The City of San Jose created a design contest to solicit sustainable garden designs to promote to San Jose homeowners.  The objective is to reduce lawns, reduce water use, and implement positive integrated pest management techniques.  The call for drought resistant plants is not a new motto, however eco-friendly pest management is still new to most folks. 

Both garden plots showing planting plan.

Myself and Diane Goldsmith were the co-winners of this garden design contest in April 2011.  Since then the city hired Landscape Architect Sherri Osaka of Sustainable Landscape Designs to oversee this project and with the input of many different relative agencies, two sustainable garden designs were born.  The original gardens were modified to accomodate many concerns from the water company and naturalists.  Native plants are used through out with alternative lists available.  The pavement is all permeable from permeable concrete and pavers to flagstone and recycled concrete allowing the ground water to be recharged.  Plants were selected for drought tolerance, resistant to pest and disease, color and texture, to attract beneficial insects and polinators, and auroma.

Plant list for Cafe Garden

The original schedule for installation was December 2011, but as many different inputs delayed that action, installation is yet to occur.  The plots are at the Guadalupe Gardens near Coleman in San Jose.  As installation begins I'll update this entry.

As of February 2012, the ground is broken for demolition by Bayscape.  Here is an aerial photo of the plot I worked on and a 'before' image taken on a very rainy day.   Following are some updates.Aerial view of the Garden Plot at Guadalupe Gardens from Google.comView of the Garden Plot standing on the Hill

 Cafe Garden final design in collaboration with Sherri Osaka

An arbor with gate gives this patio a room like feel. Added home made benches make this a nice cool summer destination.

Chimes on a gentle breeze mask freeway noiseA secret path of leftover pavers leads to a secluded hammock in the shade.  Heuchera "Purple Palace' and Variegated Society Garlic add color and texture.The Chinese Frizzle Flower and magenta Azalea are in Spring bloom and add interest to the character of the still dormant Japanese Maple making up one side of this outdoor space.The patio feels secluded although other areas are viewable and accessable such as the family lawn.

This project is joined with another phase on the otherside of this arbor portal.

A Blank Space can be a Sancutuary

This "Do It Yourself" patio is on a low budget.This transitional patio between the yard and the house is walled off by a vegetable bed and potted plants to the lawn area.

These 16" pavers were grey concrete and three applications of mahogany concrete stain gave them a deep red color.  Surrounded by "mountain granite" pea gravel gives a casual look to the space.  For concern with pets, make sure the pavers are close enough for your pet to move across without stepping in pea gravel.  Dogs especially do not like pea gravel since it gets stuck between their toes.

Another option would be to lay 1/4" micro soaker tubing along the rows and plant a ground cover between the pavers such as Dymondia,  Sedum or Thyme.  Thyme will attract many bees when in bloom if that is a concern.

Concrete pavers stained Mahogany and surrounded with pea gravel.Another option to a water feature which can be costly and full of maintenance is a faux or small water feature.

Using green Society Garlic to imitate reeds and a Strawberry Jar planted with Sedum and hardy succulents and then topped with a small pottery and small pump fountain.  Rocks are placed over and around the fountain and even birds find it refreshing.  River rock in between the plants along with some rounded gravel helps further imply the water habitat without using much water at all.  Another option would to plant Variegated Society Garlic or Blue Fescue in place of the fountain to mimic water.

 Rear Hillside Garden

This hillside backyard needed some terracing to create function in a tight yard.  The tired concrete slab on the lowest level needed a facelift and expansion with flagstone.  The deck was too small and needed to be enlarged with added built in seating.

Before the new design. The lawn slopes downhill.

After the install, this hillside now has many useful areas.  Once the plants grow in, there will also be year round color.

 Before the update.

Tired Japanese Garden gets Revived

Before dirt and weeds dominated the spaceNewly planted Azaleas begin to blossom in spring

A section of this existing Japanese garden had become rather bare and needed an infusion of new plants.  Although many traditional Japanese gardens are often various values of green, these clients enjoy color.  Although during this consultation we discussed many different problem areas around the landscape, this small patio area was our primary focus.

 A landscape design was created for this area outside the slider showing the selected materials at full mature size.

The client especially liked two existing azaleas elsewhere in the adjoining space, so we decided to continue with those same cultivars to maintain cohesiveness. 

A variegated Lily Turf was also recommended to add color during non-bloom time and to add a different texture opposed to the evergreen azaleas.   It is also found in other areas near a Redwood tree and will help unify the entire backyard which is not all Japanese garden themed.  Additionally, the soil is mostly exposed and adding Irish or Scotch moss would imitate the use of moss in traditional Kyoto Japanese gardens.

Once grown in, the space will echo the Asian influences it was based on a few decades ago

Edibles as Landscape   

Just planted, this residential design, partnered with Tina Jauregui, was primarily about edible landscaping design.  Instead of a dividing hedge between neighbors there are dwarf mandarins.  Two persimmon trees were designed symmetrically in front of the house while the aged lawn was replaced with thyme as a ground cover to also be utilized for culinary uses.  The front planters were replaced adding a variety of blueberry shrubs.   Off the corner of the front porch is a Fruit Salad tree that has different stone fruits grafted onto one tree. Planter of Blueberry shrubs

The rear yard landscaping design utilized four already purchased fruit trees into an existing landscape with three mature avocados and a lemon with the addition of a pear tree and a Passion Fruit vine.  A future landscape design for the existing deck was proposed for ease of transition to the yard, to accommodate entertaining, and provide various raised beds for herbs, vegetables, and strawberries.   With some design creativity and future managed pruning they will be able to have bountiful fruits, vegetables and herbs at their disposal. (Photos to come)

    With some touch-up painting to the surrounding fence, keeping the existing perimeter plants, and sheet mulching the lawn to accommodate raised beds; all would keep costs down to transform this unused space for an edible landscape.

Unused fenced in lawn area of the front yard

A photo of the space currently standing on the driveway and a Photoshop rendering of what it could look like to transform this unused space of lawn into an edible lanscape of vegatables and herbs.

 A Photoshop image of what the front yard could look like 

The focus of this landscape design was to create an outdoor dining space.  The existing stucco wall gives privacy from the street and the architecture of the 'L' shaped area of the house encloses the space like a courtyard.  Taking from the brick on the facade and edging along the front walk and some of the existing plants a Spanish/Mediterranean theme was designed.  Existing brick planting beds were kept to minimize costs. The existing plants of Oleander and a mature lemon tree were utilized into the theme. Adding tan or light terra-cotta color for the wall creates drama and The space before installationvibrancy to the small space. A small water fountain camouflages the irrigation valves and adds the melody of water.  Creating a  flagstone patio into existing unused lawn with Mediterranean and drought resistant plants and herbs and the use of a BBQ and furniture turns an unused space into a functional entertaining outdoor room.  The existing tired wooden entry gate will be changed out with a wrought iron gate and will create a welcoming and obvious entrance to the house and courtyard.  The ease of being right off the kitchen and a welcoming space for visitors was a plus in creating an entry courtyard in this landscape design.

 A photoshop sketch of possibility

Awards of Gold Medal Garden Creator and the California Landscape Contractors Association CLCA award culminated in a long adventure of creating a display garden for the 2011 SF Flower and Garden Show in San Mateo, CA.  Kim Leichner was one of a team of four landscape designers including Tina Jauregui, Leslie Peluso and Corey Chetcuti.  They set out to gain exposure for the Landscape Architecture program at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA.  Beginning in Oct 2010 and ending with the build and the show in March 2011, it was an experience that exceeded their expectations. 

Ceanothus and dudleya partitions

 Drought tolerant California natives of Ceanothus, Arctostaphylos, and Huechera are just a few of the plant materials along with a couple non natives of Phormium and Arbutus 'Marina'.  A bioswale designed to remove silt and pollutants from storm water run off, consisted of native grasses by Delta Bluegrass and flowed horizontally across the space under the deck.  A small platform bridge makes it simple to cross the bioswale from the shower area and the back of the deck.  The bioswale works as a small valley to move storm water run off in a controlled manner while cleaning the water by filtration with the plant material.  The metal roof, courtesy of Wildcat Metals, is designed to maximize yield for rainwater catchment to make this water wise garden completely self sustaining.  A covered deck serves many functions including sleeping outside and an outdoor shower partially screened by vertical living partitions of native succulent Dudleya from Succulent Gardens offers cooling.  
Steel raised bed and bioswale

The raised planting bed hugging the deck is made from recycled steel concrete flooring forms from SIMS Metal Management of San Jose. The natural rust patina adds to the ambience. Most of the wood is reclaimed lumber from a number of sources including the demo of my own deck and Borg Fencing in Pleasanton.  After some TLC all the redwood looked as good as new.  The rear wall and side staggered wall are faced with house siding.  Using the reverse side, the damaged siding had a new life in our project.  Since our display garden was next to the public restrooms, we designed windows into the wall for participants to see in the garden and  folks in the garden to look out.  The lighting is all low voltage LEDs courtesy of Andrew Bolt of SPJ Lighting. TheLED pathlighthardscape materials are locally obtained rock products courtesy of LYNGSO.  The overall design is only 20' x 20' but seems much larger even when you are in the garden due to the use of space.  The deck is positioned on an angle and the shower partitions allowing sight lines over them helps open the space.  The horizontal lines in the walls also alludes to a larger space.   The roof line borrowed from Frank Lloyd Wright and Asian elements shows homeowners they can have a beautiful pergola without a fancy and expensive router.

bridge over bioswaleRoof line   Outdoor ShowerStaggerd wall with peeking windows

The deck with large bench

 We had the support of the following businesses and the people with them:

West Bay Landscape Co., LYNGSO, BORG Fence, Village Nurseries, Fuji Garden Center, Delta Bluegrass Co., SPJ Lighting Inc - Andrew Bolt, Wildcat Metals, SummerWinds Nurseries, Almaden Valley Nursery, North Coast Native Nursery, Zach Todd Photography, SIMS Metal Management, Bay Natives, Reusable Lumber and the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show.

Although this was NOT a course project we did solicit the guidance of West Valley College Faculty of the Landscape Architecture Department, Glenn Rock, ASLA.

This new homeowner wanted a more organic feel to the garden than the basics the General Contractor planted with the home.

Before the new Design is Installed.The house is ringed with New Zealand Flax with a color that compliments the house, however, two stranded Japanese Maples and a sea of invasive Vinca is the rest of the entire yard.

The new design includes grape arbors, two Strawberry Trees, Manzanita ground cover, Blue Oat Grass, and bright Cape Honeysuckle for a quick privacy screen.

Along the driveway a succulent garden of Echeverias, Aeoniums, an Agave, Sedum Dragon's Blood and Americanum, and Euphorbia Firesticks are mixed in a tapestry with New Zealand Flax and Blue Fescue.  Behind the display, Star Jasmine will be trained on the fence.

A Small Yard needs Curb Appeal and A Courtyard

This garden was left to overgrow and get old.

 A new fence with a gate were moved closer to the chimney, a flagstone path and new plants are the start to this new beautiful garden.

Instead of replacing the old lawn, a new layering border of plants in red, purple and pops of blue and silver add bold color to the front.  The flagstone pathway moves through a lawn substitute of Sea Thrift which looks much like grass but has the added bonus of being very drought tolerant, never needs mowing and in Spring gets beautiful pom pom pink blooms to look like a meadow.Paprika Yarrow and Jester New Zealand Flax add color to the front border.The side yard was cleaned up and transformed into a flagstone courtyard.  Dymondia Silver Carpet will grow between the stones, Yellow Wave New Zealand Flax, Blue Oat Grass, Autumn Sage, Pineapple Sage and Penstemons will brighten the area with color.

An Updated Facelift for a Landscape

This home had a great interior remodel and needed a new landscape to match.

Before a new landscape is visualized.

The install of baby plants.

Dwarf Lantana, Red Autumn Sage, Santa Barbara Daisy, Purple Smoke Tree, Bayberry, Eureka Lemon tree in back corner and Yellow Wave New Zealand Flax by the existing Crape Myrtle will brighten up this front yard.

A photoshop rendering of the new design when grown.

The Back Yard gets a full facelift as well.  The hardscape was already installed by the contractor and I was commissioned to specify all the plants.  The requirements were for lots of color and texture while allowing for fruit trees and a vegetable garden.

Ornamental Plants include Lamb's Ear, Yarrow, Lupine, Red Autumn Sage, Bush Anenome, Manzanita, Bougainvillea, Penstemon, CA Grey Rush, Santa Barbara Daisy, Blue Fescue, Kaleidoscope Abelia, Cream Delight New Zealand Flax, Rosemary, Tequillia Sunrise Mirror Plant, Alyssum and Yesterday Today and Tomorrow.

A Yard of Hedges Gets Color and Texture

This yard had the typical corral of hedges which the new owner commented on the difficulty to see when backing out of the driveway much less the aesthetics.

A new design of drought tollerant plants with color and texture was needed.  Manzanita, lavender and Autumn Sage were just a few of the owner's choices for this front landscape.

Demolition of the yard has begun by the owner and will be followed up with a contractor for the tough projects.  The hedges were chopped down but are now growing back.  The roots still need to be removed.

The front of the property will retain a smaller lawn, add paver pathway to the front entry, extend the driveway with pavers and provide year round interest with plants.

Once all the phases are complete it will look similar to these Photoshop sketches.  The owners have yet to choose paver material but these sketches show there are many options to choose from.

Coprosma Marble Queen used in three areas adds balance and will add interest with a change in color with winter chill.  The only exception to the drought tolerant plants are the two Japanese Maples that anchor the corners of the house, gifts to their children from grandparents.  Since blueberries take similar soil and water conditions, they will be planted with the sapling trees to provide the family with one of their favorite fruits.  With a year round interest of their own, blueberries like many edible plants can be planted with ornamentals in the landscape.The back yard is small and only 20' deep.  Using Sky Pencil Holly that only grows 2' wide helps save on space, give a clean look and won't require pruning. 

The owners want an area for vegetables, an herb bed and a small lemon tree while capitalizing on the small space for an entertainment area, a small lawn for the kids and the BBQ. A central 17'x 17' paver area for the patio leaves room for the other functions and the small retaining wall replaced with a curvilinear seatwall increases seating numbers for a small space.  Three columnar apple trees line one end of the yard.

From Rock, To Color

This landscape started as a lot of rock and three Golden Euonymus hedged as cubes and a lot of lawn.

After a few of years, it now has grown with lots of color.  The cubed hedges were pruned and thinned to look more natural and a lot of drought tolerant ground covers, perennials and low shrubs were added.  The nonmortared raised beds helps add structure to a previously plain yard.

A San Diego Street Scape

This rental property in San Diego is one and half blocks from a public beach and gets a lot of pedestrian traffic.  The 20'x 50' street scape landscape design blends with traditional San Diego coastal elements.  San Diego has a climate where most plants thrive, however being this close to the ocean's climatic influences, specific plants were chosen that could thrive with the salty and humid climate.  King Palms and Pygmy Date Palms were designed in groupings with natives and drought tolerant plants to add color and texture year round.  Some of the plants incorporated are ceanothus, coprosma and Autumn joy sedum along with a tapestry of stonecrop sedums.  Through the design is a dry riverbed of river rock.  Stepping pavers lead pedestrians from their parked cars to the public sidewalk.  With abundant use of bark, soil moisture will be retained thus reducing irrigation frequency.

Baby palms are planted and mulchedPhase one of the landscape design has been completed with installation of a drip irrigation system, baby palms and bark mulch. Palms are a regularly used plant and a San Diego icon that grow quickly.  Either side of this space consists of water thirsty lawn, with the east neighbor having tall mature palms. 

Pavers are set for easy street access

Phase two of the landscape design consisted of adding the stepping stones has been done recently.   The cheap and easily installed pavers was chosen over pour in place concrete. Temporarily for some color, the client added leftover geraniums from another rental unit.  The baby sized palms have been growing well over a few months time and add the wanted tropical feel. 

 In two years these palms have grown and are thriving.

  San Jose Entry Needing Color

 BEFOREJust dirt and a few rocks were on display at this residential entry.  The client wanted year round color in foliage. This would be a project that would be installed in phases.   The first phase inserted brick under the front bench similar to the brick on the house and eventually edge the sidewalk in brick as well.  The Rainbow Surprise Coprosma was planted in Fall. The added shrubs of dwarf Golden Euonymus and Rainbow Surprise Coprosma provides wanted texture and year round color with the added bonus that with winter chill the Coprosma will take on a bright reddish pink coloring.
Phase two, in late Spring, included the dwarf Euonymus and bark mulch.  The Coprosma grew during the winter and spring.

 The same Coprosma 'Rainbow Surprise" with Winter Color

This landscape design will be installed in phases.  The irrigation has already been reduced to the shortest time possible to maintain a living lawn.  Additionally, the existing spray heads were fitted with rotars for better efficiency and less water loss.  The area hit hardest was by the driveway and determined the beginning of the lawn reduction plan.Step pavers create a path from street parking to the front path at the front of the house and echo other step pavers on site.  Creeping thyme, not only drought tolerant, will add texture and color in addition to inviting pollinators to the garden.  Fountain grass will grow to give some balance.  More pavers planted with Elfin thyme are inserted along the driveway to add extra footing when three cars are parked in the driveway.  The existing and buried plumbing clean out was unburied from sod and then camouflaged with a dry pond and stream of river rock and decomposed granite. Access is a matter of moving a few small rocks. 

 In this landscape design, head sized rocks were used to accent the sidewalk side of the small berm and the fountain grass.  Other drought tolerant plants include Mexican Feather Grass, Blue Fescue, Santa Barbara Daisy, various sedum, Pink Knotweed and succulant Hen and Chicks.  In time, other plants will be added and remaining areas of lawn will gradually be sheet mulched.

After one and a half years of growthNative Blue Fescue In the Feather Grass, Black and Blue Sage adds a bright spot.

Between the two main Fountain Grasses, a vignette of perennials was added of two species of blue flowered sages, sedge, and sunflowers 'Tuscan Sun'.

After 2 years, the second phase of lawn reduction has begun with sheet mulching.  The process of sheet mulching requires mowing the lawn short and then layering newspaper or cardboard on the lawn while watering it down.  This lawn was then covered with 5" of fallen leaves from the street tree which was covered with 3" of mulch containing chicken manure and then a decorative 1-2" layer of fine bark mulch.  In spring the next planting phase will begin.

The West Valley College requsted student submitted ideas and landscape designs for a new Campus Center.  My co-designer Tina Juaregui and I had only 2 weeks to create and submit our landscape design representing the Landscape Architecture Student Club.   Our objective was to incorporate the functions that surveyed students felt were important as well as streamline with very different existing professionally designed landscapes on either end of the space. 

The project called for an amphitheater that could double as an outdoor classroom, provide space for students to eat and socialize, and a space for student club activities.  The budget was 1 million dollars but realistically came to $630,000 once contingencies were accounted for.  Our objective was to also keep overall maintenance down for the future by decreasing the vast real estate of lawn without appearing to do so.

Sketch of amphitheater and conference room as a stage

The amphitheater was situated in a non-functional space that already had a usable slope.  We also wanted to take advantage of the central building being reconfigured into a conference room with glass door partition walls that opened fully on the West side and 3/4s on the North and South sides of the structure.   Our design incorporates further revenue options for the campus with a design flexible enough to accommodate a range of clients.   Seat walls would be pour in place concrete to save costs and the ground covered in a permeable gravel.  Some select rows and the front would be done in decomposed granite with a binding agent to allow universal access.

Sketch of Human Sized checker or chess board patioChecker Board patio and plant screen of back flow utilitiesAdditionally, students wanted options of playing chess or checkers outdoors, we created a human scale checker/chess board with precasted pavers for one color and the other as existing lawn or a drought resistant ground cover.  With additional oaks to create a triangle with one pre-existing and benches, this space could double as a patio for relaxing between classes or meeting friends. 

Sketch by TinaTiered planter, patio area for Student Club events, access ramp

The top most patio near the cafeteria was already designed by Bob Tanaka and included colored 'ribbons' in the hardscape to mimic the flow of water to the campus creek.  We continued the major lines into our design and allowed the imagined flow to determine some of the shapes of the hardscape.  This space also had one very tall retaining wall which we removed and tiered the space for an aesthetic look of native plantings mixed with drought tolerant plants.  On the North, the gallery building has a new design primarily of California natives.  However, when installed, the contractor over planted for a more instant look and these plants need to be thinned out.  Our design incorporates these same plants in throughout the plant palette to move existing plants from one area into the new campus center which re-uses plants and saves money.

Sketch by Tina

On the Southside of the amphitheater we created a planting bed that incorporated an access ramp.  The bed consists of native plants along with Paperbark Maples that will provide shade during warm months and has an interesting year round look with peeling bark. 

Photoshop rendition of the tiered planter and water feature area.