Distraction

Over the weekend we lost our boy. We knew it was coming and tried to ready ourselves, but that doesn't make the pain any less difficult to bear. I might share some thoughts in a post later this week. I promise it won't be a sad post, even though waking up this morning was even more difficult than the last. 

For now, there is distraction. Thank goodness for that.

The Mister and I had plenty to focus on around the house this weekend. Dad came over and helped finish up the front screen (boy does it look sharp!) just in time for planting next weekend. Out back, he also helped us make some progress on the back patio (is that what we're going to call it?).  I shared some plans for this side of the yard in an earlier post. This is the space near the backyard bar where we are looking to install tiered planters along the fence and a fireside seating area. You can see some progress on the planters, now all framed out. The neon string marks the soil line for each. Our property slopes upward and the tiered planters will help compromise for the natural grade in the property, while adding structure and camouflage visual interest along the fence. The fence will actually be upgraded to a "slate" stain and will be offset by some chartreuse plantings on each tier. 

The Phormium in our original plan went out the window. We're now aiming for three of these show-stoppers: 

This feels like it all might come together rather quickly, which is always a good thing in my book. For now, things still look a little blurry and of course, dirty. 

Light My Fire

When I was a kid, my Father built a brick fire pit out in the backyard. I recall it being a big curiosity to me, but in the end, we did not put it to a lot of use. The Mister's family also had a fire pit built in their backyard and it was one of the first things I noticed when he took me home to meet his family so long ago. I always knew we'd build some fire of our own when we finally had the digs for it and after the past two summers spent burning DuraFlame logs out by the pool in our mini, mesh-enclosed, metal fireplace, we finally have a solid plan for a fireside seating area out back. 

Just in time for summer too.

But it took a lot of thought, research and contractor quotes to get to our desired state. The first thing we did was to consider all of the different elements we were shooting for with our fire-scape plans. They really could have gone several ways. 

Just as I did yesterday with the landscape plans out front, I thought I'd end the week tomorrow by giving you a peek at what we are working towards in the backyard. Summer is certainly heating up to be pretty sweet indeed.

intro | whitewashed | hidden | social | focal point | casual 

exotic | playful | sculptural | entertaining

Landscape Plans // Part I

Landscaping plans for the house are finally coming together and today, I thought I'd share a bit about the direction we're taking with our planting scheme.

I previously posted about the decorative wood screen we recently installed out in front of our house. This was the final obstacle standing between us and a fully landscaped yard. Now that it's in, planting can finally commence! We've spent the better part of two years planning out the types of plants we'd want to use, taking notes and pictures while driving neighborhoods, staying at hotels and dining at restaurants where we noticed designs we'd want to incorporate (do you do this too?). We decided long ago that we'd want to use a modern mix of Desert and Mediterranean varities and set out to design a plan that incorporated many of our favorites.

We'll anchor the front garden bed with some edgier desert favorites- natives of Mexico and The Canary Islands. Also used will be a variety of Ocotillo, a tall, thorny plant spotted and loved during one of our earliest trips to Palm Springs.  We're planning to place that just in front of the wood screen to draw visual interest upward toward our address plaque. Another variety you don't see here, but probably know more commonly is the giant Blue Agave (Agave Americana) that we plan to spotlight as well.

Then, we'll fill in around these plants with others seen more typically in Mediterranean styled gardens- free flowing golden grasses, the silver foliage of lavender and blue hues of fescue and flax lilies. We'll also draw on the deep pinks of a succulent called Echeveria 'Afterglow', a trend continued into the back garden as well.

Our plan above is still a little fluid at the moment and may ultimately be impacted by budget (isn't everything?). It also looks like a lot of plants - and it is. But the bed itself is almost 40 feet long in it's entirety, which will give us lots of room to work in. When all is said and done, it will be finished off with some spotlighting and some decomposed granite- a finish that will look polished from the street and will be easily raked during Fall when the Maple trees lining our block discard their leaves.

I'll share more about backyard garden plans in Part II. 

Landscape Progress: Backyard

Our nearly floor to ceiling living room windows look out onto a narrow breezeway that leads from the driveway to our backyard. Because it's such a high profile area, it was one of the first backyard projects I tackled last year.

As was most of the yard, the long planter bed was waist deep in overgrown succulents and geranium plants.  I couldn't wait to tear it all out and give it a contemporary facelift and in my haste, I forgot to snap a proper "before" photo to share with you.  You'll just have to take my word for it-- it was a hot mess.

So one mild weekend in January 2011, I worked over the soil and began the transformation.

I like the clean visual that comes with mass plantings and we've used (and will use more of) them throughout our landscaping endeavors thus far. You get a lot of impact and it can often be a less expensive option vs. layering a bed up with a bunch of different types of plants.

One of the first things I went for were these Kangaroo Paws. I love them for their height and their color, but also was thinking ahead to the day when the plants will be mature and yield some cuttings for indoor floral arrangements. Though the color will probably vary, these drought tolerant plants will likely make an appearance in other areas around Holtwood House this Spring.

I added Mexican Feather Grass in and around the Kangaroo Paw and polished off the look with pea gravel around the plantings. And that friends is how it sat for the last year as the plants have slowly taken root. We got a single shoot off each plant for the whole of a year and then nothing... until the New Year delivered a happy little surprise. Lots and lots of shoots.

The Paws reach nearly 4 feet high and are a spectacular little display, but still don't offer some of the fence coverage I was hoping for. I found a couple of Pink Jasmine Vines (white fragrant flowers) during my trip to Roger's on Sunday and placed them up against the fence. The vine's leaves are compact enough to compliment our modern xeriscape, but will trail up the fence nicely and hopefully give us a little more "show" through the window panes.

{Progress Report} Vegetable Garden

Over the weekend I made a little progress on the side yard. Recall this post where I shared the plan to finally realize the vegetable garden of our dreams? Well over the past year, the area we've set aside for that has been used as our go-to renovation storage; wayward patio furniture, displaced sand and dirt, wheelbarrows and random things we've pulled off of the house have been stashed here where they've been temporarily out of sight.

Not out of mind. As each planting season has come and gone, I've been dying to tackle cleanup in this space and with the mild temperatures this weekend, put forth the effort to just get it done.

We previously had overgrown plants and grass torn out from this side of the lot to make room. There are still two stumps there which need to come out at some point and some hanging tasks to get through before we can start building out the area.  Things don't always move as quickly as I want them to. But progress is being made and sometimes, I need to take a hard look at photos we've snapped throughout the entire renovation process to remind myself of that.

I love a good before and after, don't you?  Behold! After just four back-breaking hours, the side yard went from this.... to that!

Here's a rudimentary sketch up of next steps.

In tomorrow's post, I'll share some other Spring renovations we have planned for Holtwood House, including a sneak peak at the front exterior.

Top image via / All other images from Holtwood Hipster