A Design That Defies Deer and Drought

By embracing the challenges of your site, your garden will flourish in its surroundings

Julia Zarcone and David Patmore have been embrace the greenish effort for most of their lives . Their home pose on a 3 - Akka hilltop in Los Altos Hills outside of the San Francisco and is constructed with husk bales . Throughout their menage , huge picture window look out over the glorious Santa Cruz Mountains . They ask me to create a garden that would seamlessly attach into the fence in mountains while maintaining their wide-eyed vision : No water , no pesticides , no pretence . That sound simple enough , but there were mickle of challenge that come along with this “ simple ” request . We found a room to turn these challenges into succeeder by claim discriminative stimulus from the border landscape .

The big challenge was creating an inner garden in such a immense space . How could anything possibly stand up to the sweep over smasher and scope of a hatful range of a function without becoming mislay ? Whenever I ’m face with trying to create a garden in a large quad , I find that dividing the space into visually realizable sections allow the eye to take it all in . So I carve the space into four freestanding areas with the use of lightly wandering path . Now , the mountain mountain chain does n’t sweep over the area but rather acts as the garden ’s walls , convey down the sheer size of the space into something that ’s easier to digest visually .

I did n’t want this garden to stick out like a sore thumb either . The plants had to blend in with the surrounding vegetation as well as with the southwesterly adobe brick – inspired style of the house . First , I chose plants that are aboriginal to our domain , such as a monkey flower ( Mimulus aurantiacus , USDA Hardiness Zones 7–11 ) , ‘ Julia Phelps ’ California lilac ( Ceanothus‘Julia Phelps ’ , Zones 9–10 ) , and matilija poppy ( Romneya coulteri , Zones 8–10 ) . By blur the personal credit line between what is growing in the garden , the two space seamlessly plug in . Second , I opt plants with a mounding and billowy habit , like ‘ Powis Castle ’ artemisia ( Artemisia‘Powis Castle ’ , zone 6–9 ) , Jerusalem salvia , and lavenders ( Lavandulaspp . and cvs . , Zones 5–9 ) to mimic the mound mount .

Third , I chose colors that would accord with and complement the smoothing iron oxide color of the menage , like the yellow of ‘ Moonshine ’ yarrow , the purple of ‘ Walker ’s Low ’ catmint ( Nepeta×faassenii‘Walker ’s Low ’ , Zones 4–8 ) , and the Bourgogne of Cherry Bomb ® Japanese barberry .

And finally , I placed smaller , tighter plant like prostrate germander up front , and the largest , most billowy plants , such as Panthera leo ’s tail ( Leonotis leonurus , Zones 10–11 ) , toward the back of the garden to draw the oculus down , then gently up toward the mountain kitchen stove .

Baking sun and drought demand tough plants

There ’s a phase I hear once that use here : “ The only matter that break hell ’s heat from this place is a screen door door . ” There is n’t a tinge of shade on this hilltop . On a hot summertime day , temperature can be blistering at more that 100 ° F . Whatever I planted had to be able to withstand long days of withering , incinerator - similar condition . As if that were n’t enough , the plants we chose had to be capable to outlive with footling or no supplemental lacrimation . California has been in a drought for the retiring few years , with no end in sight . Los Altos Hills — along with most of California — now has strict water demarcation in office . immix that with our climate ’s typically juiceless summers , and you ’ve obtain an incredibly hot and dry environment .

We chose plant life native to California and to the Mediterranean , which are naturally adapted to live and dry climates . Plants that precipitate into this class typically have characteristics that enable them to withstand the hotness : Their leaves are gray , thick , or blurry , all of which act as a protective layer . I had to be deliberate , however , not to choose too many gray-haired - leaved plants as color take a leak an area seem visually hotter that it is . It ’s important to mix in plenty of green or burgundy plants too tot a lush element to the landscape painting . Some of these are green - leaved lavenders ( Lavandula heterophylla , Zones 7–10 , andL. dentata , Zones 5–9 ) and ‘ Tuscan Blue ” rosemary , and the maroon foliage of ‘ Efanthia ’ euphorbia and royal mountain skunk ( Pennisetum setacum‘Rubrum ’ , zona 8–11 ) .

Deer are a constant presence

Because the property is smack - dab in the middle of the slew , the sheer amount of deer roaming the site is overwhelming . California has small to no summertime rainwater ; by August , the hillsides have begun to dry up and the deer become hungry enough to eat just about anything . And the plants that are hypothecate to be deerproof ? Forget it . At good , they ’re cervid resistant , and even then , each single deer ’s appetite is different from the next . While put to work on the website , the cervid would follow me around like pet , sometimes lurking just a few foot out from me , expect to see what I had brought them to eat .

When deal with the cervid and other nonstop eating machines , I ’ve found that toy the number game is effective . By plant a wide variety , of cervid - resistant plants , you wo n’t end up with an intact subdivision of your garden carry off should the deer grow a taste sensation for one picky plant . I also had hazard plant several smorgasbord of the same species . I find that , for example , some salvias ( Salviaspp . and cvs . , Zones 5–11 ) considered delectable hors d’oeuvres , while other varieties were completely shunned . I could easily replace varieties that had been eaten with those that had not and still assert the unity of design .

Timing is also important when planting a garden that ’s visited by cervid . The best time of year to plant is spring , when cervid have lots of other options to eat in the surrounding hillside . The worst time is late summertime or fall , when the hills dry out up and the deer are crave . As for any other small critter that occur to throw in , the family computerized axial tomography does a respectable job of make a dent in their universe .

By taking cues from the environment , choosing plant that are adapted this climate , and accepting the local wildlife , we ’ve created a garden that works with nature and not against it .

Deer-resistant plants have a lot in common

The reasons are many — as well as mysterious — why deer think some plants a goody and others something to avoid . Plants touted as “ deer repellent ” lean to have some characteristics in usual : Their leafage is blurred , highly redolent , blockheaded , or briary , or it contains some soft of irritant . Keep these constituent in nous when purchasing works that you want hungry deer to ignore . Here are some of the plants that deer eschew in this garden :

Giving a classic style a casual makeover

Filoli is one of Northern California ’s most telling estates , and its notable knot garden is the inspiration behind this invention . I ’ve always loved gnarl gardens and the way the plant seem to wind under and over one another in a Persian carpet sort of path . By abiding by some of the classic knot garden ’s design elements and altering others , I was capable to attain in this fooling California garden the desired weaving effect of a traditional knot garden without the irritability that it usually entails .

What she kept

What she changed

Rebecca Sweet is a garden intriguer in Los Altos , California .

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An ecofriendly house demands an ecofriendly garden.Plants native to the area and to similar climates around the world are naturally adapted to the harsh conditions in this garden, keeping watering and problems to a minimum.