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Super Natural Landscapes

Poppy lined garden path photo

A supernatural landscape style is not a term you hear every day in gardening circles. Supernatural often connotes mysticism and other worlds and magic. We use the term supernatural to describe our Planet Horticulture style of landscape gardening featuring diverse plants from around the world that are climate appropriate, arranged in heightened naturalistic combinations set into garden spaces with good circulation and gathering areas. Creating a recognizable garden style was a gradual evolution. We combine the art and science of horticulture to make gardens that are functional and a pleasure to the senses. Our own kind of landscape “magic.”

Creating Natural Environments with Diversity

So many gardens out there lack a real sense of nature and are manicured spaces that have little practical use. Many people choose geometric garden designs that are overly practical and straightforward forms that lack diversity and creativity. These designs often break up spaces and make them feel smaller. And they usually don’t relate to the broader natural landscape that they are surrounded by. Expanding minds and practices that people employ in the use of their garden spaces is one of our primary missions.

Starting in 1981, for more than 20 years, Roger Raiche assumed charge as Curator of the 15-acre California Native Plant Collection at UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley. Roger transformed the collection, creating an exaggerated naturalistic look, and adding several thousand new plants to the collection from his extensive field trips. These trips exposed Roger to the vast diversity of native plant habitats and settings. The observations in nature helped Roger find the best expressions for combining plants so they looked natural, beautiful and happy. The collections could be used by students and faculty to experience plant communities from various parts of the state in a miniature form.

UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley in the late 80s

UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley in the late 80s

Roger coined the name, Planet Horticulture, to refer to his unique garden at the Maybeck Cottage in North Berkeley where he and Dave lived. This hillside garden included serpentine trails that created circulation to all parts of the garden. Many focal points, like fountains and urns, were placed to catch the eye and provide detail in the landscape. Several openings along the circulation of trails became gathering areas for relaxing destinations, secluded spots for reflection and larger openings for gathering in groups, for outdoor living. The garden was a fantasy of plants that Roger collected from the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens and a variety of California nurseries. He was able to gather an incredible diversity of plants that included trees, shrubs, ground covers, grasses, vines and bulbs. Arranging this variety of plants was again a combination of a scientific understanding of the plants and an artistic flair as to how they would look together aesthetically.

Agave used as a focal point

Agave used as a focal point

Composition

A landscape or garden looks right when the elements, plants, architecture, space (open vs closed), circulation, and focal points look balanced and restful. This does not mean the plantings have to be dull, ordinary or boring-looking, but rather how they are put together looks balanced. High energy plants, palms, agave, yuccas, cordylines, grasses, and other spikey elements that are ebullient, can all be mixed as long as they are balanced in the final composition. Others may prefer these energetic plants to be used as isolated focal plants, with masses of mounding, trailing, “cuddly” or “calmer” plants to set them off. Almost all of our clients have some bias toward either “active” or “calm” or “wild” or “tailored” design styles and we always find the right mix for them. We find the most satisfying landscapes are a balance of all of these feels.

Many people prefer to use large numbers of the same plants when filling garden space. Some will just put sod in when they can’t envision an alternative. Indeed, many landscape architecture and master gardener programs don’t require learning more than 100 plants to get a degree or certification. Geometric designs are often suggested because they are easier for people to create and read, easier for a contractor to implement, easier for a limited plant palate to be acquired from a single nursery. A typical front yard design in a suburban setting may mass 100 bunch grasses or Mondo grass, some lawn area, hedges of Boxwood and Privet, a Sycamore for shade, and a dozen white ‘Iceberg’ roses, and call it a day. It looks quite tasteful and uncomplicated. But it lacks creativity and doesn’t relate to our natural world. It can also be quite static, lacking seasonality and joys of garden diversity.

Garden designed with plant diversity in mind

Garden Designed with diversity in mind

Diversity

Highly diverse plantings can also fill those spaces. We think diverse plantings offer more color, texture, seasonality and sensual stimulation. We are not alone. Birds, bees, butterflies, all kinds of beneficial insects, and the whole chain of our natural ecosystem are also stimulated and benefit from diversity. Bringing diversity to our gardens is one step we can all take to live in harmony with the natural world. If you do have the chance to visit local natural areas, most of them will have an incredible diversity of plant types, with layers of understory plants, seasonal bulbs and annuals, small creeping vines, perennials, trees and shrubs, all growing together in a community. That is our biggest inspiration for garden designs, creating a kind of heightened version of nature with new plant communities.

Renewed interest in pollinator-friendly gardens has become popular. Choosing plants to attract and sustain bees (honeybees and native bees), butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds and such is a fun way to enliven any garden. Recent news stories about the critically low numbers of migrating monarch butterflies and the decline of bees are only two examples of the importance we can play in helping our ecology through plant diversity. Planting native milkweed species for monarch butterflies is one plant type you can help sustain these butterflies. The many varieties of Callistemon and Buddleia you can use as shrubs, and Hyssop and Verbena as perennial color, that will also help Monarch Butterflies. We find that the more diverse a planting, the more diversity of insects, birds and wildlife you will attract.

Containers used to showcase plants

Containers used to showcase plants

Diverse plantings require artistic placement, where each plant or plant type pleasantly highlights and compliments those nearby, and that compliment or set off those behind and next to them, and onward. It is essential to know how each plant is going to develop so the planting is like a symphony rather than “winner takes all” battle. Repeating key plants throughout the garden – rather than massing them in one area, gives the finished landscape a continuity. This repetition is critical to avoid a haphazard garden and a way to make your collection read as its own plant community.

Containers

One way to showcase a particular plant or group of plants is to put them in a large container. This elevates the plant(s), gives them greater prominence, creates a focal point, allows for special soil mixes, irrigation needs and so forth. Containers are also ideal for displaying seasonal “color” set into a more permanent planting. Also, the container itself can be chosen for size, shape, color, artistry, etc. which all add to the beauty of your plantings. To ensure a long duration for potted plants, make sure the soil mix you choose shrinks as little as possible, initially over-fill the pots to allow for shrinkage, avoid soils with manures that stain patio surfaces, and cut larger drainage holes to prevent root clogging and water saturation.

Drought Tolerance

We live in a Mediterranean climate, cool wet winters, and hot, dry summers. All the rain/snow that falls has to not only support all the varied natural habitats that exist but provide drinking water, agricultural water, water for industry and landscape water – for a state with an increasing population. Climate change is real. It is only logical that we try to stretch what water we use as efficiently as possible. Fortunately, there is a wide selection of plants, plant types or plant forms that are drought tolerant, both from our native flora and from other dry areas of the world that are available in the nursery trade. Using these in our landscapes can be visually varied and exciting. A considerable number may need no additional water once established. One critical thing when using non-native drought-tolerant plants is to avoid invasive plants that can naturalize and become pests in our natural landscapes.

Pollinator-friendly gardens are also frequently drought-tolerant

Pollinator-friendly gardens are also frequently drought-tolerant

Drought-adapted landscapes require careful zoning of irrigation so that some areas might feature lusher looking plants (bedding plants, vegetables, lawns, etc.) while others may go partially or entirely without summer irrigation. Creating oasis areas as a counterpart to the larger, drier zones is a smart use for irrigation.

Native Plants

Native plants continue to increase in popularity for many reasons, but perhaps a core theme is having plants in your gardens/landscape that remind you of natural areas in our remarkable state. While the term “native plant” is frequently used as a synonym for “drought tolerant”, California native plants come from many diverse habitats, from standing water to desert rocks, so tolerance to dryness is a separate issue. Consensus has the term applying to plants existing within the state’s boundaries before the colonization by Europeans. The desire to re-connect to the larger, wilder place we call home is a good thing and provides an excellent focus for landscape. Beyond the beauty, many of organisms have evolved unique associations with natives, so we benefit them as well with these plantings.

Happy Gardening!


by Roger Raiche David McCrory, Planet Horticulture

Russian River Garden Planet Horticulture style
Planet Horticulture

Planet Horticulture

Serving the following California Counties:

     San Francisco     San Mateo
     Marin     Napa    Sonoma
     Alameda  Contra Costa 

CA License #740638
Contact Us

Email: gardens@planethorticulture.com  
Phone: + 1-415-827-4342
Office located in San Francisco, CA 

24 Years of Garden Design Excellence!