A California Garden

I had the privilege of visiting a beautiful garden a few days ago.  The predominant colors are bronzy purple, blue, and chartreuse, with touches of silver, pure purple, and orange.  The disciplined and harmonious color palette is in great contrast to my own all-color-is-good-color mishmash. 

Cercis canadiensis 'Forest Pansy':


Bronzy purple Phormium  and 'Forest Pansy' Cercis with blue Senecio mandraliscae:


Crassula:






The garden hosts towering mature trees that provide dappled rather than heavy shade.  The price for towering trees are large root systems and litter.




Water thrifty plants are plentiful, and stone color agrees with the overall color scheme:





 


Is any California garden truly complete without California Golden Poppies (Eschscholzia californica)?


Views of natural hillside beyond the garden add to the beauty:


A decomposed granite path leads to a lush kitchen garden:






The gardener has added a totem of hope that local rabbits won't decimate the veggies this year:



The kitchen garden is decorative as well as providing food:



Artichoke:



Native carex is planted as a meadow.  Unfortunately, the local rabbit population finds the native Carex as delicious as more exotic turfgrass.


Beyond the kitchen garden is a axial view of a knot-garden set in lawn.  There is a bottle tree, California style (fancy water?):


The bronzy-purple, blue, and chartreuse theme continues in the knot garden, morphed into a softer bronze, a silvery blue, and a more muted chartreuse:



Touches of orange are added in the flowers of the pomegranate tree and Lotus ground cover:




Color is provided by foliage.  Flowers are small vivid touches that vary by season.



Past the knot garden the area is centered around another mature specimen tree.  The focus is more firmly fixed by the clever re-use of a worn-out wheelbarrow as a planter:


 


In this slightly more shaded area, lush plantings provide a sense of coolness after the brighter sunnier kitchen garden:



Here, the blue of the consistent palette is expressed by native Ceonothus:




I hope you enjoyed this beautiful garden as much as I did!