Gardeners and their Gardens – ‘Town Mouse’

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One of my favorite things about being a passionate gardener myself is getting to meet other passionate gardeners.

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A gardener’s own garden is truly an expression of their soul.  You can ‘feel’ the blood, sweat and tears that went into it’s creation.  You know that feeling when you walk into a garden, no matter how large or small it is – and you’re taken by surprise, blown away by the ‘feeling’ it generates deep within you?  That’s it’s soul – and it’s something that can’t be duplicated.

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I’d like to share some of these people and their gardens with you as part of a series I’ve created called ‘Gardeners and their Gardens’.  Some will be professional gardeners, some will not.  But all have their hearts firmly planted in their gardens.

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I’d like to introduce you to Town Mouse.

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Town Mouse is half of the writing team of the Town Mouse and Country Mouse blog – a blog dedicated to California native plants.   ‘Townie’ (as many of us call her) lives in the suburbs of Silicon Valley, while her co-author lives in the Santa Cruz mountains.

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I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her in person 3 times now – once at a garden party and twice at her home for impromptu garden tours.  The more time you spend with her the more you realize this quiet, passionate woman has so much to share.  She makes such an impression on people, not only because of her undeniably artistic sense of style, but also because of her very funny sense of humor and the passion she exudes when talking about native plants.

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She has come into gardening later in life – in fact, she never really had a passion for gardening at all until she and her husband bought this home less than 10 years ago.  Since they knew very little about plants, they hired a garden designer to help them with their rear garden, and once she began to feel more confident and once the ‘gardening bug bit’  she decided to design the front garden herself.  Her front garden is only 2 years old and has since been a favorite to visit during the Going Native Garden Tour.  Considering she’s an artist by nature (see the gorgeous stained glass dragon she made for her husband as an anniversary gift) it comes as no surprise that she fearlessly tackled this next project!

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Something I hear over and over again by my own design clients is their reluctancy to use too many California natives as they think their gardens will end up looking ‘weedy’ with Spring being the one and only season of interest.

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One visit to Townie’s garden would convince anyone otherwise.  Her garden demonstrates that with some thoughtful layout you can indeed create a native environment with varying bloom times throughout the year all the while being unbelievably drought tolerant.  In fact, she hand waters her garden by hand once every few weeks during the Summer, and very little (if at all) during the Winter.

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One of the main functions of her garden is to attract wildlife.  .

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All throughout the garden are different birdhouses, nesting boxes, specific plants to attract specific animals, and lizards galore – you’d never know you were smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

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Attracting wildlife is so important, in fact, that she’s willing to remove this huge, gorgeous Loropetalum (upper left) because it provides very little in the way of nourishment for animals.  Sure, it provides shelter, but she’d rather have another Tea Tree like this one (on the right) that provides not only shelter, but flowers and nectar as well. And nature does indeed thank her! Everywhere you turn there’s giant bees humming, lizards underfoot and baby birds in their nests.

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Her garden has several sources of water for the wildlife that visits – she has 4 solar fountains and a solar pond.

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On the day I visited, it was overcast and the little solar unit was STILL able to provide enough energy to run the fountains!

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Ready for some eye-candy?  Here’s where it starts to get really beautiful!

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Red Monkey Flower                                                                             More Monkey Flowers

Foothill Blue Penstemon                                                    California poppies

Mountain Garland                                                                              California Bush Anemone

California Firecracker                                                                         Chinese Houses

Mystery Succulent                                                                               Five Spot

This plant was a new one to me, and one which she just loves – it’s Phacelia tanacetifolia (that’s a mouthful!) and it has the most beautifully shaped blooms with a lovely light lavender color.

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This is ‘Shasta Buckwheat’ – a somewhat finicky native.  To get hers to bloom, she decided to mimic the environment in which the plant naturally grows – areas around the Sierra Foothills.  So, in August and September she gives the plant a weekly good, long soaking (to mimic the thunderstorms of the Sierras).

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And Voila! A plant that’s thriving!

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Amazing, aren’t they?  The sheer amount of blooms and color in this garden is almost breathtaking at times.  And to think they’re ALL drought tolerant!

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As you wander to the shadier part of her garden you’ll find a more soothing palette of colors…

Buddha                                                                                             Redwood Sorrel

Blue Eyed Grass                                                                             Asarum caudatum

Dutchman’s Pipe                                                                             Stream Orchid

Snowdrop Bush

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One of the things I love about this garden is it’s sense of ‘wildness’ while at the same time having a sense of ‘order’. These aren’t just a bunch of plants randomly stuck in the ground by a hobbyist.  Dry stream beds lead you along from one grouping of plants to another, intermittently punctuated by various living areas.

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This is truly a garden ‘lived in’ as well as ‘loved’, and a treat for all who have the pleasure of wandering leisurely though it.

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