Landscapes for fire & rain
Great landscape design should be impervious to climatic shifts — think drought and El Niño. So when landscape architect Kate Stickley, co-owner of Arterra Landscape Architects, was contacted by the owners of a Tiburon property to create a vibrant garden that manages runoff, she did so using vivid plants and water-wise natives.
The palette of this seemingly free-flowing garden was spurred by the homeowner, who requested a “fiery” assortment of plantings that would brighten the often foggy vistas.
“The homeowner wanted saturated colors that were rich and vibrant,” says Stickley. “If you look at the hills, there are sweeps of color from the grasses and oaks, and we used that same pattern of textures and color to create a similar look.”
A closer look at the landscape reveals swales. Commonly used in sustainable and permaculture systems, they can also be used to solve drainage issues by channeling and redirecting water away from a home, especially when near or at the bottom of a hill. “Our garden is the added insurance to keep the house dry,” she says.
As the landscape and irrigation features cascade down one side of the property, Stickley designed a staircase of wood and decomposed granite that connects the home and a pool area while also bridging the swales.
Besides colorful plants like ‘Bush Blaze’ kangaroo paws and ‘Red Hot Poker,’ Stickley and her team also incorporated fire-resistant plants such as lavender, succulents and agave. “The garden didn’t have much existing vegetation to modify and reduce fuel load, but we did limb up oaks to reduce fire ladders and we kept plantings low and irrigated.”
It’s a fine example of a garden that can be blazingly beautiful while still being mindful of nature’s unpredictable wrath. Design: Arterra Landscape Architecture. www.arterrasf.com.