Happy New Year to everyone as we start another year, and what a year so far with all the rain and wind! The rain is much needed, but the wind- oh my gosh! The combination has sure kept the tree companies busy. My daughter runs a tree company, and she at times, has been working Sundays. For us it’s hard to landscape in the rain, so we too are cutting up trees. However, not being a tree company, we only cut up the trees that have fallen to the ground. Trees that have fallen onto a house bring in a whole different kind of skill level and liability that my men and I are not trained in. The date that I’m writing is 1/16, and we have had 15 or so consecutive days of rain, and several days of very strong winds. It feels as if we are on a crash course with nature, and that’s just here in the Roseville/Sacramento area where things are relatively tame. That’s not even factoring in all the mountain communities. The bright side to all this is we need the rain and especially the snow.
The job I want to share was completed in October, so it is still considered a new landscape. No growth happens until spring, so it looks just like it did when we finished, except the trees had beautiful fall-colored leaves, and now they are bare. I really enjoy all our jobs, but this one was particularly enjoyable. Our client Trisha gave me a picture of what she was hoping for. The picture reminded me of landscapes at the larger hotels in Tahoe. It was definitely a mountain themed landscape. The challenge was how to turn a sloped front yard into a landscape that would make you feel you were in Tahoe, all the while living in downtown Sacramento. The work gave my team an opportunity to be super creative. Upon showing me the picture, my first question was what about the picture did she like, and she said it was the large Granite boulders. I agreed with her. The boulders did catch your eye, but the overall plantings, small- leafed manzanita, added a nice compliment to the boulders. My goal was to exceed the picture in beauty
and function. So, in addition to the landscape, we talked about adding a dry stream bed, which seemed like a natural addition to a mountain themed landscape. On the functional side of the landscape, we talked about steps leading up to the front door. We would make the steps out of block but cover the blocks with granite flagstone. The landscape would take about 3 years to come into its own, but in 3 years this landscape will stand alone, surpassing the picture she showed me. My only regret is I wanted to use shredded cedar, as opposed to the rock mulch. I felt we needed to break up the rock look without losing the impact of the boulders. The shredded cedar would do that, while highlighting the boulders. However, with all the mature trees in the neighborhood and the number of leaves that would fall into their yard, they would have to replace mulch yearly, so it did not make sense to use bark. The good news is within 2 years of plant growth, the plants themselves will soften the rock mulch. Instead of looking like an Arizona mountain landscape, it will become more of a Tahoe themed landscape.
Because of the uniqueness of the plant palette, it took shopping at two nurseries to get everything I needed, but upon finding my “Tahoe plants” I was excited to place them in the landscape. Trisha also grew plants in her backyard and wanted to see them in the landscape. The spot she chose was front and center. She loved the Tahoe perennials: Shasta Daisies, Echinacea, Liatris, Columbine and Agastache, to name the main ones. Some of my ornamental personal favorites (nonfreezing permanent plants) for this landscape involved the Cedrus Horstmann, which is a Blue Atlas looking Cedar that is a dwarf and a non- weeper. They are normally hard to find, however I was able to find these two, and they matched each other well. They are located to the left and right of the landscape behind rock planters. They have short blue needles, and slender upright growth. Every plant there is uniquely special for the theme, and uniquely expensive.
It had been a while since I have done a mountain theme, and I forgot how pricey these plants can be. The tree in the center (with no leaves) is an Acer October Glory, Red Leaf Maple. This is a common tree to all of us. It is the tree that has fiery red leaves in fall with a maple leaf. Another tree that is of this color in and around Sacramento has small narrow leaves, and surface roots, and is called Sour Gum (Nyssa Sylvatica). The October Glory is a great tree for this landscape, and its roots are non- evasive. I noticed while working there that the other trees on the street were either yellow in their fall color or evergreen. I was surprised that there was no real representation of the fall colors.
The dry stream bed required some thought. The rock yard can tell you the approximate boulder weight if you can tell them the size you want. So, I needed to design the dry stream bed using marker paint as close as possible to how I envisioned it. I painted out very large boulders, mixed them with large to medium boulders, while factoring in the shape and length that would fit the yard so as not to overwhelm it. The boulders ended up totaling 17,000 pounds, or eight and half tons! Once the boulders were delivered, we rented a large skid steer and placed them. That was a fun day, as I was beginning to see my vision come into reality. To anyone else, I’m sure it looked like ill-placed boulders on a hill side. It took a couple more days to get the boulders to fit into the slope, and for it make sense to people walking by. My rule for landscapes is they are not only to be beautiful and unique, but functional. The steps definitely provided that. They were functional, as they were attractive. At times, I am so into the details that I forget to step back and see the overall picture. The steps balanced out the yard. We had a “heavy” feature to the left, the stream bed, and now a “heavy” feature to the right. The yard was now balanced. The men did a great job in following my design as they built the steps. The last thing for the landscape or “the coup de France” would
be the night lights. We included both spotlights and path lights. They add such beauty and enchantment, and they do that to any landscape. I’m glad we can include a night picture with our article.
I will show this landscape again when it has grown some, so you may want to save this article for comparison. Once the trees leaf out and everything grows a bit with the perennials in bloom, it will be super cool to feature again. This will be in about 6 months from now. Thank you for reading our article and we look forward to helping you with your landscape this year.