Downton Abbey Meets Madmen in a Santa Barbara Garden, Pt. I

I ’m not a marriage and family counselor . I do n’t even play one on TV . I ’m a landscape architect , but sometimes I ’m put in the “ Women Are From Venus and Men Are From Mars ” power play . Perhaps you ’re make do with a like place in your own yard .

The first sentence I encountered this collision of visions was when “ she ” showed me a picture of a quaint southern - style garden , complete with white-hot scout fencing , pink rose and masses of lavender . Him ? He took neat pride in his potted succulent assembling and wanted to gaze upon it during his out-of-door speculation sessions . We worked it out , as you could see from this bubble diagram .

Well , it ’s happened again , this time for a tenacious - terminal figure client who latterly downsized from a five - Akka estate to a more manageable , but still grand property . We ’ll call them Jessie and Tim . When we worked together on the first project , there was an ongoing , though loving , tug of state of war between Jessie ’s “ just give me quite a little of pretty flowers ” English garden esthetical and Tim ’s desire to go aboriginal . We made it work .

Recently , they move to a two - story Arts and Crafts - era family , constructed in 1900 . It sits sideways on a bass lot , so the “ front door ” confront the side belongings line instead of the street . Behind the theater is the active family area with a swim pool , din terrace and lawn , all visually disconnected from the front . Lucky for me .

yield the geezerhood of the house , there ’s lots of subsist vegetation we had to live with . The out - of - graphic symbol bamboo successfully screen the neighbour ’s 2nd story windows , but would n’t be my first selection behind an English - style garden .

Building On What You ’ve Got

But the sleep of the west garden lent itself nicely to Jessie ’s perceptiveness . We kept the purple leaf plum , espaliered ornamental pear tree , a towering Canary Island pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , some abstruse burgundy - foliage Loropetalum , a pair of star jasmine vines climb the porch posts and a few other “ elan - neutral ” shrubs .

But what to add ? The challenge for pull off a convincing traditional plant palette in surfer country is find plants that fit the fashion but also pass my test of being sustainable in a Mediterranean climate .

To congratulate this canvas I bring in a pair of Canadian redbud , a few ornamental grasses ( Pennisetum ‘ Fairy Tails ’ and flushed fountain grass ) , Fairy rose , Waverly sage , and Nipponese barberry , along with splatter of Nepeta cataria and crane’s bill to cover the ground .

Downton Abbey for Her …

The key to put a smile on Jessie ’s face center on the simple concrete natural spring that aligned with the axis of the front doorway and porch . This would be the first thing Jessie attend each morning time , so it had to slay all the right clitoris .

The gold bamboo was moderate with some heavy - handed rootstalk removal and as insurance policy , a dense hedge of Pittosporum ‘ Silver Sheen ’ move in front of the bamboo . Now we had a more stylistically appropriate backdrop for the focal full stop . In front of this crab up screen – for extra “ muscle ” – I used grouping of Waverly sage with its delicate wand - like bloom , Goodwin Creek lavender and fairy roses to unite the quad with the front doorway planting .

After centre the existing outflow on the axis and constructing an unostentatious keyhole - shaped path of shale and used brick , it was prison term to take out the box of crayon and make a piffling designed chaos . Without a quite a little of space to work in , the pallet leaned intemperately on upright growers like beardtongue ( Penstemon ‘ Hidcote Pink ’ ) , Moonshine yarrow ( Achillea ‘ Moonshine ’ ) , blue Festuca elatior ( Festuca ‘ Elijah Blue ’ ) and day lily .

Up next … a garden fit for Don Draper at the Beverly Hilton Hotel . Circle back in a few weeks and see how the consortium sphere twist into a tropical heaven convulsion for any mid - century - innovative yard . learn it now .

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