I finally had the good sense to pay heed to the design advice of my dear friend, garden designer Jane Coombs. I was reluctant at first because I was afraid that sweeps of one plant would make my garden less dramatic. I could not have been more wrong. My garden packs more wow wallop now than ever before. An added plus is that my coveted specimen plants stand out better against a mass than they did as just one of many onesies.

Lovely photos!

It's also really hard for a plant lover to deliberately restrict how many plants they can cram into one garden, don't you think? That's why I still have trouble putting this theory to work in my own garden. But I'm getting closer.

I've found room to start trying this by removing some lawn, per your previous posts! Remove a strip of lawn, put in a strip of coral bells...

Sheila gave the answer I would have, Sharon.

The other thing to ponder is that the sweeps don't have to be your basic foundation-type plants. They can be masses of the coolest and latest (provided they aren't too dear), which gives them so much more impact. Instead of "Look, she's got such-and-such," you'll hear "LOOK, she's got such-and-such!!!" I look at it as permission to buy more than one of my latest love (you know you want to, you just needed an excuse to do so).

Some things to keep in mind:
As with any garden, a garden with mass planting is best designed that way, so that the whole works. You do get efficiency of scale in maintenance, as well as impact. Plant choice is important: you don’t want to end up with a parking lot look (Indian Hawthorn), or a Disneyland look (geraniums). Keep in mind that with a mass planting, while the impact is impressive during peak season, the same goes for the down season. Don’t choose something you love in bloom but hate nine months of the year. Plant form is critical to the design. As a plant collector, I can dream about a mass planting (maybe in a second home?), but it would drive me nuts to actually have one. More blah-blah on my blog.

I enjoyed your thoughtful post on this subject on your blog, Forest. Hope to hear from you again.

You've obviously found your bliss early. (Forest is still in college.) I bet you're going to be one heck of a landscape architect.

CAUTION. Feather Grass can be really invasive. I don't know about in Santa Barbara but in the foothills above San Jose it takes over. If you are looking for a mass planting that will grow with NO water and comes up everywhere, even in the middle of asphalt. Feather grass is the ticket! It's what I call the ultimate survivor.

Mexican Feather grass is an invasive plant that can be harmful to rangeland animals. It's been outlawed in Australia.
Mexican Feather Grass was recently mentioned at a meeting of the San Mateo County Weed Management Advisory Committee.
I’m a member of that committee, but hadn’t thought much about that plant. During the past few weeks I’ve seen about one hundred or more of the lovely but dangerous plants in ornamental Coastside plantings. If you have it in your yard, or around your business please pull it out and throw it in the trash. Do not compost it or put in in with green waste as this will spread the seeds. Please do not buy it, or plant it. I was moved to post this because of my concern for our Coastside, not as a part of any organization.
The California Invasive Plant Council (Cal=IPC http://www.cal-ipc.org/) is aware of this plant and working to halt commercial sales. The following is from the Cal-IPC website.

Nassella tenuissima (Mexican feathergrass) — Widely sold and grown throughout California. Also called Stipa tenuissima or ponytails. Touted as a good drought resistant plant. Australia and New Zealand list it as a serious threat to agriculture. Q-rated by CDFA in 2004; recently proposed to change to C list. Has not yet established in the wild, but is a frequent escape in gardens. Need to keep an eye on it in wildlands and make sure it does not get established, primarily in coastal areas from the Bay Area to southern California.

From http://marianistcenter.blogspot.com/2007/06/nassella-tenuissima.html:

Nassella tenuissima is commonly known as Mexican feather grass. N. tenuissima can be a weed in its native range at sites under high disturbance, such as that caused by overgrazing.

The grass forms indigestible balls in the stomach of stock and, if forced to graze it, the stock may lose weight and die, as the plant has a high fibre content and a low nutritive value.

This grass is an extremely vigorous, invasive plant which crowds out desirable pasture species, reducing stock carrying capacity. It can also crowd out native grasses in coastal or open areas. In Australia, it has the potential to spread through grazing land, replacing grass species currently used to raise cattle with unpalatable tussock habitat. It has the potential to cover 14 million hectares of land in Australia. N. tenuissima has been shown to be invasive in fire-driven or littoral ecosystems and habitats, which has precipitated concern in South Africa that it could threaten native grassland habitats

I love the look especially of Lavander - the plant that just keeps giving. I have dug up my front yard and have planted a mix, yet there still was a strip of yard and now I know what to do and that grass is going going gone! thanx

The advice to plant in mass in not new, with good reason, it looks great. But what about the equally good advice to plant a wide variety of plants? It not just more visually interesting and fun, it also attracts a sufficient variety of beneficial insects which keep each other in check, minimizing the need for pesticides. The two approaches are tricky to accomplish on the average suburban parcel.

Maybe we can learn from natural landscape form to have beautiful idea for our garden. Great posting, I will link to you soon. Thanks