By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

A garden can be a consuming passion—at least until you feel it consuming you. When Val Easton found herself in that spot, she knew it was time to move on, this time to a gem of a low-maintenance garden she made for herself. It kept her passion for gardening alive and spawned a terrific book, The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden (Timber Press, Portland, 2009; $19.95).

Because the book is rooted in Easton’s personal and recent experience, she makes her case with formidable authority: “Somewhere along the way to plant collecting and competitive gardening, we forgot the ancient notion of the garden as a place of respite, an oasis remote from worldly cares and chores. We forgot nature’s ability to soothe, renew, and nurture.… [Her] ability to work her magic on us is dependent on our slowing down and looking closely, not on our constant efforts to improve upon her.” Easton calls gardening as it was meant to be “the feast we forget to partake of.”

In the end, she found that low maintenance wasn’t about gardening lite—she wanted “the exhaustion ... taken out, not the fulfillment”—it was instead all about design. Thus her mantra: “Design before plants, think geometry, and invest in infrastructure.”

So how did all this work out in her own landscape? The book gives you a peek through the lens of Jacqueline Koch. In addition to vignettes of Easton’s own garden (see below), you get a look at a passel of other high appeal, low-maintenance gardens and parts of gardens that are scattered like jewels across North America. You look and say “I want this,” realizing that your desire has everything to do with the sanctuary garden that Easton is calling you back to. Low maintenance is just the part of the equation that gives you the time to enjoy the sanctuary you create.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Photos © Log House Plants, 2009

Ornamental kale can make as much impact with leaves as other plants do with flowers. Taking advantage of that, Log House Plants has released a remarkable Dutch series of Kale that can be lightly pruned to take the illusion still further.

You plant these about 6 inches apart, and after they reach about 6 inches tall, you start pruning off the lower leaves so that each plant gets that long-stemmed, flower-at-the-top look. (The flowers, of course, are really just colored leaves.) Once plants reach a foot tall, support each with a small stake. Pretty amazing, isn't it?

Just plant it in gritty, fast-draining soil and it should survive a winter that would take out all other agaves. The principle (which is the same for many plants) is that it can handle the cold as long as its roots don't have to contend with constantly soggy soil. 

Expect it to grow about a foot tall, and to produce offsets that extend its width to 15 or 20 inches in the ground. This is also a great pot plant.

Starting December 1st, you can mail-order Agave 'Sunspot' from High Country Gardens in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Or preorder now by mail or phone (800/925-9387).

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Okay, I lied.  When I posted about Susan Van Atta's new book, The Southern California Native Flower Garden recently, I said I had decided on a replacement planting plan.  I had the one on the left in mind.  But, as I said in the post, this is a hard book to put down, and now I like the combo on the right just as well.

So, what do you think experienced native growers? 

Shall I go with Plan A, on the left:  Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor), Heuchera maxima, and five-fingered fern (Adiantu aleuticum)?

Or Plan B, on the right:  Spicebush (Calycanthus occidentalis), Acalypha californica (California copperleaf), and Roger's Red grape?

I live in Sunset zone 24 and the area in question gets good morning sun and is in light shade in the afternoon.  I have silty loam soil.

Please advise.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

  I always thought tri-cut gardening books--the kind where you flip pages back and forth to see different plant combos together--were just gimmicks.  So when The Southern California Native Flower Garden, which uses that format, appeared in the mail, I was fairly skeptical, even though I know and trust the author.  But there's no harm in road testing it, I decided.  And I used the book as a planning tool to come up with some alternative vignettes for a section of my native garden I'm not pleased with.

I'm still road testing.  Not that the book hasn't been useful--it's great, in fact.  It's just that it makes research so much fun, I'm having a hard time putting it down even though I'm pretty sure I've already decided on my replacement vignette.

The book is set up with plant illustrations on the right.  Tall on the top, medium in the middle, and low on the bottom.  The illustrations also show exposure, water needs, peak interest period, habitat value, and--we like this--Sunset climate zones.  And, on the left, there's a plant profile.  Most of them include companion plantings.  Using these suggestions to create vignettes is a great way to begin getting acquainted with the book's format.

The more you use the book, the better you get at making the most of it, I'm finding.  For instance, at first I was just paying attention to make sure the plants I was combining needed the same amount of sun and water.  But, then, after awhile, without really setting out to, I began combining plants that had the same origin--woodland, coastal sage, etc.--and the combinations, not surprisingly, looked like they belonged together.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised this would be a great book.  I've seen and loved many a Susan Van Atta garden--several of which have appeared in Sunset's pages.  And I know Van Atta dearly loves native plants and that the 164 species she's chosen for this book have been thoroughly vetted.  It's just the format I was dubious about.  And, surprise, surprise, it's what I like best.

If you can't find the book at your usual sources, you can order it on-line directly from Gibbs Smith, the publisher.

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Photos by Alicia Martin

We can't wait to check out the Late Show Gardens, a brand new garden show at Cornerstone in Sonoma, California focusing on design and sustainability. We've been looking forward to it for months since the contributors are some of the biggest names in horticulture—essentially the who's who of the garden scene—from the Bay Area and beyond.

As you can imagine, pulling together a garden show is a major undertaking. It involves endless planning and organizing, and the week before the show, when designers actually start building the display gardens, is especially intense. Tons of soil are hauled in, along with large trees, landscape art, and accessories—the photo above is a behind-the-scenes look at two displays, Growth Melt and Overgrowth, in progress. We can't wait to see what they look like when they're done!

The show kicks off this Thursday 9/17 with an evening preview party, and runs through Sunday 9/20. I'll be there Friday—hope to see you there!

For info and tickets, go to thelateshowgardens.org or call 415/721-1550.

By Johanna Silver, Sunset test garden coordinator

September? Already? Here's what's giving our test garden some late summer color:

Arctosis 'Pink Sugar'

Ornithogalum saundersiae

Gaillardia, 'Tizzy'

Lily, 'Kentucky'

Lantana, 'Lucky Pure Gold' & Santa Barbara Daisy

Mandevilla, 'Sun Parasol Crimson'

Dahlia, 'Lirio Dorado'

Dahlia, 'Blown Dry'

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

That's the situation Robin Rouse faced in her beachside house in Cayucos on the Central California Coast.  All of Rouse's primary living quarters are on the second floor.  There is a large deck up there, too, with an even better view of the ocean than from the patio below.  So there really wasn't that much reason to descend.  Still you looked down on it every day.  So it needed a focus.

Baywood Park landscape architect Jeffrey Gordon Smith gave it a dramatic one.  The Nautilus shell was his inspiration.  He laid down a spiral-patterned patio constructed out of flagstone pieces interplanted with Dymondia. And he ran a ribbon of tumbled blue glass -- reminiscent of beach glass -- through it.  At the center he installed a small gas-fired fire pit housed in a Corten steel bowl.  There are strands of 110 volt rope lighting underneath the glass ribbon which create enough glow you can see the patio's motif even after dark.

Smith added curved retaining walls wide enough to double as seating walls around the perimeter of the patio -- suspecting Rouse might be more tempted to use the space once he was finished.  And he painted the sea wall behind them the color of beach sand so it would virtually disappear.

Rouse says with this pretty pattern to look at her second story view is better than ever.  The fire pit even puts out enough warmth to heat her top deck, she says.  Still she spends less time there.  "I find myself being drawn down to the garden now," says Rouse.  "I love this little space."

All photos by Chris Leschinsky

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Honey bees get all the press , but they don't do all the work.  There are dozens of species of native bees equally willing to pollinate your plants.  One of them, the bumble bee, we all know and love.  But the smaller ones -- Anthidium, Xylocopa, Osmia, Halictid, Andrenid, Megachillid, Mlissodes, Anthophorid, -- you likely don't even notice.  The guy seen here--a Halictid, I'm guessing--is an example.

It's not hard to attract more of these hard workers to your garden.  All it takes is providing the right nectar plants.  Emerson Commmunity Garden in San Luis Obispo is proving just how quickly you can get results. 

The gardeners using the twenty nine plots in the Garden began an experiment with entomologist Dr. Gordon Frankie of the University of California Berkeley in 2007.  They began adding flowers known to attract these bees to their individual plots.  (The gardeners were primarily interested in growing edibles, and there were few ornamentals in the Garden when the experiment began.)

It didn't take long to see an increase in the number and type of bees showing up. What's more, says Barbara Smith, one of the plot holders and the local coordinator of the project -- it's her space you see below -- everyone in the community garden has seen improvements in their crop yields. And yields get a little better each season as the gardeners learn more about bee gardening and the number and variety of bees keeps improving.

You don't have to grow anything exotic either as you can see.  Toadflax (Linaria purpurea) gallardia, catmint, asters, rudbeckia, and salvias -- all common garden ornamentals -- are doing a great job luring in native bees at Emerson Community Garden.  There is no shortage of honey bees here either. 

If you're in San Luis Obispo drop by and take a look.  Emerson is at the corner of Nipomo and Pismo Streets.  Look for plants with markers like this to see what they're luring in.  Or visit the U.C. Berkeley  Urban Bee Gardens website to find out what to plant.

Sunset's garden staff is so enthused about the success of the Emerson example, we're going to add some of the plants from Dr. Frankie's list in our own test garden.  Can you have the same success in a small garden about the size as a typical backyard as you can in a community garden?  We'll let you know.

Or, if you're doing it already, please tell us about your successes.