Designer’s Delight
This landscape delights the eye and beckons attention for a lot of reasons! This is the only home on the garden tour with lawn. Lawn?! Yes, lawn. Let’s be clear…the Elk Grove Greener Gardens Project is not a ‘hater’ of lawn. Similar to eating your favorite sinful treat, we suggest moderation or at least reducing the quantity. When using turf there are a few things to keep in mind that make it ‘greener’ (and we’re not referring to its color). Install lawn in widths that allow for efficient irrigation coverage and maintenance practices. Keep your irrigation system in good working order and prevent runoff and overspray. And, use a mulching mower to return nutrients to the soil and reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers.
The overall aesthetic of this home is very pleasing…the exterior color selection, custom entry gate, turquoise front door, wide staggered entry steps and then there’s the landscape! The plant material selection in this garden is extensive and varied. The choices are generally water-wise with the exception of some existing plant material that the homeowners retained with the renovation. The level of contrast in foliage color, texture and formis exciting. The use of succulents (Dudleya, Echeveria, Aeonium and Aloe) throughout the landscape adds to the chorus of contrast. The variety results in color from both foliage and flower that is year round.
But what makes this landscape so worthy of special attention is its reduced use of turf in combination with its extensive use of climate appropriate, water-wise plants to create a beautiful garden…a designer’s delight!
(Sculpture – ‘Circles of Life’
by Kanika Marshall,
www.kanikamarshall.com)


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Plant List
- Otto Quast Spanish Lavender, Lavandula stoechas ‘Otto Quast’
- Star Jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides
- Dudleya, Dudleya species
- Autumn Gold Maidenhair Tree, Gingko biloba ‘Autumn Gold’
- Bronze Beauty Carpet Bugle, Ajuga reptans ‘Bronze Beauty
- Cream Delight New Zealand Flax, Phormium cookianum ‘Cream Delight’
- Dalmatian Bellflower, Campanula muralis
- Purple Smoke Tree, Cotinus coggygria ‘Purpureus’
- Silver Spurge, Euphorbia rigida
- Black Tree Aeonium, Aeonium arboreum var artopurpureum ‘Schwarzkopf’
- Winter Daphne, Daphne odora
- Little Girl Magnolia, Magnolia, Little Girl Hybrid
- Matilja Poppy, Romneya coulteri
- Tall Verbena, Verbena bonariensis
- Profusion Beautyberry, Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Profusion’
- Lamb’s Ear, Stachys byzantina
- White Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida
- Myrtle Spurge, Euphorbia myrsinites
- Himalayan Birch, Betula jacquemontii
- Yellow Lamium, Lamium galeobdolon
- Golden Variegated Sweet Flag, Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’
- Aloe, Aloe species
- Sally Holmes Climbing Rose, Rosa ‘Sally Holmes’
- Climbing Bourbon Rose, Rosa ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’
- Fraser’s Photinia, Photinia x fraseri
- Painted Beauty Echeveria, Echeveria nodulosa ‘Painted Beauty’
- Lilac Vine, Hardenbergia violacea
- Cotyledon, Cotyledon species
- White Beauty Helebore, Helleborus x nigercors ‘White Beauty’
- Cast Iron Plant, Aspidistra elatior
- Black Beauty Elephant Ears, Calocasia esculenta ‘Black Beauty’
- Mojito Elephant Ears, Calocasia esculenta ‘Mojito’
- Purple Hopseed Bush, Dodonaea viscose purpurea
- Alaska Azalea, Azalea indica ‘Alaska’
- Elephant Ears, Calocasia esculenta ‘Ruffles’
- Echeveria, Echeveria species
- Yucca gloriosa, Spanish Dagger
- Bear’s Breech, Acanthus mollis
- Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria species
- California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica