Burlingame Hills

This client lives in the Burlingame Hills and the property was completely overgrown and infested with English Ivy, French broom and other invasive weeds.  We removed the ivy and other weeds, limbed up all the shrubby trees (toyon and California Bays) .  We added a bench and steps up to it.  The playhouse was kept but we cleared around it and added some  plants to make it more inviting.

This client owns a rental property in a pretty urban part of Mountain View.  The goal was to make the property as simple, low-maintenance and as water-conscious as possible.  All of the plants as California Natives.

This client lives in the house and wanted to update the landscaping and replace the lawn with native plants..  We sheet mulched to remove the existing (dead) lawn.  We added mostly California Native plants and several rock structures, leaving the overall layout of the yard. intact.  

This yard is extremely small and already had 4 established Redwood trees along the back fence, backed up to the CalTrain tracks, and the two story house shaded the yard completely except for the height in summer.  The client wanted some fruit trees, so we incorporated a Brown Turkey fig and raspberries along the neighbors garage and several espaliered stone fruit trees along the fence by the driveway.  The remaining plants were California Natives which support the native pollinator population, helping pollinate the fruit trees and shrubs.  We added a small seating area under the redwoods with a stone path leading to it.

This home, situated on a bluff in Daly City overlooking the Farallon Islands, was undergoing a renovation that increased their impermeable surface and the City required that they incorporate a rain garden into their design to retain much of that run-off, allowing it to percolate into the soil.  

The lot is steeply sloped on the uphill (east) side.  The rain garden was created in the northwest corner to hold approximately 150 gallons of water.  Run-off from the roof and slope is channeled into that area. This drainage is channeled along the western (downhill) fence, where it can continue to percolate into the soil as it moves towards the street. The plants we chose for the pool area are very tolerant of their roots being wet. River rocks are used as mulch to reduce evaporation, protect the soil and keep it cool.

This parcel in the western hills of Portola Valley is very rural and had never been built upon.  As we cleared the area we added some "out-buildings" and did some landscaping around them.  We used all California natives, many of which are locally native.  We used a mixture of perennial shrubs and wildflower seeds.  These areas are now abuzz with insect activity (the base of most food chains).

This garden was built on a previously unused piece of land.  

We created 3 hugelkultur beds, using a base of old and rotting wood and organic material, covered with dirt and compost and then plant directly into the beds. This method conserves water as the decomposition of the organic materials keeps water vapor in the beds.  They only need watering every 2-4 weeks.  I add compost and woodchips to replenish them when necessary.

 We planted a dozen stone fruit trees, including five varieties of cherry, apricot, aprium, pluot, and nectarine.   We are using Dave Wilson's Backyard Orchard Culture techniques (https://www.davewilson.com/home-garden/backyard-orchard-culture/) to grow an assortment of trees close together that produce a harvest throughout the season.  By planting several trees (on the same rootstock) in one hole this reduces the vigor of each tree and helps to keep them small, pruning does the rest..

We also planted eight citrus trees including D'oro blanco white grapefruit, Meyer lemon, kumquat, Mexican lime, Yuzu and Kaffir lime.

For color I also planted a wide variety of daffodils around the outside of the fence for Jan-Apr blooms and sweet peas for a late spring bloom.  Several Roger's Red grapes are trained to the fence which provide vivid red foliage in the fall.