Sage Outdoor Designs » landscape design

In San Diego we are currently right on the middle of our first Santa Ana for the year. My garden is looking a little dried out and weepy, but still full of blooms. One of the best blooms right now is from the Butterfly Bushes: Buddleja. Here are a few locally available varieties of Buddleja davidii: Buddleja ‘Pink Delight’, Buddleja ‘Royal Red’, Buddleja ‘Navajo Blue’, Buddleja ‘Black Knight’, and Buddleja ‘White Profusion’. The flowers have a honey sweet smell that butterflies (and people) love.

Buddlejas grow very quickly, so keep your eye on them and trim them back severly in the winter. I pinch mine to keep them in line through-out the year as well. Otherwise, they will be 12 feet tall and gangly, much too large for my small garden.

Want your own amazing San Diego landscape design? Please go to www.sageoutdoordesigns.com and fill in the contact us form. Sage Outdoor Designs is a San Diego landscape design firm. Our Principal, Kate Wiseman, has been a San Diego landscape designer for the past ten years- ask how she can help transform your garden into the one you always wanted.

You want to take out your lawn to save water, but when you sit back and look at your front yard, you can’t even begin to think of what could go in to replace it. Now what? You know you certainly don’t want gravel, like they did in the 70’s….

Here are a few ideas for how to think of a lawnless yard design:

A good place to start is with foundation plantings. They can be expanded in width and include ground covers, xeriscape plantings, perennial flower beds, and tiered shrub plantings. Layering gives a design a lot of depth, but it also has the side benefit of taking up a lot of space. Start with a shrub that is 3′ tall and wide. In front of that, place a smaller shrub, say 2′ tall and wide. In front of that try some perennials that are 1′ tall and 2′ wide. In front of that, a low groundcover could easily take up 2′. This simple planting scheme just took up almost 10′ of width!

Groundcovers:
It doesn’t tend to look very nice if you just switch lawn for groundcover, so these are a great option if you think of them as part of a graden design, not the whole design!

These are plants which spread across the ground but do not grow tall, so no cutting is required. Areas planted in groundcover need little to no maintenance.
– many varieties are available, including flowering groundcovers which offer color and add emphasis to the seasons.
– during the first year, new plantings of groundcover will require weeding and mulching, but once established, little care is needed.
– groundcovers usually need an edge barrier to contain them.
– not as durable as grass for high traffic areas.

Shrubs:
The most common method for reducing lawn size is to replace the turf with beds of perennial shrubs, often bordered with flowers.
– give seasonal color and texture to the landscape.
– have few serious insect or disease problems.
– tolerate difficult growing conditions better than most ornamentals.
– many grow rapidly and may require some yearly pruning. Pruning is done just after the shrub flowers, regardless of the time of year.

Patios and Pathways:
Patios and pathways are a wonderful way to use space in a garden. Just by adding a 4′ wide path to the scheme we discussed above and repeating the scheme on the far side will take up almost 25′ of width from your garden. This is as much space as many urban and suburban homes have between the street and the house!

Want your own amazing San Diego landscape design? Please go to www.sageoutdoordesigns.com and fill in the contact us form. Sage Outdoor Designs is a San Diego landscape design firm. Our Principal, Kate Wiseman, has been a San Diego landscape designer for the past ten years- ask how she can help transform your garden into the one you always wanted.

After our last few weeks of hot weather, many San Diego garden plants are wilted and not looking their best. The absolute exception to that is our Bougainvilleas. They thrive in the heat and are looking great! We have so many gorgeous bougainvilleas here that I thought I would show of few that are easy to get and do well. Shown above from left to right:

Bougainvillea California Gold, Bougainvillea Sundown, Bougainvillea San Diego Red
Bougainvillea Royal Purple, Bougainvillea Orange King, Bougainvillea Miami Pink
Bougainvillea La Jolla, Bougainvillea James Walker, Bougainvillea Afterglow
Bougainvillea Jamaica White, Bougainvillea Barbara Karst

Bougainvilleas have root systems that get damaged very easily when planted. To avoid this, follow the advice from Sunshine Gardens Nursery here. For best flowering, stress the bougainvillea a little by keeping the soil just on the dry side.

Want your own amazing San Diego landscape design? Please go to www.sageoutdoordesigns.com and fill in the contact us form. Sage Outdoor Designs is a San Diego landscape design firm. Our Principal, Kate Wiseman, has been a San Diego landscape designer for the past ten years- ask how she can help transform your garden into the one you always wanted.

San Diego landscape design is as varied as our communities. Here are a few examples of excellent design that are open to the public. Think about a visit to learn more about what plants you like or don’t like. Don’t see a name tag? Just send us a digital image of a plant and we will identify it for you.

For an amazing array of drought tolerant plants and wonderful waterwise landscape ideas, try the Cuyamaca College Water Conservation Garden.

Did you know that the San Diego Zoo is not just a zoo, it is also a registered botanical garden? In fact, they believe that their plant collections are worth four times as much as their animal collection. For tropical plants, these is certainly the place to go. Of course, don’t forget about the Wild Animal Park (yep, also a botanical garden). They have a wonderful cactus garden, native plant garden, protea garden, and much more.

If you are in North County, consider a visit to Quail Botanical Gardens. Because it was once an estate garden, it has wonderful landscaping ideas that could be applied to your garden. They also have an amazing orchard burgeoning with exotic fruit trees.

Want your own amazing San Diego landscape design? Please go to www.sageoutdoordesigns.com and fill in the contact us form. Sage Outdoor Designs is a San Diego landscape design firm. Our Principal, Kate Wiseman, has been a San Diego landscape designer for the past ten years- ask how she can help transform your garden into the one you always wanted.