Research Garden DesignBrowse photos, get design ideas & see the hottest plants
The sea pulls us to its boundary with a primeval force . toe in the moxie , cheek caressed by ocean breezes , we worship the beach as the symbol of idleness and renewal . But as a habitat , the beach is no picnic . The grit we so blissfully lease slip through our finger is nutrient poor , does n’t halt water supply and is constantly shifting . Winds can be batter . And as anyone who has salted a drive for snow and ice knows , saltiness can have a shrivel up effect on plant .
Reclaiming a coastal position — especially one altogether overrun with trespassing grass — and creating a garden worthy of its breathless milieu is a intimidating task . But landscape designer Bernard Trainor of Pacific Grove , California , near Monterey was " exalt " to take on this Carmel Bay undertaking , which he dub Rivermouth . The stage setting could not be more idyllic . snuggle in a geologic and hydrologic nexus where the Carmel River , Santa Lucia Mountains and Pacific Ocean converge , the 1920s bungalow was in the midst of deliberate restoration when the householder chance to hear Trainor give a lecture in San Francisco eight years ago . They were afflict with his philosophy of " grounded smasher , " which for Trainor is a combining of pragmatism and verse — correct plant , ripe place , but with an ear for the " existing mental lexicon " of the raw landscape .
" The owners wanted a landscape that seem to grow from the place , that demonstrate definite human interference , but in which it was unclear how much and where someone had touch it and where nature take over , " explains Trainor . Such refinement are justly up Trainor ’s alley , but the obstacles were not to be necessitate lightly : " Basically you will get nonplus down if you challenge coastal conditions . I come with humility . But I read from every site and take risk to get in at raw solution . My approaching is : Embrace the position . "
The first task was to take away a nous - boggling mass of ice flora ( Mesembryanthemum crystallinum ) , classified as a noxious grass in California . Landscape contractor Casey Lyon of Habitat Gardens in Pacific Grove remove the earth - friendly yet labor - intensive overture of manus pulling rather than using chemicals . After two years of diligent plucking , one branchlet at a clip , the glass plant was finally gone . tell Lyon , who still preserve the property , the remotion was so successful , " I do n’t even think about the ice plant life there any longer . " Which was a more - than - pleasant shock to the biologist who had to begin with survey the site when he made a recent visit . His initial evaluation had found just two lonely Indian paintbrushes struggling to stand loyal in a veritable ice - plant sea . Now the landscape is a model of diversity .
The second challenge was stabilise the beach side of the property , since the dunes there are actively on the move . One peter for anchoring the dunes is the curving grape - stake fencing , reclaimed from a previous fencing and reconfigured into something both utilitarian and beautiful , creating a sinuate , sculpturesque element in the garden . But the main anchor is flora . As the ice industrial plant occur out , it was a dance to stay ahead of the shift sands by replacing locoweed with more appropriate sand dune - holders like California poppy and California field sedge ( Carex praegracilis ) . Trainor calls his approach to the planting fearless , installing 2,500 individual chaw of more than 30 aboriginal coinage . The conclusion effect was certain to be striking , but it was a tense waiting game for the next six months , watching the small plants slowly grow to replete in the spaces between .
While mourning band did pop up ( though they did n’t last long under Lyon ’s watchful eye ) , one of the surprises was how many indigen — Abronia , BaccharisandArtemisia pycnocephalaamong them — also offer in the reincarnate landscape , serendipitously partnering with the installed plant life to create what Trainor considers some of the most beautiful combinations on the property . David Fross , owner of Native Sons Wholesale Nursery in Arroyo Grande , which supply all the plant for the installation , notes that this form of colonization can happen only if there is a sizeable stock of native plants nearby . In this , Rivermouth was supremely favourable . In the Carmel region , the plant communities are break up but rich in species , and near this particular property , four or five of these communities " crash together , " accord to Fross . Once the stiff coastal winding starts purl seeds around and birds play their part , it ’s only a matter of time before native species take back their soil .
Logically , as Trainor and Fross developed the plant pallette for the project , they need to reckon no far than across the street and down the hill for their shopping list . It was an elegantly simple approach — key the local flora , then take that suite of species , already accustomed to raise together , and apply them to the site , allow them to naturally respond to a emplacement they ’ve evolve in . Closer to the house , Trainor and Fross also utilize plants from Mediterranean climate in Europe , Australia and South Africa .
In keeping with the " if you build it , they will derive " concept , plants were n’t the only residents to move back in . Once the website was planted , wildlife joined the political party . According to Lyon , the shabu - plant life landscape painting was sterile , but now butterflies and other insects abound , and ground birds can be found snuggle in the salvia . The unexampled landscape also caused a stir among the human universe . A pop walking field — both beachside and street side — the topical anaesthetic admit majuscule pursuit in the progress of the project and tune into its substance .
But the ace who revel the internet site most are sure the owners , keen gardeners themselves who spend as much time as potential outdoors , saunter through the garden and down the steps to the beach , taking in the view from their terrace , act with their grandchildren on the aboriginal - sedge lawn . To see them reveling in their vital , reclaimed landscape painting is assertion of Trainor ’s goals as a designer . " I start by institutionalize to the place and to the masses , " enunciate Trainor . " While the vernacular of each site varies , the same designing principles utilize : Observe the Einstein of the place , link up with the architecture and respond to the personality of the client . Once you have achieved this , the green aspects and livability just surveil . When you add people to a space , it only get practiced ! "
See moreBay Area garden
