A posting on California Home and Design Magazine.com

California Home and Design is an on-line resource and a great overview of what's new and happening in the home and garden dz world. I'm addicted, and so thrilled to be featured this week in their designer "Profiles" section.

When they asked me for a list of my favorite resources and inspirations it was impossible to appear cutting edge and in the know because I'm not. I really get a lot of inspiration and ideas from just- wandering around. Stoneyards and nurseries, and in my car.
List my car as one of my resources? Those who have ever seen my car, or been in it (and had many near-death experiences as Luke once said...) would wonder what the...? But it is so. On every drive I take, and I drive a lot; I see stuff. For instance, I didn't know that boring and usually scraggly-looking Brunfelsia uniflora, commonly called "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" for the way the blossoms change color, could make me stop in my tracks (mentally- I did not stop in the middle of the road, damn- so I don't have a picture...)

It was stunning. I will probably never buy one, but at least I had the exerience of witnessing the glory and audacity and total randomness of a riotous burst of lavendar-purple hanging onto the edge of a cracked concrete driveway. Bet it smelled terrific, too. Click here to read the article... Read more...

Confessions of an Overplanter

When planning your garden, it is essential to embrace the concept of negative space. A good designer makes deft use of it, and knows that where something isn’t, is just as important as where something is. We guide the eye through the yard using color, form, line, texture. We know the eye also needs a place to rest. But knowing the right thing and doing the right thing are two very different things, especially when self control is involved. Unfortunately, when it comes to plants, this is something that I have in very short supply.

A one-gallon Stipa arundinaceae may expand tenfold in a year, but it looks so very lonely over there. Of course I know that itty bitty Campanula is going to be creeping all over those pavers eventually, but I want it nestled against that grey slate NOW. When I am at the nursery for a client, it is often one for her, and one for me. My name is Cathy, and I am an overplanter. It stems (pun intended) from my childhood. Massachusetts receives forty-four inches of rain per year, and messy, exuberant perennial gardens rule. Oh, there are stately Yews and endless lawns, (zzzz) but what I most remember is abundance- Daffodils for miles, Lilac you could swim through, Grandpa’s roses.

The current trend in plant design is to use Natives and tough, sculptural, low-water requiring plants, which are fabulous. Sculptural plants need space around them. I like space. I just can’t seem to find much in my garden. In the throes of plant lust, I am powerless. So until Overplanter's Anonymous opens up a local chapter, I have developed ways to satisfy the need for more without abandoning the principles of good design.

Groupings. When you can’t get enough of something, go for it. Plant your tulip bulbs in drifts (or Maverick-sized waves if you must.) Give over an entire bed to pristine snow-white Callas, heady David Austin roses. Line your walk from street to door with Lavender, Leucodendron, Black-Eyed Susan. Using lots of all one thing is a wonderful way to indulge in abundanza, but the simplicity imparts a contemporary twist.

Six-packs. In a brand-new border, or one in which the season has past, use inexpensive annuals and easily removed (no underground spreaders) perennials to fill in space around your dormant or too-small shrubs. When your focal points fill in, you can yank the cheaper stuff without a pang. Or move in some…

Containers. Use pots of every size and color on your patio or deck, the front porch, the kitchen door, or nestle them in borders. Use things that are not pots, but will hold one plant or several. Container plantings add structure and bulk, punctuate the space, provide focal points and make the garden look more civilized. And of course, they are a lovely way to add plants without redesigning your existing beds.

Seeds. Starting plants from seeds or cuttings is inexpensive and fun. It takes time and patience to grow a good sized plant, but by the time it is ready for the garden, you will have found a place to put it.

Darwinism. This is Northern California, we have water issues. I love all my plants but will only coddle a select few. The rest fend for themselves; this promotes self-selection. If in my garden you cannot survive, my love for you will dim, or die. And I promise I’ll move on to find solace in the charms of another.

Fingernails. I regard a perfectly performing plant in the height of the season the same way I regard my hairstyle- just beyond that perfect moment there is overgrowth and chaos. Maintenance is everything, but it doesn’t always have to be a big deal. As you wander about, look, smell, touch, pinch and trim.

Elbow grease. I often have the pleasure of indulging my addiction in the garden of a client with whom I have an ongoing relationship. We both know I’ll be there to keep a vision for the space over the long term. If that means constant dead-heading, de-clumping, pruning, pinching, trimming and re-arranging- so be it. It’s a small price to pay for perfection. Read more...

Five tips for creating a high-end garden

Check out my article on Bettyconfidential.com.

"Create a High-End Outdoor Space on a Low-end Budget"

I was asked to provide "Five tips for creating a high-end garden on a low end budget." And it had to be edited down, and down again...without seeing someone's yard there is only so much one can do, after all. But I think it came out OK, and I really had fun reading all of the comments, even "Who has time for a garden?" What I want to ask that person is- hey, you- do you have time for a glass of wine? Do you read? Do you eat? Don't you want to do those things outside? If you have a patch of yard, you should use it. (After all, you are paying for it, I imagine.)

Beside that, how about looking out the windows? I have a few garden views that absolutely get me through the dishes and housework. They will follow. Read more...

Fun with Clippers, or Plants Don't Cry

Plants Don’t Cry, or Why Pruning Matters

I have spent my entire career and most of my free time staring at plants. I can’t seem to help myself. Driving around the Bay Area I note every stunning tree and hot-looking flower bed. I also see neglect, water stress, and an epidemic of bad pruning. It is easy, with my temperament anyway, to become annoyed. A plant is not supposed to look like an overgrown basketball. Who is doing this stuff? And why? Yikes, some people have no more business all up in your shrubbery that I would, if I called myself a dentist and began poking at your teeth.
Recently I went to see a former client. As we stepped into the back yard she casually mentioned “The garden was overgrown, so my husband hired someone to cut it all back.” So warned, I was still unprepared for what I witnessed that day. For I came upon a scene of such carnage, such utter ineptitude and callous insensitivity, I was shocked speechless. Virtually every plant in the garden; tree, shrub and perennial, deciduous or evergreen, spring, summer or winter-flowering, monocot or dicot, woody or herbaceous, had been cut. Cut exactly the same way and exactly the same amount, as if some Robot from Hell had been put on automatic pilot with a stopwatch and a pair of hedge trimmers. Many of the shrubs had been set back years. But it is the design of the garden as a whole that suffered most. No dynamism, no flow, just a series of semi-rounded clumps of plant matter; denuded, humiliated, lifeless. Made more poignant by the fact that much brown dead stuff was still clinging to what was left of the branches and blades. For whoever the culprits were, they had neglected the number one rule of pruning- first, remove all the dead stuff.

Don’t let this happen to you. Here are a few simple facts for do-it-yourselfers and those who don’t:
Most perennials and many ornamental grasses appreciate being cut back seasonally; in the Bay Area that usually means before the rains or after the rains. Check your Western Garden Book. Deadheading is always good. Weeding is always good. Installed as a 5-gallon plant, most slow-to-moderately-growing shrubs will not need pruning for a year or more beyond taking off dead material and watching for crossed or crowded branches. Eventually, pruning for shape and size must happen.

If you want to prune your shrubs, first determine when and how they bloom. Spring-flowering shrubs should be pruned after blooming; if they are pruned now, you will lose next season’s blossoms. Summer and fall-flowering shrubs should be pruned in spring. Always use clean, sharp tools and follow this general formula. First, remove everything dead or diseased, cleanly and at an angle to the main trunk or just above the leaf node. Many older canes should be cut all the way to the ground. Second, cut out any branches that are crossing into the plant blocking light and air flow or rubbing against other branches. You want to allow air and sunlight to the center of the plant and a nice, v-shape. Unless, of course, you want a hedge, which is another discussion. Third, cut for shapeliness, size and beauty. Take your time and walk away often. Have a look from the patio, from the street. Does your shrub seem to be doing what it was meant to do? Don’t be timid, but do be observant. When in doubt, you can probably look it up on line. Or call in a professional. Ask questions, get references, and remember that thoughtful and expert pruning takes time. Don’t hire anyone who tells you otherwise.


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I want to be a minimalist when I grow up.

Lacy planted this Wisteria on her fence about 10 years ago. We always just let it go crazy until after it blooms, squeezing out of the car amidst buzzing bees and falling petals...below is a row of Naked Ladies, clothed for winter.

I took this Hellebore home from a clients' yard a few years ago. It’s a cutie.

A crazy-pink Pierus. Like, insane.

Every year we vow to take out this Hardenbergia --is one month’s glory worth a hideous green tangle for the rest of the year?? And then the Euphorbia blooms against that purple and we give it another reprieve.

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YardSquawk Take One.

I really didn't plan it this way, to start my new business mid-recession, but that is what happened anyway. The Yard Squad is up and running and ready to spread the word.

I started Cfly Design, years ago, alone and with no capital. I hauled rock, laid flagstone, raked yards and yards of soil. I didn't do everything right, but I thought hard every day about every thing big and small that I could do to make this garden, this client's yard, better, prettier, more livable and then did it if I could. There was so much to know. I thought I'd never be good enough. I felt I hardly knew what I was doing sometimes- but I always knew what I wanted to accomplish. My gardens got better and better, and I learned quite a few things. About plants, design, project management, crews, stones, pruning, weather, slope, crappy Bay Area soil. The decision to start the Yard Squad comes directly from things I learned that are my guiding principles, things I have become passionate about. Starting with my two favorite words:

1) LEVEL. I believe that noone wants to hang around in a yard that tilts. If it's level, they will come. OK, sometimes there has to be slope- just not where you sit.
2) FLOW. I believe that noone wants to hang out in a yard they can't get to, and can't wander around in.

I want garden inhabitants (trying to find a better word for "clients"- Garden users? Garden Guardians?) I want my clients, when we are finished, to be able to carry a full Martini from one end of the garden to another. To do this you need it to be LEVEL. And you need to have FLOW.

I believe everyone can- no, should- have good design.
I believe sustainalility can have flowers.
I believe the big companies waste a lot of money.
I believe paying me to spend 3 hours pruning your 20-year-old Wisteria is not wasting money.
I believe there is way too much bad pruning.
I believe a Camellia shouldn't look like a Mushroom.
I believe in crisp, perfect hardscapes and riotous planting beds.
I believe in Walt Whitman Compost Mix.


Later, Cathy
http://www.theyardsquad.com Read more...

Blotanical Awards 2008

Blotanical Awards 2008 Read more...