I love projects where the brief is simple:

“Make it beautiful, have fun with it, I trust you”

Gotta love that, right? This project (construction will begin next month) was too much fun to design. The client gave me one word to describe the planting plan… “Dense” and said that word should inform the design of the plant material. Being a small space, we can go dense with the plants and still maximize the water usage. The plan will incorporate a new Ipe deck (to match existing decks elsewhere on the property) a concrete patio with decorative saw-cuts with a gradient-stain pattern, a simple and demure water-feature, retaining walls to add dimension and scale, and generous lighting. Here are a few before pictures, and some renderings. More to come

existing steps will remain

Renderings

    

T3

My sister-in-law, Jojo sent me a link to this great blog “Inside the Loop” . She figured I would enjoy the Japanese Ikebana arrangements… and she was right. It made me think about some of the arrangements that I have done in the past, mostly with succulents. Succulents are SO easy, and the fact that most require very little water and can handle filtered sun makes them perfect for office windows, indoor table-tops, and really anywhere else. A great idea: keep one arrangement outdoors in elements, and the other in your favorite spot indoors.

Using simple pots in basic shapes ensures that the pot will compliment, not compete, with the plant scheme. Depending on the plant choice, I like to either plant en masse or take two or three varieties and place them according to growth pattern. This is where it helps to know how the plants will grow. If you are using succulents, check out this website (www.plugconnection.com) for comprehensive growth information on several different succulent varities. If grasses are more your style, stick with the festucas or mondo grasses (ophiopogon japonicus). If the container is large enough, Mexican Feather Grass (Stipa) or any of the pennisetum varieties make great specimens surrounded by creepers like trailing rosemary, Tradscantia, or Ipoemia.(Potatoe vine).

I like to dress the pots with decorative gravel, sand, or glass. Wood bark is too messy and degrades over time. I also prefer to use concrete, terrazzo, glazed ceramic, or fiber-cement containers. Terra Cotta pots are cheap and can be planted up and placed in a more-expensive container and top-dressed. This is especially useful if your using a container that doesn’t hold up to the elements, like Zinc or wood.

I especially love the tray planters that we manufacture and sell. They are created with either stainless steel or weathered and lacquered steel. I use bromeliads, succulents, Air plants, orchids, and whatever else is lying around that needs a home. They are called trayscapes and come in three sizes T1, T2, and T3

They are available for purchase at Mixture in Little Italy and Grounded in Encinitas. Custom arrangements and commissioned pieces available upon request.

T1 with bromeliad, and succulents

T2

First off, thank you to everyone who has entered to win this contest so far. We have been overwhelmed with entries!

Here are the detailed rules about the Contest:

1. The Contest may only be entered through filling out the form in our display “The Modern Patio” at the Del Mar Fairgrounds

2. The form must be completely filled out and be legible. The optional fields may be filled out as well, but are not mandatory.

3. The email address must be valid.

The fine print…

The contest is valid for residents of California only. The Winner will receive a 1 hour consultation from Falling Waters and the equivalent of 12 hours of design time, and one follow-up visit to present the design. The design will include some combination of the following; A to-scale drawing of the project in plan-view, a detailed plant list including sizes and quantities, a reference note list and material call-outs. If more time is needed/desired then our time will be billed at our hourly rate. The winner will be notified via email or phone call after the fair is over (July 6). We reserve the right to make changes to this contest at any time.

This little wooden birdhouse was tossed into the garbage on one of our projects. Thankfully it was rescued and turned into a hanging planter. Its interesting how repurposing something can make it suddenly beautiful.

So even the though the SF garden show was a few weeks ago, I wanted to talk about it.

After visiting the show last year, I decided that the SF garden show would be an annual pilgrimage. Much to my dismay I heard the same rumor that many of you heard… “this would be the last year for the show”. That was the nail in the coffin, and even though I have an 8 month pregnant wife, priorities are priorities, right?

On the way up we needed to swing by Jennifer Asher’s home to drop off the beautiful sculptures we used in our display at the San Diego garden show. Her home was only 15 minutes away from Venice Beaches’ Big Red Sun. Big Red Sun is a boutique nursery and mecca for anyone interested in how landscape design can be integrated into just about any other design discipline. They truly have a unique style and cult following. The flagship Big Red Sun is located in Austin (our mid-west sister-city in my humble opinion) and is renowned for some of the most inovative landscapes, event styles, vignettes, and custom potted creations. Zach and I spent over an hour poking around, snapping photos, bugging the designers with inane questions, and generally soaking in the inspiration. Visit Big Red Sun, you won’t be disappointed.

found materials, plants, melaleuca bark, yarn, drift wood

After the SF show, which was somewhat dissapointing for several reasons, we visited another boutiqe style nursery, Flora Grubb.

Flora Grubb has received a lot of press lately. Mostly for her Tillansdia installation at a Hotel in Yountville, SF (famous for Thomas Keller’s restaraunt French Laundry), But perhaps even more for her succulent wall installations. Using ELT green wall panels, Grubb plants them liberally with an array of echeverias, sedums, and other fleshy succulents. The result is a visual roller coaster. Enjoy.

Flora Grubb's succulent wall art

Colorful chairs against reclaimed barn-wood facade

Tillandsias at the Bardessono in Yountville

I had the opportunity to meet Flora (read: accost) and she did not disappoint. After reading about her nursery and visiting the website I had my hopes up that it would an inspiring place, and it absolutely was. Located in the southern part of the city, Flora Grubb nursery wasn’t hard to find, and in fact sticks out like a small oasis compared to the industrial backdrop and nearby BART terminal. Flora keeps the nursery stocked with “high” quality plant material. She mentioned that if a plant looks slightly less than perfect, its pulled from the shelves and nursed to health somewhere else. This is done to keep the nursery looking perfect, and to validate retail costs of plant material.

But in all honesty, I didn’t come for the plants. I came to be wowed by the little vignettes, the famous “succulent wall”, local art, and to see how this business model works. Flora has created a destination for locals and visitors like me. The nursery has a coffee shop inside, an impressive stock of design books, gift ideas, pottery, and much much more. She allows her employees (all landscapers/designers) to advertise their own services to customers which creates a creative and open atmosphere, almost a collective of sorts. Flora herself only takes on about five or six clients a year. She admitted, “I need to have a connection with them, I need to be in love with the project and the clients… no not clients, they are all friends.” Wow! What a hugely different take on the normal client : designer relationship. I was so inspired by that one statement that I have changed the way I view “potential” clients and the way I view myself as a business owner and designer.

I think sometimes (ok maybe most of the time) its just a business relationship, but I had to admit after hearing her say that, that the projects I’m most proud of are with people I consider friends, not just clients. It was a great experience to say the least and exactly what I needed.