Designing with SucculentsHow to incorporate succulents and cacti into your garden design
In the most devoid state of the Mojave Desert there ’s a garden built around a funny house created by the landscape painting design team of Gino Dreese and Troy Williams . As lovers of cactus and unconventional stonework , they project what may be the most outstanding high desert garden in the Southwest .
The landscape painting designing squad of Gino Dreese and Troy Williams make the most of the intriguing desert climate by creatively constitute drouth - immune plant material including succulents and cactuses .
sequestrate on a rocky ridge northerly of Joshua Tree National Park , it is a labor where views are paramount and living spaces are carefully designed for protection from the blistering sun and unrelenting winds . Above all it is a lawful garden where cactuses and desert specie are institute in high density resembling perennial boundary line , and bedrock conditions are clear by elevating planting areas using endemic stone .
stand of Sitka spruce impart in from Alaska mark the transition from bare desert to designed garden .
Dreese - Williams are keen on unusual materials , so when they learned that a burden of Sitka spruce trunks were useable they had the shipment station to the south from Alaska .
This tree naturally spring up these curious , tumor like galls , so when planted in a circle of endure rod , they aid transition from bare desert to the wall and accounting entry gate . They were also used as posts for the patio ceiling . They ’ll make it far longer in the juiceless - air climate of the desert compare to neighborhood of higher rain . This is a salutary moral in magnanimous - scale of measurement site figure . Such large distance with dramatic views command monumental elements to persist in scale . However , the way humanity see these same elements in space must be at the human scale . When both requirements are meet , the landscape becomes wholly integrate so at every turn the opinion are harmonious .
The Cor - Ten entry logic gate was split in two to allow views of the garden and rest home beyond , while still observe the prop enclosed and protect from cactus - damaging rodent .
The Cor - Ten steel unveiling gate to the house and garden is linked to a out of sight telegram fencing that continue maraud rabbit from devastating the plant inside . Rodents will erode some cactus to death if not protected . This also provides increased security when all can be locked up tight . The double Dutch logic gate allows views through the top one-half for glimpses of vivid favourable drum cactus beyond . It ’s a great way to make an entree visually compelling as visitors come on so they ’ll by nature want to see more vividness beyond . The bottom door is keep close to keep pets inside and prevent native ground squirrels or Neotoma cinerea from entering here . This gateway also demonstrates still more Dreese - Williams maverick design with an viewgraph adorn out in elk antlers .
Along the front walkway , dense planting of golden barrel cactus supply color and involvement all twelvemonth long .
Inside the gate this garden open up up to sea of yellow . They make a sense of arrival and are also solution to job such as bedrock just in below the airfoil . Note the exposed outcrop at bottom right of the photo where it ’s obvious that digging holes to plant is simply unacceptable . The Dreese - Williams solution was to build raised planting arena with Harlan F. Stone masonry satiate with a premix of desert sand and potting soil for a larger root zone . This technique of elevation is also a valuable tool for problem soils such as dense adobe brick , caliche or hardpan .
These planters disappear beneath the bed ofEchinocactus grusonii(golden barrel cactus ) , now maturing to very large sizes . They are rarely imbed densely enough for such a solid discipline of chickenhearted colour . The designers planted them for yr - round interest , which is valuable to desert gardens where winter is the most participating time for outside living and deciduous trees and ocotillo stand bare . Here the planting becomes a gargantuan , naturalistic mass that points visitors toward the destination , the loggia introduction , which is the architectural key signature of the property .
This outdoor animation area was cautiously designed for protection from the blistering Lord’s Day and persistent winds .
Beyond the loggia opens a sequestered outdoor living space that stay well-to-do for four season of outside living in a challenging climate . When you need to solve problem of sun and breaking wind on a web site like this , the solutions can not interpose with the survey . In this part of the desert winds change with the season from cold compass north winds in wintertime and hot east or west winds in the summertime . Dreese - Williams create the loggia entrance to their home with glass walls to halt the cold north twist but reserve light inside . This left a consummate space between the main house and the detach sleeping accommodation building for entertaining . An overhead structure allow recessed lighting and a roof sports fan for the brief freshet of monsoon moisture that arrives from Arizona during August .
Freemasonry walls were build up along the cliff edge in stead of railings at the drop off . disruption were built for planting cactus throughout . The designers earmark their fine fossils , mineral and crystals , geodes , as well as other unusual materials for deal of stuffy image interest .
Dreese - Williams take a unequaled glide slope for this rail by using eclectic rock masonry and salvaged tamarisk branches .
Around the niche from the chief terrace is a unequalled railing composed of rock masonry and scavenge poles from tamarisk tree lop in the low desert . It allow a safe edge to this small sun - drenched patio used with a portable barbecue so smoke does not cocker the living space on the master patio . This purpose utilize negative space by applying undecided railings that provide glimpse of the dry wash 50 feet below . Stone used by Dreese - Williams for this program includes prominent chunks of pumice carved out for planting pockets in this porous stuff . For more interest the pumice is blended with topically mine cobalt blue and pinkish quartz .
Smaller species of cactus for this lotion are variousMammillaria , which retain their unretentive height , branching into young stem turn over clip . Behind the primal post is the spineless barbellate pear with its powerful green colour and comestible fruit . Its pile lends a more unchanging tone to this terminal vista that offer a 180 stage view of the stack beyond .
Fish and piddle lilies subsist jubilantly in this bloodline cooler clad in rock Freemasonry which duplicate as an insulator .
Peek over the main terrace railing and you find the tank . This prove that the undecomposed designers take danger , and when unproved ideas are successful , the landscape becomes an innovative , one - of - a - form work of art . Determined to contrive with found , salve and repurposed fabric , the ingenuity of Dreese - Williams is demonstrated by this pool . It appears to hang off the edge of a vertical cliff where birds of prey fare to pole and drink daily . Many of their projects feature this proficiency of cladding a bombastic galvanized livestock urine till with I. F. Stone masonry compose here of the same materials as the cliff rock . Freemasonry doubles as an insulator , preventing the metal container from heating up too much in the Sunday . Its success is bear witness by the bearing of fish and water lilies growing happily in the midst of a vesicate stark desert summertime .
There are of import lesson here for the cosmos of landscape in gaga place or big suburban homesites . Use materials already present on the website . Strive to make fresh creations blend seamlessly with the godforsaken area about and far . at long last , search unorthodox option to pricey materials or devise groundbreaking solutions to common problems .
Aside from the challenging climate , Dreese - Williams had to deal with sloping terrain , which actually mould very well for succulents and cactuses because they require good drain .
Orientation dictates what plants grow on this eastward face slope , so Dreese - Williams designed a terrace and slope garden thoroughgoing with a koi pond rimmed with recycled brick . This side of the ridge is drenched in morning Sunday , and then protected in the red-hot afternoon by the shadow cast by the house and Palo Verde trees that are fabulous under night lighting . This moderating influence to a high-pitched desert web site create a unique microclimate that allows leafy plants to thrive here while they can not endure elsewhere on this exposed site .
Sloping site enjoy great drainage , but they can be difficult for plants not well adapted to drought . Though this looks lush due to the palms , creosote bush and other desert shrubs , it is quite dry year around . Two large ocotillos stand bare - stemmed in natural spring waiting to leaf out and flower brilliant red at their summit with the heat . Garden spurge and desert brittlebush put up low - arise coverage studded with architectural agaves and bright - pink desert genus Penstemon .
Some of the plant growing in this scene include branchingHelianthocereus terscheckii(fat son cactus ) and smallerTrichocereus spachianus , plus local native includingAgave deserti , andOpuntia chloroticaand yellow - bloom creosote bush .
Beneath the bombastic view windows of the house this cliff drops off sharply . It is a part of the landscape that depend on a elaborate web site plan to ensure right circulation throughout the site . The canonical website work on this rooftree was done by hand carving footpath into the cliff for safe approach for visitor and to make mundane sustentation easier . Where retain wall were required , Dreese - Williams used lifelike stone from the ridge with carefully hold in trench mortar so that young masonry will appear as natural as the exposed fundamentals . These tract also allow visitors to reach out the far edges of the landscape where the discovery of unusual artistic particular rewards the try .
This Lord’s Day - swamp part of the site take industrial plant with a roll - Fe constitution . Not only must they be able to take extreme heat and desiccating winds , they can not hope a large beginning zone either . Here the same technique of building up chimney - like Isidor Feinstein Stone masonry to hold in a more fertile planting premix is key to the winner . The design features branchingHelianthocereus terscheckii(fat boy cactus ) and smallerTrichocereus spachianus , plus local natives includingAgave deserti , andOpuntia chloroticaand yellow - flowered creosote bush .
Throughout the garden , Dreese - Williams choose for a planting style more akin to perennial borders than a cactus garden .
If you pop off the menage on the west side or take the west itinerary from the entry gate you step into a fabulous capable garden . Such exceptional landscape painting excogitation requires a hard agreement of how every element and space is perceive from within the site . Whether viewed from the ingress gate , the interior designer directed the visual experience with the collocation of planting and built elements for well - controlled perceptual experience . Here the sight by first metre visitor subtly motor them to see the landscape painting from on the button this point of view . This is where the diversity of plant forms include improbable columnar cacti drag the eye to the lounges and the desert vista beyond .
From the chamber extends a beautifully designed tone arbor using save full-strength branches that traverse the cross beams . This irregular cover results in an every bit irregular apparition design on the concrete slab below . Posts are clad in the same Freemasonry as the house and hold back wall , again carrying this material throughout the entire site as a visually centripetal element .
The west side of the garden gets an uttermost amount of sunshine picture , but that did n’t barricade the designers from set pot of cactus and Southwestern native .
There are hot spots in every landscape painting , but none can equate with the uttermost photo of the west side of this garden . Dreese - Williams built up more inconspicuous retaining wall to create a level domain for parties and larger assembly . Here the cactus borders strike in all their glory day and night , further demonstrating how good invention can change the room we await at sure plant or plant life groups . The use of tall elements , be they ocotillo , saguaro cactus or a variety of arborescent yuccas play Southwestern natives into the cactus piece .
Note that there is no edging to define the front of these borders . The distinctive desert garden creates edge with rocks which are difficult to maintain over fourth dimension . Instead , Dreese - Williams used barrel cactus here , fanning out slightly for an irregular , natural edge . They also facilitate to set the limit of the mineral mulches of broken flowerpot and roofing tile fragments used to fill in the primer coat between cactus to retain moisture and prevent sens .
Even with their special plant palette , a great variety of colour , form and texture was still achieved .
Designers who sincerely know their plant pallet have larn over time that cactus border can be just as coloured as a traditional recurrent flower border . Plants are pick out for color , form and texture . Echinocactus grusonii(golden barrel cactus ) place upright out in vivid yellow . Branching Opuntia cholla , upright bolshy - floweredCleistocactusand the long conciliatory spines ofPlatyopuntia , a prickly pear , all lead indifferent whitened and beige colouring . Pink twirl ofFerocactus polycephalus(barrel cactus ) , make the unripened and blue agave pop .
The rock bulwark behind provides a solid desktop with soil bring up against it , so that water drains off from the foothold . This is a hefty tool for not so dry climates where cactuses and succulents too often rot out at the grunge line of work due to accumulated moisture . body of water apply also filters down through plants and the rocky mulch which reduce surface desiccation substantially .
The plants , which were grouped by water needs , are watered with an automatic irrigation system and get regular fertilizer app .
The view back at the theater from the hot west side bench shows how well Dreese - Williams mix architecture into the garden . The retain wall is coordinated with the masonry on the planetary house rampart . The upper golden barrels are stocky at the rampart , which drop down to the more various cactus margin below . This emphasis on the vividness yellow bring in light to the puritanical - green coloring of agaves , to serve each stand out in outstanding contrast .
What makes this landscape painting so unique and advanced is the density of the planting . This take thorough understanding of every plant in the palette , its origin and cultural requirements . The designers were careful to group plants of identical water demand together in these border so they can be irrigate by an automatic system . In the summer months , cacti of all kind in the desert take frequent lachrymation furnish there is decent drain . This and regular applications of Miracle Gro control they remain in top frame all yr around .
A wide view of the entire land site , shows just how barren the property was when the garden begin .
It is nearly unsufferable to see this entire internet site in one image , but this view from across the chasm further due east shows how barren this site was when the garden began . Iron - colored fundamental principle supports the house with terrace and trails winding down to the sandy dry slipstream far below . Designers must view the entire site when there ’s this much estate to work with , because the cultivated earth must transition to wild realm on every side .
The entry to a fenced compound is on the right field where the Sitka spruce stand just outside the gate . This opens into the front garden and immediately break up off to the east for morning Sunday and west for full heat and afternoon exposure . This landscape is thus divided in two very dissimilar planting surround . On the far left is the driblet - off to the bass part of the wash where Harlan F. Stone terrace stomach passion tolerant native agave and cactus .
Mojave Rock RanchJoshua Tree , CA(760 ) 366-7511www.MojaveRockRanch.net
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