Los Angeles Times (Sunday)

A Storybook cottage turned native plant wonderland

NOBODY MISSES THE GRASS AFTER FORMLA LANDSCAPIN­G TRANSFORME­D A STUDIO CITY COUPLE’S YARD INTO A CALMING OUTDOOR SPACE

- BY JEANETTE MARANTOS

ON C E U P O N A T I M E , under Universal Studios’ watchful Minion eye, there was a Storybook house in Studio City with a steep, sagging roof, a towering, tottering chimney and a yard so boring and prone to flooding that its charm was pretty much negated. ¶ The front yard was mostly dead grass; the driveway was cracked and broken from runoff whenever it rained; and the funnel-shaped backyard was overwhelme­d by a rotting wood pergola. ¶ No longer. Today, the yard of Khoi Pham and his fiancé, Michael Solberg, is a wonderland of native plants, waterconse­rving bioswales, a patio mosaic made from recycled concrete and permeable gravel paths with a delightful crunch. And throughout the garden are little riots of succulents spilling from pots, baskets and even the fanciful nook built into their chimney, dotting the garden with jolts of color. ¶ Little signs identify the plants, to feed Solberg’s vision of educating passersby about the beauty, practicali­ty and sustainabi­lity of native plant landscapes. The signs “make you feel like you should stop and pay attention,” he said. ¶ But they’re also helpful because this yard, designed and built by landscape designer Isara Ongwiseth of FormLA Landscapin­g, is one of three gardens featured during the Garden Conservanc­y’s San Fernando Valley

Open Days Garden Tour on Sunday, and the only one featuring a landscape devoted to California native plants. (Tickets are $10 per garden.)

The landscape is lush for one so young — it was installed in February 2022 — and features multiple plantings of a few varieties of native plants, such as the red-berried toyon, which Solberg is trying to espalier along a garage wall, dark-green ceanothus shrubs mingling with the silvery leaves of white sage

(Salvia apiana), rings of Douglas iris (Iris douglasian­a), wisps of blushing coral bells, a.k.a. Wendy alumroot

(Heuchera ‘Wendy’) and two Western redbud trees (Cercis occidental­is) that bloom in deep violet clouds in spring.

Out front are islands of fragrance that bloom in varying shades of purple — coyote mint

(Monardella villosa), Cleveland sage (Salvia clevelandi­i) and bee’s bliss sage (Salvia ‘Bee’s Bliss’), along with clumps of deer grass (Muhlenberg­ia rigens), Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) and the deepthroat­ed flowers of Margarita BOP penstemon (Penstemon heterophyl­lus ‘Margarita BOP’).

Basically, Solberg said, except for the creeping fig lacing the chimney and the giant camphor tree on the parkway in front, any plants in the ground of their new landscape are California native plants; others, like his succulents and dwarf lemon, are planted in pots. And he hopes their plantings encourage more of the same.

“You just don’t see a bunch of California native gardens in our neighborho­ods. What you see is lawn and standard shrubs, or fake turf or people who just paved everything over,” Solberg said. “I wanted something unique and different for our landscape, but also responsibl­e with water and nature, and education was a really big part of that. I wanted to get the word out that native plants are a great way to have a sustainabl­e garden that doesn’t require too much water, is good for wildlife and insects, is easy to care for and looks great too.”

This was Solberg and Pham’s second foray into creating a native plant landscape. Before they bought their Storybook home in late 2019, they’d taken out the lawn in front of their former home in Sherman Oaks and, inspired by gardens they’d seen on the Theodore Payne Foundation’s Native Plant Garden Tours, decided on a water-conscious landscape that relied on native plants instead of cactus and droughttol­erant plants from other Mediterran­ean climates.

Solberg — the gardener of the family — said he learned a lot in that DIY project: what native plants grow quickly and slowly, which he liked the best and which ones he should have placed somewhere else (such as a Matilija poppy that rapidly outgrew its location).

When it came time to finally landscape their new home in Studio City, Solberg said he wanted to continue the same theme, but he was concerned about dealing with the property’s special problems — a small, weirdly shaped backyard dominated by an aging pergola and water that ran off their Hanseland-Gretel roof in sheets, creating runoff and flooding.

So in addition to an all-native-plant landscape, Solberg wanted permeable surfaces that would trap water in the soil — but he didn’t want any gutters to ruin their roof ’s unusual lines. He wanted gravel walkways and drives that wouldn’t require constant maintenanc­e. He wanted year-round color and interest, shade and privacy and plants that would attract birds and other pollinator­s.

Both men work from home — Solberg full-time, Pham at least two days a week — so creating a serene, cheerful work environmen­t was crucial inside and out.

And then there were Pham’s concerns. “I do the budget, but when it comes to gardening, I’m more of a cheerleade­r,” he said. “I was thinking more about the parties I’m going to throw in the backyard, and how they have to flow a certain way.”

Solberg grew up around gardening, but Pham said it was never a part of his life until the two met in San Diego in 2011.

Solberg already knew how much work it was to take out a lawn and create a new landscape. So in the end, they called FormLA Landscapin­g, because they had admired the firm’s native landscapes, and began laying out their wish list to Ongwiseth, the lead designer.

It took a few tweaks and persuasion — and $60,000 — but in the end, Solberg and Pham said he made their vision better than they had dreamed.

There were a few bumps along the way.

After removing the raised wooden deck in the backyard, Ongwiseth said, Pham and Solberg were reluctant not to rebuild, until they saw how much space the removal created. “It put everything at ground level, so you feel like you’re part of the garden instead of above it,” Solberg said.

Solberg was adamant about not wanting gutters to clutter up the roof line. Ongwiseth used French drains around the house perimeter to capture the runoff and direct it to the bioswales in the front yard. He finally convinced Solberg to add a small section of gutters on the south side, along the driveway, where they’re nearly invisible.

The two bioswales in the front are like planted indentatio­ns in the ground that fill with water after a heavy rain and hold it long enough that it sinks in. The gutters help direct rainfall into pipes that drain into the swales. Once they removed the broken concrete driveway and replaced it with ¾-inch crushed angular gravel, they found the rocks helped trap water coming off the roof as well. A subterrane­an drip irrigation system automatica­lly waters two days a week for 10 minutes.

The swales are edged with meandering paths of smaller,

angular gravel, and mostly hidden by the plants. Gravel was high on Solberg’s wish list, partly for sentimenta­l reasons. His grandmothe­r had gravel paths, he said, and he loved the way they crunched when he walked on them.

But creating permeable paths and drives is more challengin­g than you’d think, Ongwiseth said. “Gravel and decomposed granite sounds good, but then you start tracking granite into the house and scratch the floor, so what do you do with that?” And round smooth gravel may look nice from afar, but your feet sink into those rocks when you walk on them, and they tend to scatter everywhere when children or dogs scramble by. (Pham and Solberg have two rambunctio­us dogs — Lucy, a goldendood­le, and Teddy, a terrier mix.) Ongwiseth chose gravel that locks together, so it stays in place when you walk on it, and your feet feel supported.

Preparatio­n was important too. After they tore out the old driveway and created the paths, they removed weeds, added another drain at the end of the driveway and laid down a geotextile fabric that suppresses weed growth while allowing water to soak through, before topping off the areas with two inches of gravel.

Another point of concern: Ongwiseth’s plan to frame the gravel seating area by the back door with a mosaic of broken concrete. “Broken concrete doesn’t sound very nice,” Pham said. “It felt a little too DIY, but once it was installed, I was like, ‘Oh, where else can we install it?’ ” In fact, you can still see a portion of rebar in one of Pham’s favorite pieces of concrete, “because it shows that it was reused. It truly is an art; they had to chip away at pieces of concrete to put the puzzle together to make it fit.”

The finished design does look artistic, but it was all part of Ongwiseth’s practical considerat­ions about transition­ing between yard and home. He wanted a design that cleans your shoes of any dust or debris before you step inside. He grew up in a traditiona­l Asian family where everyone takes off their shoes before they enter a home, “but not everyone practices that, so creating a landing or space even with concrete provides that transition.”

He also wanted to honor Solberg’s vision of having permeable surfaces throughout the garden, so there are spaces between all the small pieces of concrete to allow water to sink into the ground.

Ongwiseth also considered the fantastic Storybook design of the house in creating his design. As visitors will see, there is a sense of mystery and exploratio­n as you walk from the front to the back.

“I wanted to create a meandering garden experience, where the whole garden is not revealed right away,” he said. “When we first arrived, we noticed the awkwardnes­s of the shape of the backyard, and that old shade structure [the pergola] just emphasized that awkwardnes­s. Once we removed all that we came up with a design that was more fluid, something that makes you want to explore the richness of the foliage, and the sense of many destinatio­ns throughout.”

There was a final and unexpected challenge, when they were forced to take out a large camphor tree that provided privacy and filtered shade in the backyard. The tree had grown into their neighbor’s garage and had to be removed, exposing the yard to the multistory apartment building behind them.

Ongwiseth installed a large sail-shaped cover stretching from the house to the detached garage, which provides welcome shade during the summer but allows enough sunlight to filter through to keep the plants happy. They planted another redbud tree in the space where the camphor once stood, and a bank of hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia) at the very back that are already tall enough to block out much of the apartment.

Pham and Solberg are still pinching themselves about how well it all came together. “There’s a healthy water table under our house now,” Solberg said, laughing. “And maintenanc­e-wise, there’s not a lot we have to do. I have a blower to get rid of excess leaves once in a while, and sometimes, when it gets a little overgrown, I have to get out my clippers, but for the most part it tends to itself.”

These days, they can work outside at a large round table, or drink coffee in the seating area nearby. Those places are separated by only a few steps, but they feel like a journey, admiring the tall abstract Dustin Gimbel sculptures of salvia whirls, next to real salvias blooming nearby, or the pots of De La Mina verbena (Verbena lilacina ‘De La Mina’) and fragrant pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans).

This space is where they’ll host their wedding reception in July, for about 50 people Pham has his party flow, and Solberg has his vision of a landscape both beautiful and sustainabl­e, visited by pollinator­s and birds.

“If you trust in the process,” said Solberg, “you can end up with something incredible, better than if you had done it on your own.”

 ?? Photograph­s by Yuri Hasegawa For The Times ?? KHOI PHAM, left, and Michael Solberg plan to wed in their garden, a certified wildlife habitat. Native plants fill the backyard, below; Lucy, a goldendood­le, with coral bells.
Photograph­s by Yuri Hasegawa For The Times KHOI PHAM, left, and Michael Solberg plan to wed in their garden, a certified wildlife habitat. Native plants fill the backyard, below; Lucy, a goldendood­le, with coral bells.
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