I’m cleaning out my study – it’s a month-long project, and I came across this drawing I did of a landcape plan for my parents’ yard. This is a detail of a front view of the left-side corner. At the time I did the plan, it was dirt. Now:

My mom had hired two contractors to give her landscape plans- and neither were quite what she wanted. The first contractor was very formal, his perception of my parents and the house, I guess, which does stand on a street with some large buildings, schools, etc. that are similar. He wanted huge beds of jasmine and tall juniper trees- the ones that grow very tall and are skinny. My mom didn’t see the house that way, though, and she (and I) don’t like juniper, and jasmine was at our old house- and we constantly worried about vermin in it, as it’s a low-cover with an open lower clear access near the ground. Anyways, he was also very expensive. The second contractor proposed an all-salvia (sage) landscape which was beautiful, but a little too mono-plant, and also insanely expensive.

This landscape combines some of my parents’ favorite plants- which I knew about, being their daughter- and some plants that I thought emphasized the interesting architecture of their house. Now, having seen it in its full flower, I am so incredibly proud. My parents have done a lot to change it for the better- the tea tree addition, and they go to Sierra Azul, a great nursery specializing in drought resistant, native plants. Ironically, recently we started a drip system and my dad has really improved it.

My dad is very into roses so on our “desert” side of the house- the one facing North for some odd reason, we have about 5 roses. He also tends the rose garden a few blocks away. He’s the butt in all of these pictures, thankfully not in my jokes, haha.

My mom likes sage a lot- we have a few very pretty and good-smelling sages. Bougainvillea is gorgeous on this house, on the corner, and was part of the original plan.

The window boxes with draping geranium and annuals really draws to attention the beautiful leaded windows, I think.

Some plants just do well here in PG: alyssum, fleabane, and rosemary. The rosemary also prevents skateboarders from marking the walls, as its hardy enough to withstand them.

I could go on for ages about it. These were taken in late summer.