Sage Outdoor Designs » landscape design

This photo was my inspiration for the day, so I thought I’d share it with you all to see what you think of it. This is a garden I came across on my rambles around the web, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t know who the designer is (but if you do, please tell me so I can credit them). I love the plant palette for this garden- the cool blues and greys with a few pops of burgundy really grab me.

In case they grab you too, these are the plants I can identify in the photo (starting at the front left and working to the back right): Phormium tenax (maybe Amazing Red?), Carex testacea, Senecio mandralascae, Anigozanthos flavidus, Agonis Afterdark, Bougainvillea ‘California Gold’, Olea europea.

Other things I love about this garden: the decomposed granite pathway, the way the soil is mounded against the seat wall…. oh, and did I say the colors? I adore the colors?

Obviously, this garden isn’t for everyone. I can imagine some crazy people might think it looks too wild or unkempt. What do you think?

© Kate Wiseman 2012. In San Diego? Want your own waterwise landscape design? I’d love to help! Please visit www.sageoutdoordesigns.com for more info.

I don’t know how many of you know this, but I am an urban dweller….. I live in a condo.

But, gasp, how can a landscape designer live in a condo? What about your garden? To that, I say I am a firm believer in small space gardening. If you have any outdoor space at all, you can be creative with it.

So here are a few ideas for gardening in a spot that you never thought a garden could go. The top photo, care of pinterest (but uncredited on there, sorry) is a great way to use a sunny but narrow spot. This clever gardener used metal gutters (yup, like the ones on the edge of your roof) to find room for an awesome little veggie garden. I love this idea since gutters are prefabricated, hence less expensive, clean looking, made to last, and very narrow. What a great way to make a vertical garden without shelling out quite so much cash! Just don’t forget to punch drainage holes!

This next one is another take on the vertical garden. These are planting tubes. You can get them locally through Vertical Garden Solutions, along with a lot of other fun vertical garden supplies. The tubes are made of felt and are stuffed with potting soil. You cut tiny slits in the felt and place your seedlings. As they grow in, they’ll hide the felt and you have a column of succulents, or strawberries, or whatever else you can think of.

As an urban gardener, I’ll admit I tend to stick to succulents and edibles. The edibles because I can’t imagine not having access to fresh herbs (anyone want my recipe for perfect salmon on the grill with fresh herbs?), and the succulents because they are the key for the busy gardener. They take so little effort, tolerate being mostly ignored, and can look wonderfully “designer”.

© Kate Wiseman 2012. In San Diego? Want your own waterwise landscape design? I’d love to help! Please visit www.sageoutdoordesigns.com for more info.

I came across this image of a outdoor fireplace by Scot Eckley serving double duty as a privacy wall. For a small urban or suburban garden, this is just such a fantastic use of space!

You’ll need a ventless or back-venting firebox to do this (these guys make some, and so do these guys). The payoff? You get a wonderful outdoor living space that feels like a courtyard, and you get to borrow your neighbor’s tall shrubs or trees to soften the background. And, in this case, you get to grow gorgeous boston ivy on the wall so it looks soft, and kind of secretive (okay, maybe I read the Secret Garden a few too many times as a child, but who doesn’t love a wall covered in vines?) and for a garden that is really mostly hardscape, it looks like a green refuge. So even though the plants used here are vibrantly green, this is a waterwise garden because their are so few of them.

After I ogled this image for a while (did I mention how much I adore the bluestone pavers?), I decided I needed to learn more about Scot’s work, and came across this small fountain with a stainless steel scupper and organic stone bowl. And yep, that really is fake grass. The ground cover needed to be something permeable since the bowl spills over into a basin that is hidden under the “grass”. You could use gravel if you are ethically against fake grass.

And then I found this lovely alfresco dining room. I’m always an advocate for gravel as a really good patio option. Yes, it is spikey and you won’t want to walk on it in your bare feet, but it is also so classic (think villa in Italy), inexpensive, permeable (and permeable is so Green)….

The key with a gravel patio is to use gravel that is fairly uniform in color (otherwise it looks speckled like confetti). I like cream colored gravel the best, but anything neutral is nice. I like the way the chairs at the head and foot of the table aren’t the same as the rest of the chairs. I think these ones are from Crate and Barrel, but Cost Plus has a decent knock-off right now.

© Kate Wiseman 2012. In San Diego? Want your own waterwise landscape design? I’d love to help! Please visit www.sageoutdoordesigns.com for more info.

You all know about my current obsession with teal. (Yes, I know it is a problem. Let me know if it has grown into something I need to seek professional help for…..)

In the mean time, this pool made me positively gleeful. Clearly, it was the teal that caught me but I have to also give it more credit than that. It has nice lines, wonderful plantings, a gorgeous deck. I love the grand stairs inside the pool. I like the glass tile mosaic on the water feature wall. I like the sheet flow scupper fountain. I even like the pool interior finish. And the furniture. Oh, and the limestone pool coping. Yep, I could live in this space quite happily.

It is by Bonick Landscaping out of Dallas, Texas.

© Kate Wiseman 2012. In San Diego? Want your own waterwise landscape design? I’d love to help! Please visit www.sageoutdoordesigns.com for more info.

Summer is coming and this year there is an exuberance in the air. Maybe the economy is finally easing up a bit and we’re all feeling a little bubbly about that, or maybe this summer is going to be a hot one and somehow we all sense it. Whatever the reason, there is a definite craving going around…. for color. Lots of it. Bold, bright, in-your-face color. We’re talking only slightly more restrained than the late 80’s neons. These colors are glaring orangey-reds, rich purples, lime greens, and flaming oranges. You’ll see these bright colors everywhere (especially in clothing stores right now).

These colors are begging to come outdoors and cheer up your summertime get-togethers. Here are a few garden finds to brighten up your outdoor living space:

1) Crate and Barrel ‘Alfresco’ line

2) Crate and Barrel ‘Arbor’ lounge set

3) Baur 22″ Oil Jar planter (also available through Potted)

4) Circle Pot by Potted

5) Vitex trifolia purpurea: it’s richly purple leaves make this plant a garden show-stopper. Make sure to put it somewhere where it will have room to grow into it’s full glory. It can be a small tree about 6′ tall.

6) Helichrysum ‘Limelight’: this easy to grow rambling groundcover has soft fuzzy leaves that are a cheerful lime green. It is perfect for your waterwise garden, just make sure to cut it back severely in winter or it can start to look a bit shabby.

Need more evidence? Check out the newly redesigned hotel by the company that brought us the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs: the Saguaro Palm Springs. Let’s just say they didn’t pull their punches….

© Kate Wiseman 2012. In San Diego? Want your own waterwise landscape design? I’d love to help! Please visit www.sageoutdoordesigns.com for more info.