Laura Morton Design, Full Concept Exteriors, Horticulture & Landscape

07/20/2023

Travelogue- Puglia-Giardini Pi***la

Through a stroke of luck a newly engaged couple mentioned this Puglia garden and so we made a trip to visit.
I find a newly installed garden fascinating to examine as the grading and structural ‘bones’ are quite visible. This one is just a few years old.
Its a challenging 3-d puzzle imagining the space potential and how the trees will create volume over time.
I was surprised there was no mention of the designer except on the website. And no mention of the plants or references either…. Oh well.

It was a sizzling hot day and i was grateful for the layouts of morus and platanus trees that will eventually create some nice shaded rectilinear spaces for picnic tables. Soooo hot at the moment. I think there must be large stormwater cisterns buried in the flat terraces as there were various access points and covers.
Between these defined destination areas were crushed gravel covered pathways flankedwith slopes swathed in ornamental grasses peppered with gaura, erigeron karvinskianus, and did i see a california salvia clevlandii? The grasses contrasted their flowering seedheads with the shine of flowing blades….it all made a great impression.

Iron tunnels added height to some swollen mounded areas covered en masse with a groundhugging verbena. I got the impression it was a love ❤️ tunnel. White roses and red verbena.

The russian sage was in full glory-regiments facing each other on either side of an at grade rill.

white agapanthus had a nice way of picking up the whitewashed truilli in the distance and had a concern about the nasella tenuissima becoming invasive.

The one thing i found odd (and its a pet peeve of mine anyway) is that some trees and hedges were planted so close together-lined up side by side for density but with no room to expand naturally. One might do this for a show garden but not for real life.
The perimeter hedge-an interesting tapestry of olea europea, and two other dense growing green shrubs (tip of my tongue🙃)-overlapping and still on nursery stakes… then the poplar trees 3’ apart and an interesting triad of cuppressus sempervirens that possibly is intended to join together as one for more immediate impact.

I am curious how this grows in and how it will be maintained. Loved the Puglia area and hope to return soon.

In general i felt a joyful thoughtfulness in the textures and pops of color. Enjoy!

Laura

10/19/2022

If you live in LA, how many times do we cross bridges and give not even a second of thought to the concrete channel that girdles the LA River. The new photo in the header is a snap of the LA RIVER from the Balboa Bridge. Yes! LA has a river and few sections of it are 'soft bottom' and other sections function as flood plains the way a river is intended as well as being navigable.

I attended a conference with the California Garden & Landscape Historical Society www.CGLHS.org this past weekend on the LA RIVER. It was awakening. All my years here and I hadn't given it too much attention. A long gorgeous walk through the Sepulveda basin/flood plain was eyeopening. and the day before a stroll through the drizzle in Frogtown Taylor Yard and the Glendale Narrows was kind of solemn in a way. To witness areas where nature can flow and ooze about at will....growing, rooting, providing much needed habitat. I saw about 15 different bird species alone resting or foraging in the soft bottom area of the Glendale Narrows....even a couple out flyfishing!
It got me interested. The speakers at this conference fired me up learning about the LA river as the living entity it is...a watershed from the mountains down the tributaries to our River on its journey to the Pacific Ocean. It's a beautiful thing. Open your heart and eyes to the River..... maybe get involved!
www.lariver.org

Kayak trips can also be booked . https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwikmrqzjev6AhXaD0QIHTHwBC0QFnoECDkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Ftravel%2Fstory%2F2022-07-14%2Fkayak-los-angeles-river-elysian-valley-sepulveda-basin&usg=AOvVaw3r-uC4VWBU_g9VKS5Y0X2g

Community Taylor Yard Equity Strategy (Community TYES) Project North Atwater East Bank Riverway Explore the LA River Valley LARiverWay Feasibility Design Report Key Projects Taylor Yard River Park Taylor Yard Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge Los Angeles River Path Project (Metro) LA River Headwaters Bi...

10/18/2022

Hello! It has been so long since I posted but all is well. Tomorrow I will be speaking for the APLD California Chapter, San Diego District. A behind the scenes look at the development of a recent award winning Hollywood Hills Garden, Jardin Tranquilo.
If interested come join. Here is the link for the Eventbrite.

Eventbrite Laura Morton Presents JardinTranquilo

This virtual presentation will focus on the behind the scenes development of 'Jardin Tranquillo', a 2022 APLD Gold award winner.

01/29/2021

Its RAINING! it's POURING! such a gentle pelt happening in gardens all around....and I am thankful for a good deep soak to the soil. Soil life...ACTIVATE! Rain the superpower!

Its a bit colder than usual too!. That should give a nice kick in the pants to my peach, apple and persimmon trees and hopefully a floriferous bloom to follow.

Is it odd to want to run out to all the dry creeks, and stormwater capture elements I build into the gardens I create and watch? there are a couple I drive by and look at the overflows to street and I am giddy when they are spilling nothing- that means we are infiltrating the storm water in a healthy safe way to the ground that cleanses, feeds trees and nourishes soil life.

There are the rain gardens that come to life with this dousing, sometimes filling briefly creating shallow ponds to reflect the sky. Depressions in the landscape open now to receive the gift of rain....and bulbs and wildflower seeds are having the time of their life.

OH
If you haven't already turned off your irrigation timer do it now!

02/29/2020

A quiet day to read...a most beautiful sermon by Diana Beresford-Kroeger Her book The Global Forest is staggeringly profound, scientific, with the wisdom of an aboriginal shaman

I quote
“...pollution affects everyone. Nobody escapes. The soil must heal. The atmosphere has to improve. smog must go. The oceans have to be protected All water has to be pure. Clean energy sources can and must be found Biodiversity has to be maintained. Forests will be planted. More forests must be planted. And the trees will smile their oxygen again in the dawn of a brand new day.”

01/31/2020

Do we know what degenerative means as it applies to the landscape? Its a process by which we degrade the land. You might say it starts with the destruction of the the soil structure and the microorganisms that hold it together. It is further weakened from natural recovery by loss of fertility due to certain farming and construction practices. then in an effort to invigorate and revitalize and correct the problems that arise, herbicides and chemical fertilizers further contaminate the natural process of building healthy soil. Because we know that with healthy soil we can grow healthy healthful plants

This cycle of degenerative management of the soil has been going on for too long. So sustaining what we have isnt enough.

What we need now is a regenerative approach to building healthy soil that is alive with microorganisms We can do this in our residential gardens We can support farming that incorporate these practices, and even demand that laws change to protect our environment from degradation

Immediate steps you could take in your garden:

-Keep some leaf litter on the ground it’s a free mulch-lunch for the soil and helps to retain moisture !
-ask your gardener to stop blowing hot air on plants
-stop chemical warfare -no herbicides & fertilizers There are other more natural ways - explore them.

All for now More to come
Go on out and ‘Kiss the Ground’

11/04/2019

Downloading Wonder
https://www.californialandscapedesign.org/downloading-wonder

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Call me old-fashioned, but what happened to making mud pies and finding crickets as a way for kids to pass time?    I’ve always felt my job, or at least the subtext in my work as landscape designer, should awaken some childlike wonder and comfort with the natural world—for children and adults ...

08/01/2019

I return to the Isles of Greece.
The simplicity of life here is evident in the food, habitation style and joyful celebration of gathering .
Join me as I riff today on the visual lesson and answer to, what is watershed?

Astypalea –It's more arid than some of the other isles we’ve visited. Prickly scrub plants blanket most of the rolling hills where sheep and goats roam (I love listening to the clunk clunk of their bells) Currently these slopes read sienna gold in the heat of summer. In contrast, deep grooves of dusty green divide them on an adventure to the shore. These wrinkles trace the watershed of time.

Gazing across this island I daydream on wind and time carving those furrows. Peaks slipping fine alluvial soils down, gravity carving a bed for seeds to find harbor. It is on these slopes blessed rain washes channelled to the sea- the green growth and soil gulping what it can.

The lower hills channel less rain so the green growth is marked by only a denser stubble and a few shrubs, while the larger area of taller slopes collects more rainfall and the furrows swell wide and lush with trees and such that create arbor and habitat for life.

Finally the water may reach the rocky shore where the blazing sun sparkles on blue, deep and salty.

In this shade I would seek shelter and take the knee for the grace of coolness from our burning star. And resting with the siren of cicadas, find silence.

03/29/2019

I made it to Anza Boreggo for the Superbloom! Here are a few images....poppies and desert sunflowers, lupine and the cutest dwarf poppy with a flower barely 1/2" across with foliage whiter and more reflective than E. California that is blooming at Lake Elsinore.

03/18/2019

PS for those plantlovers the poppy in the header is Papaver atlanticum 'flora pleno' from Annies Annuals....30" long stems...this is the first bloom.