Monday, February 25, 2008

Urban Front Yard Gardens

I've been amiss in blogging about garden design. I think its partly because I don't have lots of lovely photos to share or because I'm not working on any projects. But I've been trying to take some photos with my phone when I'm out and about and see something I like. Unfortunately the phone doesn't take the best photos, and I forget to clean the lens so there tends to be big blurry patches.



Here's a nice burgundy and green garden in the small strips next to someone's driveway. I love the small stucco wall to divide the space from their neighbors and focus attention on the plants. I don't care so much for the stamped concrete driveway, but do like the color of it.



I also like the cordyline in the planters on either side of the steps. Nice and formal but Mediterranean (or Victorian) at the same time. I think formality is very appropriate in tiny public urban spaces.



Here's a cottage planting bed, but they used a picket fence to make a formal edge. I think its quiet lovely and love how the looser plants spill out from the very open pickets. Its a nice mixture of informal constrained which I think works really well for tiny urban front yards.



I have a large incense cedar in my back yard that produces leaf litter nearly year round as well as copious amounts of shade particulary in its nether regions and I'm trying to figure out what to do next to its roots. I came apon this incense cedar at the SF Botanical Garden and really like the mondo grass the used as an underplanting. It's not totally filled in but the more woodsy feel seems to work. So I'm gonna think about that when/if I ever get around to doing anything under my cedar. I love the California Rush in the background of the bottom photo.




This last one is a of a very nice detail on a planter box. So pretty. I'm also feeling the boxwood love right now. I like the broadleaf evergreen look. I especially dig reinventing the formal feel in a California or modern or other untraditional garden.




No comments: