Category Archives: Maintenance

Retrospective: An early design

Endings. Beginnings. New Year. Time to run a retrospective series, telling stories of design across a not-so-epic scale. Hopefully you’ll be amused, entertained and enlightened. It started with a party in 2000 We came into this project after meeting an architect at a party, who was working on a custom house, very clean, very chic.Continue reading “Retrospective: An early design”

Renewing the meadow

Timing is critical: renew too early and there might be some leftover seeds that the birds would have loved to eat. Too late, and you’ll be removing new growth as it starts at the end of winter. Then there’s rain: this meadow doubles as a rain garden, so if you cut too soon after aContinue reading “Renewing the meadow”

Crust is great on baguettes. Not so much on tile and stone

Sometimes you have the space for a splash zone, sometimes you don’t. Following some simple guidelines can keep your water features less crusty and lower maintenance requirements. Some design guidelines can help to alleviate this kind of thing – something to consider when designing a water feature. This is kind of like a situation fromContinue reading “Crust is great on baguettes. Not so much on tile and stone”

Prickly Pear Cactus Pruning: an update

It’s been two years since we visited this cactus and did some fairly major structural pruning. We removed trunks to simplify the plant’s shape to let its structure come through. This time, the goal was to keep the cactus’ size in check, removing peripheral pads to again show the branch structure. Prickly pear limbs tendContinue reading “Prickly Pear Cactus Pruning: an update”

Trimming the meadow

The goal is to remove last year’s vegetation before it starts to grow back. The asters’ seeds have long since been picked over by the finches, and the sedges have not yet begun their spring growth spurt. Likewise, the grasses and other plants are just beginning to think about emerging from dormancy. It’s trim backContinue reading “Trimming the meadow”

Lights, Camera, Landscape!

What do you think about reality TV landscape programs? Are those landscapes dreams come true or nightmares waiting to happen?  It’s amazing how in a matter of days an overgrown, weedy wasteland can become a beautiful new landscape. It’s nothing short of incredible. A brawny guy walks up with a plan, everyone squeals with pleasure,Continue reading “Lights, Camera, Landscape!”

Time to cut back the California asters

After months of steady growth, the asters were reaching for the sky, with an average height of about 54 inches. Time to act. Last year, some of the asters were trimmed too late, almost completely eliminating their flowers. Others were done earlier, resulting at a solid floral display held below eye height. Untrimmed, the plantsContinue reading “Time to cut back the California asters”