Rebecca Sweet's Garden

(photo via Harmony in the Garden, Rebecca Sweet)

Rebecca Sweet's Garden

Location: Los Altos

Garden Design: Rebecca Sweet, Harmony in the Garden

Blog: Gossip in the Garden

Rebecca's Books: Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces, 2011

Coming Soon: Refresh Your Garden Design with Color, Texture and Form, Fall 2013 

Garden Description: I’ve spent the past 15 years re-inventing the garden of my childhood home nestled within the heart of Silicon Valley.  My goal?  To create a secluded, private and deeply personal garden where one can lose themselves for hours, despite being surrounded by such a bustling urban area.

Consisting of several private spaces, infused with childhood mementos from both my own past as well as my daughter’s, my garden is less of a designer showpiece and more like a diary. It’s a place to play, experiment and show my personality - and I love it with all my heart.

Garden Highlights: Succulents mixed throughout lush, traditional borders, including:

-     -  an unusual variegated Octopus agave (Agave vilmoriniana)
-         lush stonecrop used instead of mulch
-         succulents and perennials living happily together in windowboxes
-         towering aeoniums (‘Zwartzkopf’ and ‘Cyclops’) at home with perennial borders
-         borders of echeveria imbricata woven throughout, originating from my parent’s first garden over 45 years ago!

Australian plants at home in my garden:

-         Grevillea ‘Superb’, ‘Mt. Tamboritha’

-         Euphorbia ceratocarpa, ‘Glacier Blue’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Ruby Glow’, ‘Ascots Rainbow’

-         Kniphofia ‘Mango Popsicle’

-         Phormium ‘Sea Jade’, ‘Atropurpureum’

-         Australian Willow trees (Geijera parviflora)

-         Anigozanthos ‘Harmony’

-         Bulbine frutescens

Extensive use of evergreen shrubs and trees (both common and unusual) act as the bones of the garden and provide year-round color, texture and form:

-         Pittosporum (‘Golf Ball Kohuhu’, ‘Wheelers Dwarf’, ‘Tasman Ruffles’, Tobira)

-          Euonymus (‘Green Spires, ‘Emerald Gaity’, ‘Emerald n Gold’, Boxleaf, ‘Moonshadow’)

-          Loropetalum  (‘Purple Pixie’, ‘Ever Red’, ‘Sizzling Pink’)

-          Laurel (‘Saratoga’, ‘English’)

-          Podocarpus ‘Icee Blue’

-          Elaeagnus pungens ‘Gilt Edge’

-          Citrus (‘Washington Naval’ tree, espaliered kumquat, ‘Bearrs’ lime, ‘Meyer’ and ‘Eureka’ lemon)

-          Camelias (‘Scentsation’, ‘Apple Blossom’, ‘Debutante’, ‘Setsugekka’, ‘Yuletide’)

-          Manzanita ‘Howard McMinn’

Grasses and grass-like plants woven throughout:

-         Lomandra ‘Breeze Mat’

-         Carex divulsa (Berkeley Sedge)

-         Carex secta

-         Carex ‘Evergold’

-         Carex ‘Evergreen’

-         Carex testacea (Orange Carex)

-         Blue Oat Grass

-         Blue Lime Grass

-         Blue Fescue (‘Beyond Blue’ – new variety)

-         Sesleria ‘John Greenlee’

    Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’

Fling Attendees: Please add a link to your post about this garden in the comments section below.