Fall color in San Diego (Oh... its winter?)

  

Its the middle of winter in San Diego right now... and the best fall color I have ever seen here. Something about the weather this winter (early cold, lots of rain at just the right time) prompted all of the trees that change color to put on their best show. The Liquidambars were bright red flames, the Mulberrys were gorgeous lemon yellow, the Crape Myrtles were a rich rust and even the Chinese Elms (which I would never never list as a fall color tree) had a lovely yellow cast to them.  All of the photos included are ones I took around town... really!

So a quick list of great fall color to include in your garden if you live in Southern California:

- Liquidambar (Palo Alto is very popular but there are a lot of these to chose from, primarily red and burgundy)
- Pistacia chinensis, Chinese Pistache, bold red
- Ginkgo biloba, light lemon yellow
- Crape Myrtle, rust red

   - Mulberry, lemon yellow
   - Chinese Tallow Tree, red orange and yellow all at once
   - Fruiting peach, orange red
   - Japanese Maple (or Silver Maple if you live inland), bold red
   - Boston Ivy (vine) bright red

Sage featured in Union Tribune

 A Sage project was featured this Sunday in a special section in the Union Tribune (our main newspaper in San Diego) titled Distinguished Digs, by Lou Shook. I have worked with a few magazines before, but this was my first newspaper article. I was surprised by how different the process was. In the magazines, they may photograph a project and not print the story for two or even three years (especially in the national publications). One person photographs the project, another person acts as art director and yet another person writes the copy.

So to me, the process of working with Lou to put this together just flew past, about two weeks from him picking my brain for an article idea to the actual printing. The other thing that surprised me, but shouldn't have, is that the newspapers don't send you the story ahead of time to fact check. The magazines do this religiously to avoid lawsuits but the paper enjoys a level of freedom of the press that makes it unnecessary and way too time consuming. It makes working with the papers much more intimidating, since you don't really know what they'll print.

I'd say the magazines are more of a marathon and the newspapers are more of a sprint.

Syzygy Tile: love it

As any of you who read my blog know, I love love love tile. I'm not sure where the obsession comes from, but if you want to make my day, all you have to do is show me a fabulous tile company that I haven't heard of. So today my day was made. I was lucky enough to get to visit the not-quite-open showroom for BDG Design Group.

There, I found Syzygy Tile, and I just had to share with you. I am not sure images do this tile justice. The glazes have a wonderful Craftsman look to them, mottled and very earthy. The colors are gorgeous! I think it was the mosaics that appealed to me the most, but I had to throw in one of their deco tiles just to show you how fabulously three dimensional they are, like little pieces of architecture.

So visit their website, but more importantly, when BDG opens in January make sure to drop in! While you are there, check out their very own line of concrete oversized tiles. They are very retro-chic, sort of Frank Lloyd Wright meets Mad Men.

Home made garden art

Today's eye candy is a hand made sphere by Mosaic Gardens of Eugene Oregon. It is made of Honey Quartz ledgestones drystacked with some mortar on the inside to add strength. It reminds me a bit of an Andy Goldsworthy rock sculpture. For more fabulous images of their gardens, check out their blog here.

I can't say enough nice things about their work. I adore their use of color in their gardens (foliage color for the most part). In this garden you can see deep burgundy from a Japanese Maple, bold chartreuse from the Ginkgo biloba in the foreground, pale celery green from the Euphorbia 'Tasmanian Tiger' just behind it, all contrasted with the coppery brown of the CorTen steel wall. We don't have the cool wet weather of Oregon, but a lot of these plants will work here.

Re-blogged from Dirt du Jour

This photo was on today's Dirt du Jour post, and I thought it made such a wonderful point that I had to post it here as well. Her point: shrubs are not boring! It is all about how you put them together, like in this gorgeous composition from In the Garden.

I love the subtlety of a flowerless composition! Instead, you notice the form, texture, and foliage color of the plants. With the huge central swathe of lawn, probably not the garden to copy plant for plant in Southern California.... but definitely a great source of inspiration!

Swimming pools by Questar

I promised you more swimming pool eye candy and here it is!

Both of the images here are designed by Skip Phillips of Questar Pools. We are lucky enough to have Skip right here in San Diego (Escondido to be specific), but his pools are famous throughout the country, really the world. Of all of the myriad accolades that Skip's pools have won him over the years, my personal favorite is the Robb Report's "Club 21," the 21 most influential designers of their time. The award that goes to Armani for clothing design goes to Skip for changing the way we look at water features.

These are two of my personal favorites of his. The upper pool is right here in La Jolla, Ca. The lower pool, done in collaboration with Nick Troubetzkoy of Lightstreams tile, in in San Lucia.

So the most obvious thing is the pictures is the mirror effect from the vanishing edge, but there is so much more going on here. Notice how the water feature in the upper pool should be creating waves, but doesn't. By spilling into the spa, the body of water in the main pool keeps its perfect mirror. Also, this pool doesn't just spill over a single vanishing edge- notice that the edge close to the patio is also raised (but where that water falls to is completely hidden!). That brings the mirror effect closer to eye level. And don't miss how wonderful the reflections in the pool are. Think it is by accident that the bamboo creates such a beautiful image in the pool? I don't think so.

Gorgeous spa by Oehme/Van Sweden

I realize that I have been neglecting one of my favorite topics, swimming pools and spas, so it is time to pick up the slack! I think that a lot of people work off of the assumption that swimming pools and spas are functional, and that means that they should be ugly mementos of the public swimming pool from our childhood. I don't know why ugly swimming pools are such a strong element of American culture, but I am determined to be a part of the movement to change that.

I have been lucky enough to get to know a few of the players in the Genesis 3 Design Group, a group dedicated to raising the design standards for the pool industry. If you have never heard of them, take a look at their website, and make sure to click through to the websites of their Platinum members. They are raising swimming pool design to an art form and you'll be amazed by what you see.

The spa I have shown here just blows me away. It was designed by Oehme, van Sweden and Associates (James van Sweden is an occasional lecturer for Genesis 3), who are high on my list of favorite Landscape Architects of all time. If you haven't read their book, Gardening with Nature (or any of their other equally amazing books), please go to Amazon and get it right now. You won't regret it- I'll even give you a link so you can get there easier!

I will try to make up for my sad neglect of swimming pools by showing off some of my favorites in upcoming posts, so keep an eye out!