SUCCULENTS SIMPLIFIED, Debra Lee Baldwin

I think we can all agree that succulents are hot. In California, hot can translate to Dry and Dry to Drought.  Which we have.  I also think that we all want green, living things around us and that in our present dry state, succulents and cacti can fill an ever-widening void for both landscape professionals and every day green lovers.

Debra Lee Baldwin is a notable expert on succulents and succulent gardening.  In her book, Succulents Simplified, Debra keeps it easy enough for someone taking their first stab at succulent gardening but interesting for any landscape professional.  With plenty of photographs and simple care instructions including recommendations for no water and low water plants, I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t need and want to take a long hard, look at this book and a long, hard look at the slowly browning lawn in front of their home.

In a perfectly friendly tone, Baldwin has included a page entitled “Good Riddance to Your Lawn”; we should all read this and begin to implement her ideas.  Succulents Simplified has inspiring sections like “Surreal Shapes, Testures and Patterns,” and “100 Easy Care Succulents” along with container and landscape projects, but my favorite section is entitled “Edible, Herbal and Illegal Succulents.”

About the Author:
Debra Lee Baldwin specializes in showing how top floral and garden designers use dynamic, sculptural succulents in a wide variety of eye-catching applications. See more of her work at her website:

 Photo Credit: Debra Lee Baldwin and Timber Press (profile)

As we all face this unprecedented drought, we need to make smart choices about using water. At this point I’m praying for rain, but I’m realistic enough to know my lobbying may not be that influential.

But I have instituted several measures, the first of which regards my fountain. This water element is an essential part of the environment at my home. It runs 24/7 at this time of year and requires filling once a week. The sound it provides directly affects my sleep.  Could I live without it? Yes, I suppose I could, but why should I? It just doesn’t use as much water as one might think. It recycles the water and other than splash, evaporation and birds, the water goes round and round. I have calculated that I typically add about five gallons a week. The equivalent of about two toilet bowl flushes.

Think about how much water a small lawn consumes and the minimal use of a fountain along with its relaxing and recuperative powers. It seems to me to that it’s a good use of water in my home. Some other tricks for your fountains are:

• Turn down the pump to reduce the flow and splash
• If you have a  fountain that splashes a lot, place plastic buckets around it to catch the errant water to add back to the fountain.
• Use bath water: I am an ardent bather, I love a hot bath even in the summer, and I use that water to fill my fountains as well as water container plants. It’s easy to use an old pump and some tubing and when you’re finished with the bath, pump the water into 5 gallon pails and use it in the garden.

I don’t have any tips for you for your lawn because I haven’t had a lawn in twenty years. My feeling is: JUST SAY NO TO LAWNS. There are so many things that you can do instead and probably will have to do instead, especially if this drought continues for much longer.

When Jane Abascal and her husband Manny moved into their home on a quiet, tree-lined street in Altadena, California, they noticed the garden across the street had a lovely, welcoming feel they wanted for their new space. After a reasonable amount of time, Jane approached her neighbor to ask if she would share the name of their landscape architect. Lucky for Jane, she was speaking with exactly that landscape architect, Sally Farnum of the eponymous SE Farnum Associates. Who could ask for more than a designer in the neighborhood? Sally and Jane hit it off as neighbors while their professional relationship flourished. As it happened, Sally had worked with the previous homeowners to renovate the back of their property, but the front was due for a serious update and overhaul.

Jane had some specific wishes and Sally, no shrinking violet, had some strong ideas as well.  At first, Jane wanted to keep the lovely lawn that the previous homeowners had so carefully tended.

Sally’s plan called for moving an existing, water impermeable asphalt driveway and removing the lawn. When she discussed this idea with Jane and described a courtyard plan using gravel, decomposed granite with brick accents, Jane was intrigued. Sally envisioned an allee of white crepe myrtles lining a long, narrow, shallow fountain, creating perspective. When the plans were finalized, they agreed that Sally’s vision would be excellent for water conservation, would accent the “French” feel of the Abascal home and would have a completely new look.

Ms. Farnum designed a low plastered wall and wrought iron gate to enclose the courtyard and the fountain constructed with poured concrete walls and a bluestone cap. French Anduze Vases at the gate on the courtyard side and a mature olive tree from Eye of the Day planted on the street side of the wall along with sage, lavender, and other Mediterranean plants create a water-efficient design that is a great fit with the French look of Jane and Manny’s home.

“Jane was a great client,” Farnum says, “she was open to new ideas while having plenty of her own.  We worked so well together to achieve what has become one of my favorite projects and I’m so happy to have been able to design a beautiful garden setting–without a lawn!–for my neighbors.”