California Landscape Design

Native and Mediterranean in San Diego

I love to use natives and Mediterranean region plants that play well together- anigozanthos, rockrose and other non native sages are excellent examples of these. As you can see in the images I am a huge fan of the verbena lilacina which seems to never stop blooming and all the pollinators love it just as much as me. I also love Cleveland and white sage, penstemon, our native buckwheats (which do great down here) as well as the lovely toyon which makes such an awesome habitat garden evergreen hedge!

Design Details:

• The lawn was replaced with a blue stone pathway and a variety of low-water, low care plants.

• A diverse variety of colorful California native shrubs and grasses and plants from other Mediterranean regions create biodiversity and an ecosystem for the birds, the bees and the butterflies.

•  ​The plant palette was designed to incorporate  plants that bloom and provide interest throughout all seasons for the homeowners to enjoy year-round.

• The raised center planting bed and the boulders offer added interest and appeal.

​Lawn Replacement in San Anselmo

This landscape has been dramatically transformed into a backyard haven by replacing the water-thirsty lawn with a meandering natural blue stone pathway that circles around a mounted planting bed filled with a variety of colorful plants at various heights.  Several California native plants with vibrant flowers, feathery grasses and easy-care, water-wise companion plants from other Mediterranean regions were planted throughout the landscape. Low-growing succulents and ground covers soften the pathway edge and Dymondia margaretae - Silver Carpet was planted in between. On site boulders were  repositioned in the planting beds to provide natural focal point, contrast and interest.  

Photos by Jude Parkinson-Morgan.

Native Hillside Garden in Orinda

This quaint cottage garden is perched on a hill under majestic Live Oaks and Monterey Pines of Orinda. The plant palette is a mixture of native Coral Bells, Penstemon, Manzanita and Ceanothus. Spring and summer bring added color of orange Poppies, Blue-eyed grass and orange California Fuchsia.

Photos courtesy of Peigi Duvall.

NatureScapes: A Turf-to-Natives Design Program

NatureScape is a turf-to-native garden design program created by APLD member Jodie Cook and Tree of Life Nursery for the Moulton Niguel Water District. This program includes homeowner education as an essential component in addition to the turf conversion. Gardens are based on the watershed approach and all have swales/contouring for rain; many have rain chains and decorative rain barrels, and all are designed with native plants available from our local grower, Tree of Life Nursery. 

NatureScapes are usually modest in size, ranging from 250-3000 square feet.  Many of these small-garden owners don’t have the information or resources to make this kind of transformation on their own, and may never have gardened before, so we make it easy for them: education, design, plants, installation.   

NatureScape has 4 main goals.... 

1) To give homeowners the opportunity to easily replace their turf with a low-water, ecologically responsible planting design, installed by native plant professionals.

2) To begin to change the gardening culture here in South Orange County from one of ‘hands-off’, yet overly-managed gardens of exotics and lawn to an interactive, lower input one reflective of our region and ecology. This is part of the reason we require front yard installations in our NatureScapes. We will complete a backyard design only if a front yard is included. We want to change the culture, not just install a garden.

3) To educate ‘regular’ homeowners in basic sustainable horticulture principles and to ignite in them a love of gardens, nature, and gardening.  With this in mind, the program requires a 3-hour training workshop in ecological landscaping principles, natural watering techniques (swales/rain gardens), and IPM fundamentals before they can qualify for a NatureScape transformation. As part of the transformation, we provide a formal garden coaching session at installation and a post-establishment coaching session 90 days after installation. 

4) Another important reason we primarily work with front yards is because they are the source of much non-point-source, dry season pollution in our region. This program has led to additional water district initiatives including a retail nursery education program (because local retail nursery staff are often lacking in information about natives), a yearly garden tour (for community-building), and a maintenance/coaching service for NatureScape gardens. Most NatureScapes are maintained by the homeowners themselves. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Garden 2: A typical before/after, except that the lawns usually look much worse. The after is just 3 months old.

Garden 3: We also work with homeowners who have larger properties, generous budgets, and are as excited about utilizing natives as we are.  This couple are art-collectors and their garden features wonderful antiques we hand-selected from a local dealer who imports art and sculpture. Their property is over 2 acres and is located in San Juan Capistrano.  The house was designed by a local architect in the Mission revival style. The garden’s ornamental plant palette is native with food plants such as citrus, pear and apple.

Garden 4: The hand-painted exterior tile colors were chosen to complement the flowers and blue/green foliage of the native plant palette as well as the architecture. The plant palette has some plants that should be utilized more, as they are rare and very beautiful, like the Catalina Silverlace in the photo of the steps at right. This plant is in many NatureScape gardens, too. You’ll see it in the top NatureScape photo. 

Garden 5: We also work on ecologically focused homeowner education/demonstration gardens like this one in Laguna Beach, which features a butterfly garden, erosion control demonstration slope, water capture and storage, a swale, interpretive signage, and artwork.

Beauty and the Beast: A Fairytale Design

Dream clients, a thoughtful approach, and ethical practices are all ingredients necessary in the recipe for a meaningful project. The positive results are a product of problem-solving, critical thinking, and most importantly, a respect for the land.

Working with native plants can sometimes be hard, and working to restore and heal the earth through landscape design can be even harder. Taking the ecological approach before we embellish a garden may feel counterintuitive to some of us. However, this is where the future of landscape design is headed: a restorative, regenerative direction.   Designing with natives is one of the most important practices we can employ, yet it is still just one of the tools in our toolkit.

In 2017, our team was hired to design a native garden for a 1938 Colonial Revival home in Hollywood, CA. From the start, the process was an engaging, creative collaboration with the clients to create a beautiful, sustainable, native habitat. What ended up happening—through the evolution of the design process—was an opportunity to set protocols for all future projects: creatively reuse of most of the materials onsite, incorporate rain gardens and hugelkultur to harvest water, plant the garden with 90% plants indigenous to California, grow food for both human and non-human beings, and change the way many people experience native gardens. We nailed it. Not in a cocky way, but in a “we pulled it off”, very relieved way.

Through our research, we choreographed the spaces and circulation using elements and principles based on well-documented Colonial-Revival designs. These features include axial pathways with focal points, allees of trees, cruciform movement and yes, even parterres. To develop a native plant palette for such formal design, we studied plant communities, testing combinations and consulting with CA native pros like Carol Bornstein. Currently, we are in the process of learning what is working and where we need to make adjustments. Fortunately, most of it is working, beautifully.

Some of the most exciting features in the garden are our hugelkutur berms built from the sick, drought-stressed trees along with all of the demolished plants and green waste from the initial site clearing. Repurposing materials on the project started off to be a bit frustrating and then proved to be just another part of the design puzzle. When working with the existing hardscape materials, the solution was creative saw-cutting—a mosaic-like approach to fitting pieces together and doing our best to keep everything possible onsite—thus bringing carbon-consciousness to the next level for ourselves and our clients. 

With tremendous pride, we can announce we have been selected for the Theodore Payne Garden Tour in 2020 where we will be leading tours and discussions. Our hope is to share this work and inspire as many professionals and communities as possible.

Qualified Professional Members

A landscape designer who engages in the practice of landscape design for monetary compensation and contains more than 3 years of professional landscape design experience. Documentation of education and experience is required.

Carley Gethin
Wild Canyon Landscapes
Santa Monica, CA

Professional Members

A landscape designer who engages in the practice of landscape design for monetary compensation and contains more than 3 years of professional landscape design experience. Documentation of education and experience is required.

Don Schneider
Designs by Don
Santa Cruz, CA

James Fahy
Deep Rooted Designs Inc.
San Diego, CA

Emerging Professional Members

An individual who has been practicing landscape design for one to three years and is starting a career in landscape design. Membership requires affirmation of education and experience, but not documentation.

Molly Roy
Everyday Ecology
Sacramento, CA

Allied Members

An individual practicing in a related and/or associated field to landscape design.

Jack Berokoff 
Koi-ology Unlimited LLC
La Habra, CA

Katherine Spitz, AIA, ASLA, LEED AP Katherine Spitz Associates, Inc.
Pebble Beach, CA

Student Members

An individual who is actively enrolled, on a full or part‐time basis, in a landscape design, landscape architecture or horticulture program. Membership is limited to five years of membership at this level and proof of enrollment must be submitted.

Steven van Dongen, Santa Cruz, CA

Amy Rouillard, La Mesa, CA