top of page

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


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.

Comments


bottom of page