BEFORE: A typical boring patch of lawn and some overgrown junipers that blocked the walkway and made the house gloomy inside.AFTER: With the old stuff gone, we lowered the grades to soak up water and planted a variety of sustainable, climate-compatible plantings.Aeoniums, walking iris, wall germander, Mexican tulip poppy, fescue, bush germander, and barberry make up the new planting.A smoke tree (Cotinus) will grow into an anchor plant, providing visual interest, shade, and some privacy.You can’t see it, but the grade has been lowered in these beds to soak up roof runoff. This reduces the need for watering and keeps rainwater from causing flooding problems.Check out this crazy Aeonium ‘Cyclops’ by the front door.Mexican tulip poppy is a nice contrast of form and color when placed next to New Zealand flax.New Zealand flax and Aeonium go well together. Here’s the typical concrete driveway. Wait until you see what we did with it.Except for the original ribbon paving, the old driveway was removed. We planted it with yarrow. How do you drive on it? Read on.This engineered grid of recycled plastic supports the weight of vehicles while providing a place for plants to grow.Here’s the plastic grid material.Looks better, don’t you think?The driveway is now a drought tolerant living surface. The yarrow flowers in spring, attracting beneficial insects.BEFORE: Here’s a sad scene. Watch the transformation…Yes, that’s a purple wall. Why not? Princess flower, ginger, and lamb’s ears surround a yarrow turf.Creating beautiful scenes is a matter of careful composition, balancing forms, masses, and colors.Here’s that princess flower in bloom. Isn’t she lovely? BEFORE: Here’s the rest of the backyard. Not much to write home about. Time for a change.Ditto here, except for this cool gate that we found rusting away in the side yard.We mounted the gate to create shadows on the wall, and of course filled the space with flowers.Mexican weeping bamboo frames the scene. Yarrow sweeps into the space from the adjacent driveway.Native sedge, yarrow, walking iris, Mexican bush sage, roses, and oh that gate!A lovely Alstroemeria in an unusual color.Yarrow forms the base for the garden. It uses half the water of a conventional lawn and needs very little fertilizing or mowing.Here’s another color form of the Alstroemeria. These are so easy to grow and so lovely.The stepping stones are made from the old concrete driveway, hand cut into interesting shapes.Our gardens are tested on animals, and they approve!
