Otherworldly Landscape Design // Art Luna Garden

When I came across the image above, I was arrested. It might have been the rust colored, mid-century velvet sectional, seemingly at odds with an outdoor setting; perhaps it was the towering ferns that created the Avatar-like canopy above it or the contrast of the lush greenery punctuated by the tawny red accents. It was likely the combination of all of these elements that struck me as otherworldly and I confess, it stopped me dead in my tracks.

I like being surprised by design, particularly in the garden. Designing a beautiful indoor space presents it's own challenges, yet feels somewhat more natural or familiar. But taming an unruly garden can sometimes seem like an entirely new frontier altogether, akin to the wild west.  We are after all, working with living, breathing species out there, coaching and cajoling them into performing the way we need them to in order to achieve our overall design plan. Considering that, it's even more remarkable when you see results as in the image above.

But the story behind the designer is just as surprising as the landscapes he designs. Art Luna has long been a top LA hairstylist to A-List celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Diane Lane and Kirsten Dunst, who have visited his Santa Monica salon since opening in 1995. Looking to make his salon unique, he blended his love of gardening with his business and created an lush waiting area on the patio garden outside his back doors.  As he grew his salon business, his celebrity clientele would bring him gardening books and accompany him to local nurseries where he cultivated his expertise in garden design. He also attended lectures and took inspiration through travel, visiting some of the great gardens in Europe. He used his own home garden as a testing ground for hard to find exotics and began honing his own style. 

Eventually, he was hired by Beverly Hills socialites and salon clients to transform large expanses of untamed hillside properties where eventually, he developed his signature aesthetic:  indoor-outdoor living that is exotic, free-flowing, yet structured with a touch of flamboyance. 

He officially opened his own design studio, Art Luna Garden, and now grooms remarkable gardens for the same celebrity roster that visits his renown salon. 

Talk about reinvention.

Luna uses unexpected elements in his designs. Here, crystals take shade underneath a canopy of Japanese Maples. 

Image sources: 

Art Luna Garden

From Moon to Moon

For more photos + inspiration from Lisa Eisner's garden (top image), check out these articles:

WMagazine

Garden Design

CMagazine

Plans for a Spring Vegetable Garden

The high in LA topped 80 degrees on Saturday and just like that, our last frost was clearly behind us and Spring arrived early in Southern California. I'll confess that my internal calendar has been a little ahead of schedule anyway. With one harvest now behind me - a real learning experience about sunlight, water and growth times I might add- I've been doing a lot of planning and plotting for the perfect Spring vegetable garden. 

Williams-Sonoma has a relatively new Agrarian shop on their website with both helpful gardening tips and products to match. I'm deferring to the harvest calendar they have on their website to help me get the appropriate veggies in the ground in time for summer. Simply find your zone and click on the relative number up top to get a beautiful, easy to print guide to all the options you have to get in the ground right now.

I'm also counting on adding a few of these helpers to my shed's repertoire:

one | two | three | four | five | six

*herb garden image 

Signs of Spring

Gardening takes patience and at long last I got another reward yesterday. These rewards rarely come all at once and while my impatience for perfection would argue otherwise, perhaps it's because they only slowly unfold to us that they are truly recognized.

I feel like the lessons I'm reminded of in the garden can also be applied in many other areas of my life; relationships, home, career, family matters- they rarely seem to align harmoniously with one another and I can become at bit compulsive in my quest to make all those jagged little pieces fit together into one happy little puzzle.

But then... suddenly, there are moments of clarity where despite some measure of chaos, all feels somehow renewed and right with the world again. It's these moments that we must stand still in and and take notice of and this morning, I'm doing just that.

Happy weekend to you.

Garden Therapy

Sometimes when you have something weighing on your mind, the only thing to do is to busy your head and hands with industrious project work from dawn to dusk, leaving yourself utterly exhausted when you finally hit the pillow. This is my M.O. and it is exactly what I did on Sunday. And The Hipster's sore, chapped and sunburnt bod is still paying for it dearly as I roll back to work this Monday morning.

At least something got accomplished out in the yard.

The Happiest Place on Earth

We had another wave of Santa Anas come through between Friday and Saturday, wreaking havoc on backyard landscapes and the allergy laden, but leaving us with summertime temperatures to enjoy smack dab in the middle of winter. Only in Southern California will you get 80 degrees in January.

Sunday was particularly surreal. Everybody was out. I'm talking t-shirts and shorts, biking, lunching on patios, driving the coastline. So I do what I always do when the weather is this nice. I headed to the Happiest Place on Earth. Disney has nothing on this place. 

Behold- Roger's Gardens in Corona Del Mar, California. 

This is not your regular garden variety garden center if you know what I mean. Roger's Gardens sits on seven acres, perched on a hilltop with ocean views just to the east of the famed Fashion Island in Newport Beach. It's laid out across several tiers of carefully curated landscape, with various indoor gift shops meandering off the perimeter featuring everything from a floral studio to candles to gourmet food fare.  They also host weekly classes and events that draw garden enthusiasts from all over Orange County, particularly in Springtime. 

Catering to the coastal gardner and the drought tolerant landscaping that has become so popular throughout Southern California, Roger's is just as famous for their selection of succulents as they are their rare rose bush offerings.

Though I always manage to take home a few things on each trip, I frequent the garden center mostly for inspiration. 

Potted Japanese Maples flanked with black beach pebble and Sedum

A colorful display of Coral Branch Maples awaiting their Spring leaves.
Those are Cherry Blossoms to the left. Told you it has been warm.

Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar on a trellis- very much a possible solution for our patio.
They did this with Japanese Maples last Spring as well and it was insane just how pretty it looked.

Funny little display of Owls as garden sculpture

Elegia- a non-running reed that eventually may find a home near our fountain.
How pretty would a few cut stems look in a floral arrangement?

My long lusted after Nagami Kumquat Tree. Someday you will be mine.

A raised vegetable bed display in the "Victory Garden"

Construction idea for our own eventual DIY

Lots of ideas and yes, a few things made it home with me like two Pink Jasmine vines which I promptly planted behind our row of Kangaroo paw and Feather Grass once I arrived home. But mostly it just felt good to defy the season and walk about, bare armed in the sun with the smell of a warm ocean breeze.

All images via Holtwood Hipster