Contemporary Sustainable Private Landscapes

Day Three of the Pacific Horticulture Gardening Under Mediterranean Skies VII: Lessons in Sustainable Gardening, in Santa Barbara.

We visited four private gardens today, designed by local landscape architects and designers, including Isabelle Greene (great grand daughter of Henry Maher Green, and great grandniece of Charles Sumner Greene), Puck Erikson, Sydney Baumgartner, and Lynn Marie Woodbury.

In the first garden we met Isabelle Greene and saw the very beautiful garden there that used a series of swales to collect rainwater from both the garden and the roof of the house. The swales collect the water from around the property and help slow its passage down so that the soil can be recharged. The lawn was planted using Carex praegracilis, which is much more drought tolerant and slow growing than regular turf grass...

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Diane E Downey is the owner of The Yard Fairy Inc, a North San Diego County based award winning landscape design and installation company creating low water, low maintenance landscapes that are as functional as they are pleasing to the eye. To arrange your consultation with The Yard Fairy, please call 760 804 1661 or email info at yardfairy.com today.