Rebecca Sweet’s Garden

(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.