Mudscaping

Once again, its been a while, and once again there are some more pokers on the fire here at Aeonium Design Studio. Azlynn took the month of October off - and toured Scotland and England with her best friend, but since she's been back the nose has definitely been on the grindstone. To be honest I can't help but think that if I stopped going on vacation all of the time I may be able to turn this into a viable business!

Right now at Aeonium, there are three active projects (2 in Carlsbad in design development, and 1 in Redondo Beach undergoing installation), and a couple more lined up to continue after the first of the year.

The residence in Redondo Beach is being installed by yours truly and the homeowner (lets face it, this is at times a low budget operation) and we've certainly been getting our hands dirty. We started 2 weekends ago in unseasonably warm weather, and were able to clear the property (a small yard attached to a condo complex) and finalize the design and purchase plants. This past weekend we continued to prepare the ground and plant despite the buckets of rain and whipping winds that came into LA. At the moment the project has been sidelined due the fact that its difficult to install paving when your a sliding around on mud, and while you dig holes they immediately fill with sludge. We've dubbed it mudscaping - and I wish I had some photos - but to be honest I didn't want to get my camera too muddy. I left on Sunday after watching this beautifully leveled yard turn into a flood zone, and a ceanothus nearly ripped in half/pygmy date palms bending at 90 degree angles, and fountain grass flattening itself all due to the wind. I'm hoping all of the plants survive the wind and the flooding!

Here are some before photos of the Redondo Beach residence - after photos to come in a couple of weeks!

Happy Holidays to you all, I'm sure I'll have more updates for you on this residence and other projects soon after the holidays!

ADS' First Clients = Happy Clients!

This last week has been very exciting - the installation on my first residence finished up! I went over this afternoon to take some photographs and give my clients a maintenance manual for their new plants. I'll include a few photos in this post, there are more on Aeonium's Design Studio Facebook page.

The back yard is split up into the main yard, the garden, and the side slope:

Before - Main Backyard

Before - Garden

With the Scripps Ranch residence, it was important to the homeowners to have drought tolerant/low water and low maintenance plants. They had outgrown their need for a lawn, but still need wide and stable access through the backyard on either side of the existing patio. Flagstones set in mortar create a wide walk, are easy to keep clean, and create more of a garden feel compared to the existing concrete side walk. On one side of the garden the walk features an expanding bend which will allow for two small outdoor chairs, or one lounge chair.

A low keystone wall system was installed along the slope on the side of the house and replaced a low wall providing soil control for the Coral Tree. A low, stepped keystone wall was also installed along the back of the main yard.

After - Main Backyard

After - Main Backyard

After - Garden Area

After - Garden Area

Plants on site were selected in collaboration with the contractor and include, but are not limited to some of the following: Agave attenuata, Tecomaria capensis, Rosa mutabilis, Euryops tali, Coprosma repens 'Marble Queen', Crassula mulitcava, and Iresine herbstii 'Brilliantissima'. All plants were planted in either 1 or 5 gallon sizes, so they will need some time to fill in. Also note that today while photographing temperatures were roughly 90 degrees - so some of the plants look a little droopy.

Thanks so much to the homeowners and the team at Dream Builders Construction, its been a real pleasure working with all of you!