, and much of it will NOT be at ground level! A well-thought out design will add the ceiling and soften the walls and add dimension and functionality to every layer in between. Here a work/storage bench, comfy seating, festive outdoor lighting, and bubbling water feature combine under a sturdy arbor with several dozen pots in all sizes, making this a cozy, sheltered spot year-round.

A small space design solution doesn't have to be lavish to be effective. In this courtyard we didn't have the luxury of digging up new beds, and needed to direct the flow diagonally from the gate to the front door. The simple loveseat is placed in the most private, sheltered spot and flanked by pots of perennials. A vine reaching for the arbor and a rustic wall planter bring the design up from ground level.

Same house, from the gate. The planted bed would actually have been sufficient to protect the entrance without hiding it from visitors, but the addition of the two red pots and the antique bell raise the whole arrangement to a new level, giving it style that transcends the modest setting and utilitarian hardscape materials.

This brick courtyard uses these same principles to add privacy without shutting the world away. An open lattice-work fence on top of the existing brick wall, planted with exuberant Cecil Brunner roses frames the semi-circular planting bed. In this garden a limited color palette keyed to the hardscape gives an elegant, restful feel that's enhanced by the sound of the small fountain.

This narrow garden designed by John Black maximizes plantable space by floating the stone steps, then ups the design ante with elegant black pebbles as mulch; it's both garden and path, and as the bamboo and other plants grow the edges will be blurred even more. The horizontal boards that cover the existing fence and the slight meander of the steps also help make the garden feel wider.

Small spaces already feel more intimate, and can be made more so with personal touches like a favorite sculpture (or, um, two!) and choice specimen trees that might be lost in a larger setting.

And of course, one should never be afraid to resort to all-out trickery if necessary. Wondering what's through that gated opening in the bamboo grove? Nothing but a mirrored aluminum closet door, built into the fence!

Combining two of our previous Roundtable topics, Containers make great Focal Points in small gardens! Planting a tree in a pot is one way to make sure it doesn't get too big, and adds just that much more color and style!

Speaking of containers, one of my clients had these enormous terra cotta pots that didn't work in her new contemporary landscape. But arranged in her sunny side yard they make a stylish AND functional edibles garden in a very small space.

Even a 6' x 6' bed tucked in a corner becomes a lovely (and lively) spot with the addition of a bubbling birdbath fountain and a faux creekbed surrounded by small shade garden gems like ferns, hellebores and variegated liriope.

This central atrium was full of plants, none very tall. I introduced a delicate Japanese Maple and a graceful Azara microphylla for height, and added the Asian-style mobile between them. A colorful pot will anchor the corner, but already you can see how much more of the space is being activated.

When working with small spaces one tendency is to use tiny furniture to avoid taking up too much room. But when you think about it, these areas are often used by only one or two people at a time. Some comfortable seating invites you right into the center of things, which is much more functional than leaving your active living space empty while you perch on a plastic chair!

Go ahead, tuck a loveseat or club chair in your designs and watch it become a favorite relaxing spot. Working small gives a designer's abilities the close-up test, and there isn't much room for error. But when the pieces all come together, virtually any corner can be a charming garden that has everything it needs to thrive.

Thanks for joining me today, but don't stop here! The other Knights and Ladies of the Roundtable are also writing on this topic, and who knows WHAT they've come up with. Let's find out, shall we?

Carolyn Gail Choi : Sweet Home and Garden Chicago : Chicago IL
Jenny Petersen: J Petersen Garden Design : Austin TX
Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK
Shirley Bovshow : Eden Makers : Los Angeles, CA
Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA
Susan Schlenger : Landscape Design Advice : Hampton, NJ
Tara Dillard : TaraDillard.com : Atlanta, GA

Garden Designers Roundtable: The Garden Contained

Welcome to Container Day at the Garden Designers Roundtable. What a huge topic! I could approach this in so many ways, like taking you to my favorite pottery resource, Pottery Planet; but I've done that already.

I could show you lots of pretty pictures of containers I've designed professionally, and tell you things like how long it took to find just the right bonsai-clay bowls for this terrace.

Or how I prefer container plantings to have one main plant (like this Chamaecyparis) with soft underplantings that change periodically. But I think instead I'd rather show you how I use containers myself.

I have a close, personal, long-term relationship with container planting. When I was about 8, a little boy at school gave me a white petunia in a small pot. I don't remember his name, but I can still see that little plant and feel the unexpected delight that this perfect, living thing was mine to hold. During my teen years my obsession turned to houseplants; I had dozens of them, displayed in a stunning array of macramé plant hangers.

My outdoor gardening began during my stay-at-home mom years; I started with annuals and planted them everywhere. I did this corner just before my daughter was born. She turns 20 today.

Planting something in a container gives a gardener more responsibility for and ownership of a plant. Like capturing a bright butterfly or a tadpole and putting it in a jar, a plant in a pot is like a pet or an infant; it relies upon you for everything. So who are my current infants, and how do I use containers now? Read on.

I use containers for growing plants that need different conditions than my garden beds can easily provide, like the acid soil that blueberries prefer (they won't find that next to a new foundation, but a red glazed pot filled with azalea mix does the job).

My tomatoes get deep, rich soil and dedicated irrigation in the raised kitchen garden beds. Even when the vines spill over the top of their cages, the fruit is held safely off the ground. A small garden contained in this way is neat, easy to clean, and protected (somewhat) from pests.

Raised beds give herbs the warm soil and good drainage they require to come back year after year, like this combination of marjoram and sage. The bed also provides an architectural element to my overall landscape, as it loops around to provide an informal divider between the patio and the kitchen garden.

I use containers to nurture new plants in a more controlled environment, like this cutting of Corylus 'Rote Zeller' given to me by garden writer Alice Joyce, from her garden. Eventually it will be large, but for now it's having a 'nursery year' in the courtyard (next to gnarly Uncle Harry!)

Or this fragile-looking Fuchsia magellanica I got from Annie's Annuals; it will also become a sturdy shrub in time, but for now, I'm keeping a close eye on it.

Containers allow me to keep plants with me that otherwise might be lost when a beloved garden is left behind. I bought this Fatsia japonica the day I officially started my new career as a garden designer 9 years ago. It has weathered some storms, but planted in this large turquoise pot with regular water it is as graceful as can be.

Plants that might get out of hand planted in the garden grow with more restraint when contained. I have an 8 year old deciduous trumpet vine (Campsis radicans 'Mme Galen') that really minds its manners in a pot. In the ground? It might have eaten the house by now.

Some plants will live for years in a pot, and I treat them like bonsai, shaping them over time. I love a plant that has grown old in captivity; natural, yet refined. I think training plants is one of the most skilled things gardeners do.

Speaking of taking things with you, containers aren't just for plants you know; this bubbling blue water pot is another long-time friend that I've had running practically 24x7 for at least 8 years. The soft splashing sound is as much a part of the experience of my garden as anything else, and the nice little microclimate it creates is much appreciated by the locals, like this Nandina 'Firepower.'

When my neighbor-the-gardener became ill and had to leave her house and her garden, she gave me her stacks of small clay pots. What a treasure. Having these and lots of generous plants means that I will never be without a way to give from my garden. Which makes me realize that one of the best ways I use containers is to give plants to other people.

But mainly I use containers so I can put plants wherever I want! I tend to be a 'one plant, one pot, arrange the pots' type of gal. I also like stand-alone gems that coordinate nicely with their pots, like this succulent in a graceful little two-toned number.

Succulents are particularly wonderful in pots because of their low water needs; they aren't confined to areas where the drip irrigation can reach them, and can be arranged freely, like offerings on an altar. And yes, if you have this many nice containers and an irresponsible streak when it comes to regular watering, an automatic drip system is a wonderful thing. Everyone gets watered every 3 days for 8 minutes. If they want a little more, they let me know.

Thanks to containers, we can have plants wherever we are, tucked into any modest or fancy piece we like and changed or rearranged at will. (Don't you love the mini chiminea? I use it to burn sprigs of dried sage; it works great!) Needless to say a balcony gardener would be lost without containers of all kinds. The biggest mistake I see is too many small containers. It's nice to have a few big pots in the mix, don't limit your design to what you can lift by yourself!

So I ask you, what is more satisfying than taking a handful of succulent cuttings and making them into a work of art? I think, in the end, that is what I appreciate most about containers. Like a frame around a painting they allow us to combine craftsmanship and plantsmanship into something that is more than the sum of its parts.

Thanks for visiting, and don't stop here, for I have only scratched the surface of this topic! Please visit the other knights and ladies of the Roundtable who are writing about containers today:

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Jenny Petersen: J Petersen Garden Design : Austin TX

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA

Rochelle Greayer : Studio “G” : Boston, MA

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Shirley Bovshow : Eden Makers : Los Angeles, CA