(photo via Harmony in the Garden, Rebecca Sweet)
Rebecca Sweet’s Garden
Location: Los Altos
Garden Design: Rebecca Sweet, Harmony in the Garden
Blog: Gossip in the Garden
Rebecca’s Books: Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces, 2011
Coming Soon: Refresh Your Garden Design with Color, Texture and Form, Fall 2013
Garden Description: I’ve spent the past 15 years re-inventing the garden of my childhood home nestled within the heart of Silicon Valley. My goal? To create a secluded, private and deeply personal garden where one can lose themselves for hours, despite being surrounded by such a bustling urban area.
Consisting of several private spaces, infused with childhood mementos from both my own past as well as my daughter’s, my garden is less of a designer showpiece and more like a diary. It’s a place to play, experiment and show my personality – and I love it with all my heart.
Garden Highlights: Succulents mixed throughout lush, traditional borders, including:
– – an unusual variegated Octopus agave (Agave vilmoriniana) – lush stonecrop used instead of mulch – succulents and perennials living happily together in windowboxes – towering aeoniums (‘Zwartzkopf’ and ‘Cyclops’) at home with perennial borders – borders of echeveria imbricata woven throughout, originating from my parent’s first garden over 45 years ago!
Australian plants at home in my garden:
– Grevillea ‘Superb’, ‘Mt. Tamboritha’
– Euphorbia ceratocarpa, ‘Glacier Blue’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Ruby Glow’, ‘Ascots Rainbow’
– Kniphofia ‘Mango Popsicle’
– Phormium ‘Sea Jade’, ‘Atropurpureum’
– Australian Willow trees (Geijera parviflora)
– Anigozanthos ‘Harmony’
– Bulbine frutescens
Extensive use of evergreen shrubs and trees (both common and unusual) act as the bones of the garden and provide year-round color, texture and form:
– Pittosporum (‘Golf Ball Kohuhu’, ‘Wheelers Dwarf’, ‘Tasman Ruffles’, Tobira)
– Euonymus (‘Green Spires, ‘Emerald Gaity’, ‘Emerald n Gold’, Boxleaf, ‘Moonshadow’)
– Loropetalum (‘Purple Pixie’, ‘Ever Red’, ‘Sizzling Pink’)
– Laurel (‘Saratoga’, ‘English’)
– Podocarpus ‘Icee Blue’
– Elaeagnus pungens ‘Gilt Edge’
– Citrus (‘Washington Naval’ tree, espaliered kumquat, ‘Bearrs’ lime, ‘Meyer’ and ‘Eureka’ lemon)
– Camelias (‘Scentsation’, ‘Apple Blossom’, ‘Debutante’, ‘Setsugekka’, ‘Yuletide’)
– Manzanita ‘Howard McMinn’
Grasses and grass-like plants woven throughout:
– Lomandra ‘Breeze Mat’
– Carex divulsa (Berkeley Sedge)
– Carex secta
– Carex ‘Evergold’
– Carex ‘Evergreen’
– Carex testacea (Orange Carex)
– Blue Oat Grass
– Blue Lime Grass
– Blue Fescue (‘Beyond Blue’ – new variety)
– Sesleria ‘John Greenlee’
Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’
Fling Attendees: Please add a link to your post about this garden in the comments section below.
