My Personal Planting Guidelines

My Personal Planting Guidelines

• Avoid straight lines.  I used to watch Designer's Landscape and Gary Alan used to always talk about "designer curves."  I don't know about the rest of his ideas, but this one stuck with me.  I have a few curving rows of plants dividing my front yard, but the back has clumps of plants.
• Plant in odd-numbered groups.  I usually plant 3 plants together and then have them in 3 different parts of the yard.
• Low allergy producers.  I refer to Ogren's Allergy-Free Gardening.  He created a rating scale of 1-10 called an OPAL Score.  Plants with a 1 can go in my garden.  Plants with a 4 or 5 can go in if I really like them and if they are planted away from our windows.  Plants with an OPAL score more than 5 don't go in our yard.
•  Make it low maintenance.
• Plant plants with similar needs together.  This is just common sense.  If I need to give extra water or an acidic soil to one plant, I should other plants with those same needs nearby.
• Buy from a local nursery.  They will carry plants that grow well in our area.  If you buy from a  mail order catalog or online, be very careful about the climate zone.  
• Climate Zones can be tricky!  The Sunset book shows Camarillo covering zones 20, 21, and 23.
• There are micro zones even within tiny Camarillo! 
• If it spreads too fast or takes a lot of care, it's a weed in my garden.  I don't like weeds!
• Morning Glories and asparagus ferns will not be tolerated!
• The hibiscus that was so prone to white fly is outa there!
• The calla lily that replants itself all over is on my hit list.
• The lambs ears has spread all over, but I tolerate it for now because I love the soft furry blue green leaves and it is easy to pull out.  Besides, it's filling areas that are otherwise empty.  If something better comes along, the lambs ears are going. The same is true for the round-leaf plant that started as a pond plant.  
•  Perennials get precedence in my yard.  
• I don't have to keep planting year after year.  I have a very small area in front that I have planted with bright annual flowers.  Slowly I am filling in even that area with perennials.
•  Be sure to give plants room to grow.  
• Select plants that grow to the size you want.
• If a plant grows to 4 feet, give it 4-5 feet of room. 
• Don't plant tall bushes and have to keep cutting them shorter.
• Buy small plants and be patient as they grow.  
• If it doesn't grow, you haven't lost much.
• The smaller plants can adapt to the conditions.
• Our yard looked fairly sparse for the first year or two since I was starting fresh.  Mulch helps make it look better until things grow in.
• If it's poisonous, it goes in the front where the dogs won't be tempted to nibble on it.
• If I want to eat it, it goes on the side yard.
• I keep trying a vegetable garden.  It seems the insects, squirrel, and birds get the produce before I do.  Plus, the produce that's in season in my yard is also in season in the grocery stores and local farm markets.  
• I have a few fruit trees and I keep trying herbs, tomatoes, and lettuce.  I have some luck with chives that I can snip for my dinner.
•  The side yard gets sun, but it's also gated so the dogs are kept out of the produce.
• Especially the plum tree that was in the back.  The dogs would eat the plums off the tree, then regurgitate the pits with the plum juice onto the carpet.  Now the plum tree is out of their reach and most of the carpet is out of the house.
• Select plants with variety in mind
• Heights
• Tall plants, generally in the back even there, some taller and shorter.
• Ground cover near the walkways.
• Leaf Shape
• Long bladed plants like Flax, Moraea, Agapanthus, and Iris
• Large leafed plants like Canna, Hydrangea, and Bird of Paradise
• Small leaves like Thyme, Baby's Breath, and Nandina
• Ferns
• Color
•  Leaves can be very colorful!
• Pittosporum has an OPAL score of 5, but I have a fair number of them in my yard because they come in dark green, yellow green, white tipped, and minty green.
• Lamb's Ears are a weed in my garden, but I tolerate it because of the blue green fuzzy leaves.
• Canna comes in a variety with red and green striped leaves.
• Nandina Nana has red tinged leaves that can be stuck in a vase with 3 little flowers to make a quick and easy floral arrangement even in winter here.
• Geraniums (actually Pelargonium) grows outside here and comes in all kinds of leaf colors!
• Shrimp plant has reddish brown bracts.
• Texture 
• I have shiny green citrus leaves, fuzzy lambs ears (see why I tolerate its invasive ways?), spiny bromeliads, and fluffy Breath of Heaven.
• Scent
• The Breath of Heaven is next to the path.
• Roses, selected for their fragrance, are under our bedroom window and by the path.
• Pittosporum is also known as Mock Orange and we also have an orange tree and a lime tree for the real citrus scents.
• Plants that attract birds, insects, and wild life.
• The shrimp plant, Bird of Paradise, and Hibiscus attract hummingbirds.  
• I like plants that attract butterflies, but unfortunately most of the flowers that attract butterflies produce a lot of allergens for me.
• The bee population is shrinking.  Welcome bees into your yard.  (But I personally do not welcome yellow jackets or wasps!) 
• Bats eat tons of mosquitoes and can be welcomed with a bat house.
• If you want birds, butterflies, bees, and bats, you also have to avoid insecticides and other poisons.
• You can use natural predators like carnivorous snails, praying mantis, and ladybugs .
• You can make a home-made trap for yellow jackets and wasps.
• Organic gardeners have many tricks to avoid pests without poisons.
• Seasonal Interest
• Most of my plants are selected for the year-round leaf color, but there is always something of interest all year.
• I selected plants that flower all different times.
• The roses bloom from March and into January.
• Berries, interesting branches, and pods or cones can provide interest in the winter even in snow country.
• I made a spread sheet on Excel that can be sorted by botanical or common name, form (shrub, tree, ground-cover, etc.), OPAL score, sun, water, height,seasonal interest, color, and other features.  I'm happy to share it.  I made it for myself, so I don't claim it's complete or accurate, but I do find it extremely helpful when selecting plants.

 

Choose a Style

Choose a Style

Gardens can have many forms and styles.  If you are planning your garden, tour the gardens in your area.  There was an article in today's (April 20, 2012) Ventura County Star listing local gardens.  There are some great ones around here!  Look around to see what style appeals to you.  There are formal gardens, water gardens, rock gardens, flower gardens, vegetable gardens...  the list is endless!  I have no idea how to classify our garden style.  It is far from formal, but not wild.  I don't have a color theme.  But I do have planting guidelines that help me create our home environment.

If You Fail to Plan You Plan to Fail

3 Planting

Planting is the fun part, but if you don't do it with some planning, you will be in for lots of work in the future. It is my belief that if you want a plant to be 4 feet tall, plant a bush that grows to 4 feet.  Most people go to the store and look for plants that look pretty, forgetting that most grow.... a lot.  They don't give them the sun or water they need.  Then they spend a lot of time cutting them smaller and buying chemicals to save them.  Who needs it?  There is a house in our neighborhood that has a garden like this.  It looked nice for about a month after it was planted.  But I knew as soon as I saw it that it was not going to look nice for long.  They had planted vines and spreading plants very close together.  They planted tall shrubs surrounding tiny plants.  It always looks like a jungle now.  A little planning will save you time and money.

Preparing the Soil

2 Soil Amendments

We put down weed killer over the lawn, watered, killed, watered, killed, and then rototilled the whole thing. We had unwanted trees removed.  We had truckloads of soil amendment and topsoil delivered.  We rototilled again.  Then had a truckload of mulch brought in.  Mulch is so much easier than soil to spread and it makes everything look great!  We should put down new mulch every year, but it seems it only happens every 2-3 years.  And every time we spread new mulch, the yard looks ready for a magazine cover!  (Note to self:  Call Peach Hill Soils for more mulch!)

 

First Things First: Hard Scape

First Things First

1 Hard Scape

 We put in sidewalks.  We tried to avoid straight lines.  We have a path to go all around the yard.  We put in the pond, the very best thing in our garden.  And we put in a sprinkler system.  All of these were good decisions and I am so glad we started there.

We had Rick Martinez, of Martinez Bobcat Service remove the white rocks from the side yard.  When he was done, he offered to move the huge rocks that had just been delivered.  Then he removed some buried cement by our driveway, dug up tree roots, delivered some other big rocks, and tilled in the soil amendments.  I fantasized about owning a Bobcat.  He had attachments for scooping, jack-hammering, trenching, and all kinds of things.  Rick ended up doing a lot of work for us.  The man is an artist with a Bobcat!   It was my pleasure to watch him work while thinking about how much work he was saving my back.  I actually enjoyed writing him checks! 

My son, Jon, and husband, Allen, put in a big pond and waterfall.  This pond was about 8' x 12' and lined with cement. Jon did much of the planning and prep work.  Allen helped him mix and pour cement while I made runs to Home Depot for more supplies. While we ended up replacing the pond with a rubber-lined one, this cement pond gave us much pleasure for a number of years.  We bought "feeder goldfish" for a dollar or two.  Since then, we've added a few Shubunkin but no pricey Koi for our pond!  We spent a lot of money trying to find a good filtration system.  They all needed a lot of dirty work to clean them out and none of them ever really did a great job.  We eventually paid Paradise Now Ponds to install a natural looking pond with a low-maintenance filter and steep sides to keep the egrets and herons from dining at our pond.  I absolutely love the pond!

We hired a friend from church to install the sprinkler system.  No more standing in the yard with a garden hose!  If you don't have a sprinkler system, you might want to consider planting drought-tolerant plants.  We have one area on the other side of our driveway that is not irrigated.  The statice, sage, and aloe do just fine with neglect.  Everything else gets the water it needs without any consideration other than shutting off the system when rain is on the forecast.

Welcome to my garden

When people see my garden for the first time, they are often surprised.  Our backyard has been described as peaceful, park-like, zen...   I suppose a 360 photo with sound and scents would be fantastic.  These photos don't really do it justice. 

 Several people have asked me to share my thoughts on how I've achieved our backyard oasis.  I thought it would be fun to start a blog.  I started with my process of re-doing our yard.  I hope to continue this blog with specifics on plants, favorite garden tools, seasonal garden tasks, and other thoughts that come to mind.

 Disclaimer:  I am not a botanist.  I am not a master gardener.  I am not even a member of the local garden club,  though maybe I'll join the local group some day.  I have no business starting a garden blog.  If you want an expert, consider following some of my links. :)

When we first moved here, it was far from park-like.  There is/was a large patio with an open corner.  Under the corner was an open area with black plastic, covered with white rock, and weeds.  There were some straggly redwood trees.  Every time I tried to plant, the gophers and ants would eat everything.  The grass was green, but required a lot of work to water, weed, and mow.  Since we both have a lot of allergies, including to the grass, it seemed crazy to work so hard to tend to the plants that made us sick.  There was not much to draw anyone outside.


So the summer of 2001 I decided to start over.  I gutted the entire yard, front and back.  I kept a very small number of plants.  I did a lot of studying and planning.  I measured and diagrammed our yard.  I used the Western Garden Book from Sunset and Allergy-Free Gardening by Thomas Leo Ogren to create a spread sheet of plants.  I consulted with Kate Hartley from Sun and Shade Nursery.  (Her advice was definitely worth the money!)  Allen and I frequented garden stores and shows.  (My favorite stores are Green Meadow which is up the road and has great plants and Green Thumb which is in Ventura and has a great variety and some hard-to-find items.)   I asked folks at the spring home show.  (The Agromin folks said 1 Hard scape, 2 soil amendments, and 3 planting.)

So my garden renovation began.