California Landscape Design

The Green Backdrop

Tricia Christopher is a licensed landscape architect with over thirty-five years of professional experience designing landscapes in the San Francisco Bay Area. Specializing in residential gardens, she has also worked with her Oakland community on school and public gardens and has taught landscape design courses for many years at Merritt College. She holds a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley and an undergraduate degree in Plant Science from the University of Delaware. She enjoys combining her love of plants with the creative side of designing outdoor environments.

"Don’t forget the power of green! Quite often, evergreen plantings are needed in supporting roles or background locations, especially in smaller gardens with views of fences or buildings. These are the oft-unnoticed workhorses that serve to show off the more colorful or unusual specimens that get all the attention. They need to be versatile, reliable and low maintenance. Listed below are plants that can be used as screens, hedges, fence coverings, or massed in groups to provide soothing green to the garden.

Listed from tallest to shortest (and vines):

Podocarpus gracilior (Fern Podocarpus)

Tristaniopsis laurina ‘Elegant’ (Elegant Water Gum)

Pittosporum tenuifolium (Kohuhu)

Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Silver Sheen’ (Silver Sheen Kohuhu)

Rhamnus alaternus ‘John Edwards’ (Italian Buckthorn)

Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Wrinkled Blue’ (Wrinkled Blue Kohuhu)

Podocarpus macrophyllus ‘Maki’ (Shrubby Yew Pine)

Grevillea ‘Moonlight’ (Moonlight Grevillea)

Escallonia ‘Iveyi’ (White Escallonia)

Euonymus japonicus ‘Green Spire’ (Green Spire Euonymus)