Enjoy my collection of landscape photos and interesting and outstanding plants
Included in the gallery are finished landscapes from my designs and plants that proved to be indispensable for designing hardy and beautiful gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of the plants and ideas can be used over a broad region. There are lots of plants and materials available- more every day! These are just good examples to help you narrow the field of choices a bit.
The first set of photos with text are used to illustrate considerations when choosing plants i.e. amount of light, hardiness, color, interaction with wildlife, water needs, texture and adaptability.
Asparagus Fern
Sure its a pretty common plant and has a weedy cousin but it shouldn’t be automatically overlooked when designing a garden. Its is a shade tolerant, very adaptable and low water fern. It has a light green, soft looking foliage which contrasts well with other plants. Be careful though as it has some tiny thorns on the inside of the plant.
Now, when I say shade tolerant in my descriptions that means areas that receive light through leaves or light reflected from walls or paving part of the day. Plants can’t grow in dark areas where no light reaches the ground. They also can’t grow where roots of trees are so thick that no soil or water is available to them.
Japanese Maples
Here I am using Japanese Maples as an example of leaf color- both in the fall and as the leaves emerge in the spring. In my Gallery photos you will see lots of example of plants with variegation, red leaf color or other leaf colors, and lots of plants with varied leaf sizes and shapes. These are some of the plants attributes that make them interesting to use when designing a garden.
Salvias or Sages
The huge selection of Salvia species and hybrids has been an essential element in sunny gardens
An excellent group of perennials from the culinary type to the drought tolerant species native to California and Mexico. Salvia is an example of a reliable landscape plant because of the many attributes of the species that make it easy to care for, beautiful, evergreen and highly adaptable. Having said that some species of Salvia prefer dry slopes while others enjoy regular water, so its important to look up the plants needs before locating in the garden. I love it for the flower and also because the hummingbirds, bees and butterflies love it for the flowers!
Salvia, with its herb smell isn’t normally bothered by Deer. Gophers eat pretty much anything with a few minor exceptions. Most Salvia benefit from a twice year pruning to keep them from getting leggy or woody looking.
Other examples of some of the excellent plants for landscaping:
Photos showing finished landscapes with a variety of paving types, plantings and features:
