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Courtyards
What beckons behind those coyote fences, stucco or adobe walls or towering hedges? The courtyard garden: A place of seclusion, privacy, intimacy and beauty.
Your courtyard is the inner sanctuary space, the transition between your indoor and outdoor home, between public and private. The courtyard offers many opportunities for garden accents including trellises, arbors, water features and quiet patios. The courtyard is typically where the concentration of zone-one, or more water- intensive species are planted.
Perhaps your more exotic species will accentuate the small patio within the courtyard or the space lends itself perfectly to a simple, serene, Asian influence. The courtyard is the perfect setting to show off structure, texture, color and fragrance as it invites interaction and prolonged leisurely activity.
It is also a prime location for edibles, sheltered from hungry, curious critters and closer to the kitchen for easy harvesting. Imagine an arbor over the patio off the kitchen, upon which grows two of your favorite grape varieties, or a plush planting of dwarf fruit trees, primed for the picking just along the courtyard pathway?
The courtyard garden may pique the interest of passersby with its decorative entry gate or door, or with its seductive, scented vines spilling over the exterior wall.
This edible landscape was designed by local permaculture development company, Regenesis, and maintained and developed further by Down to Earth over four years.
Containers
On the fence about what type of garden you want? How much you’re willing to maintain? Where the garden should grow? Why not opt for container gardening – the ultimate in versatility.
Container gardens come in many shapes and sizes and serve as many purposes as “permanent” gardens. They may be in pots of clay, plastic, metal or wood, they may be hanging in baskets or sunken into a pond. Container gardens may provide wind and visual screening, shade, color, scent, edibles and herbs as easily as other gardens with less space, fewer resources and less time.
This wall, a part of the courtyard landscape above, was also designed by Regenesis and built by the skillful hands and artful eye of Luis Perez.
 Imagine those delicious yellow pear tomatoes coupled with purple-leaf basil dangling at your finger tips from a hanging basket outside the kitchen door. How about a lovely display of texture created by tall, ornamental grasses in pots gracing your patio year round? Perhaps a traditional mélange of annuals suits you best for its quick provision of color and easily altered composition. Large, coniferous evergreens may also be planted in pots and placed strategically to shield your front entrance from view or block those cold, northern winds.
Remember that experimentation with container gardening is less risky and can be more fun. And, with prospective city water restrictions in place, containers are the only gardens legal for lush watering!
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Perhaps your more exotic species will accentuate the small patio within the courtyard or the space lends itself perfectly to a simple, serene, Asian influence. The courtyard is the perfect setting to show off structure, texture, color and fragrance as it invites interaction and prolonged leisurely activity.
It is also a prime location for edibles, sheltered from hungry, curious critters and closer to the kitchen for easy harvesting. Imagine an arbor over the patio off the kitchen, upon which grows two of your favorite grape varieties, or a plush planting of dwarf fruit trees, primed for the picking just along the courtyard pathway?
The courtyard garden may pique the interest of passersby with its decorative entry gate or door, or with its seductive, scented vines spilling over the exterior wall.
This edible landscape was designed by local permaculture development company, Regenesis, and maintained and developed further by Down to Earth over four years.
Containers
On the fence about what type of garden you want? How much you’re willing to maintain? Where the garden should grow? Why not opt for container gardening – the ultimate in versatility.
Container gardens come in many shapes and sizes and serve as many purposes as “permanent” gardens. They may be in pots of clay, plastic, metal or wood, they may be hanging in baskets or sunken into a pond. Container gardens may provide wind and visual screening, shade, color, scent, edibles and herbs as easily as other gardens with less space, fewer resources and less time.
This wall, a part of the courtyard landscape above, was also designed by Regenesis and built by the skillful hands and artful eye of Luis Perez.
Imagine those delicious yellow pear tomatoes coupled with purple-leaf basil dangling at your finger tips from a hanging basket outside the kitchen door. How about a lovely display of texture created by tall, ornamental grasses in pots gracing your patio year round? Perhaps a traditional mélange of annuals suits you best for its quick provision of color and easily altered composition. Large, coniferous evergreens may also be planted in pots and placed strategically to shield your front entrance from view or block those cold, northern winds.
Remember that experimentation with container gardening is less risky and can be more fun. And, with prospective city water restrictions in place, containers are the only gardens legal for lush watering!
