Sun Drenched Gardens: The Mediterranean Style by Jan Smithen 

 Author Jan Smithen and photographer Lucinda Lewis have put together a beautiful and pertinent book that is even more noteworthy today than it was when it was published in 2002. Mediterranean-style gardens offer easy maintenance as well as water-saving planting that is environmentally sound and enormously appealing.

Sun-Drenched Gardens; the Mediterranean Style features gardens from France, Italy, Spain and California that employ drought-tolerant plants such as agaves and other succulents, wisteria, lavenders, geraniums and even some roses. Design features such as terraces, arbors, hedges, pergolas, topiary, statuary, decorative tile, and terracotta containers are used in the gardens.

While paging through the book, Californians and especially those familiar with Santa Barbara will recognize landscape designs and terracotta containers so familiar that it seems the photos were taken in our backyards, or even at Eye of the Day. The eight chapters include one entitled “Endless Sunshine – Precious Water” which has great information and design ideas.  Another entitled “Living Outdoors” highlights our need to be in the open air and how to plan and enjoy our gardens even during a drought.

If you have difficulty finding this amazing book, the next time you visit Eye of the Day, ask to see our house copy, it’s truly worth seeing.

The Landscape Professional and Client Relationship, Part II

Principal at Arcadia Studio in Santa Barbara and a resident of Los Olivos, Carol Puck Erickson, ASLA,  has an extensive portfolio of residences and arid gardens in Arizona and beautiful installations throughout California, Puck was initially educated in the visual arts, which still informs her work. She is an avid bi-coastal hiker and amateur botanist who is intrigued by the relationships between the cultural and agrarian landscapes and the native environment.

Puck is also committed to the therapeutic value of gardens, as a founding member of the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden and pro bono consultant for many school and community gardens.  She has worked with Eye of the Day on a large variety of projects over the last two decades and is one of our favorite landscape professionals.

EOD: How has your design relationship evolved over time with any particular client?

I have enjoyed working with clients on multiple projects, sometimes over decades as the gardens reflect an evolution in their owners’ perspectives on the twists and turns of their own lives. Working together, we gain an understanding of the role time plays in a garden and in our own lives.  Often, with their second or third gardens, people are willing to plant a bit smaller and also to simplify their approach to garden designs.  While others, coaxed into the out-of-doors by their first garden, become avid collectors and gardening enthusiasts.

EOD: How do you accommodate the client’s changing tastes over a span of time and still allow your own accumulated professional experience to show through?

I listen closely, very closely!! As the years have flown by, I find that often I am simply a translator and steward as my client churns out ideas with unbridled enthusiasm, often without recognizing their own insight into a space, or an observation gleaned from their travels. It is through my experience and design discipline that we can take these wonderful ideas and marry them to the environment of the new garden.

I am often surprised at how easily some designers seem to let go of their gardens and the evolution of those spaces, from both a horticultural and aesthetic perspective. When we work with clients we are not creating a garden image, frozen in time. Once the garden is completed, the real fun begins. The garden begins to build its own rhythm and dynamic as it flows from season to season and we are committed to continue that dialogue with our clients and their gardens over years, if not decades!  I think responding to the drought is a perfect example of how an on-going relationship with the client and their garden can make a real difference.

To view more of Puck’s work, visit Arcadia Studio.

THE DESIGN PROCESS SHOULD BE ENJOYABLE FOR EVERYONE
An interview with Stacy Fausett

Stacy Fausett is a highly respected Landscape Architect who takes great pride in what she does. She is quick to say that when she is asked to return and do further work for a client, she considers it a great compliment. We often see her at Eye of the Day, pen and paper in hand, walking the greenhouse and annex, taking lots of notes for her clients. She is looking for things that will fit into a particular design for her clients’ landscape and home. Stacy has worked to build long-lasting relationships with many of her clients, seeing them through a project, and over time moving on to new ideas in the same project later and then to other properties as they change homes. I asked Stacy a few questions about how she achieves these long-term client relationships.

EOD: How has your design relationship evolved with a client’s different projects?

SF: Obviously, having an established working relationship and familiarity allows me to skip the formalities of getting to know the client and then I can jump right into the design process. The familiarity is wonderful and makes for a fun project. It’s like working with an old friend.

EOD: How do you accommodate the client’s changing tastes over a span of time and still allow your own accumulated professional experience to show through?

SF: Each project varies with the style of architecture, the unique qualities of the property, and the client’s needs and desires. The client’s needs may have changed over time, so assessing these elements are the same as it would be for a new project. Having more years of experience behind me and knowing the likes and dislikes of the client allows me to make assessments and design suggestions. It is a very efficient way to work on a project.

EOD: What does it take to gain the client’s confidence in order for them to continue a long-term personal and professional relationship with you?

SF: It’s actually very simple to gain the trust and confidence of a client:

1. Listen to your clients: their wants, likes, dislikes,needs and critical elements susch as time frame and budget. Respect this information.
2. Do your homework and present quality, well thought out materials and design work.
3. Most importantly, do what you say you are going to do in a professional and timely manner. Organization and communication are key to a successful relationship in every circumstance.

STACY FAUSSET studied Landscape Architecture at California State Polytechnic University and has been practicing for over twenty six years. After many years of working for other Landscape Architects, she opened her own office in Santa Barbara in 2010.

Lisa Cox, of Lisa Cox Landscape Design has happily designed landscapes ranging from simple tract homes to vast estates.  As she plans an outdoor environment, she envisions a transformation that communicates the lifestyle and personal taste of the client, while incorporating her own style. Each garden is designed and built with all materials including stone, plants, trees, water features, and garden art selected by Lisa using local, top qualified growers and suppliers.

Commitment to sustainability, the use of drought tolerant plants and trees, including California natives, has been an integral part of her design process, allowing a more “naturalistic” result that mimics the local terrain.

When Lisa met with her new clients in the Santa Ynez Valley, they requested that the newly constructed home not have any sod in the front area, and that she use drought tolerant plants including grasses and succulents. Working with a blank slate, except four nice sized olive trees at the entrance, she was free to design the space, including selection of a plant palette that complimented the Hacienda style of the home. With the use of local sandstone boulders, salvias and phormiums as her base, she also incorporated deciduous trees and perennials for color in the Spring and Summer, and a few rows of grape vines because after all, it’s the Santa Ynez Valley!

Choosing Greek terracotta pots from Eye of the Day, filled with “Blue Glow” Agaves gave the clean, rustic look she was looking for on the front porch and the traditional Terrecotte San Rocco terracotta pot in front worked perfectly to show off the “Little Ollie.”

It seems everything progressed perfectly for Lisa and her clients, but there WERE a few important challenges:

1. The need to place a gopher basket for every plant as the local area is inundated with gophers that would quickly destroy the plantings, and
2. The necessity of paying close attention to selecting plants that can stand the heat as well as the sometimes frigid nights where temperatures can go into the low 20’s or below.

As Lisa’s work on the project came to a close, she felt deep satisfaction; in fact she felt this was a home environment she could inhabit herself.  The project was a dream to work on and the end result was exactly what the homeowner envisioned.

Visit Lisa Cox Landscape Design to view more of her work.