Deck Details: Before and After

 Sometimes it's hard for me to remember what this place looked like when we purchased it three years ago 

because so much has changed...

but we wanted the house to remain a simple ranch house
 and not something contrived and silly;
that is also the case with the landscaping

 The latest project involving the evolution of the landscape design is the addition of this really large deck which runs the entire length of the back of the house 

 It gives us an additional 1800 square feet of outdoor living space

 which we so needed.
The weather here is really mild for much of the year and being outside is part of the experience of living in the country

The deck has a simple railing 

which mimics the ranch fencing 

which surrounds many of the planters

 and the gravel driveway and entries 

 This is the rear of the house "before" with an enclosed porch...
when we first started thinking about what we wanted for this property in terms of surfaces we never thought about decking.... but now those two large oak trees are nestled in the center of the big redwood deck!

 This area is now the English rose 

Parterre garden area

Designing and constructing landscaping on a property this large 

with this many large protected trees is difficult...and I really believe that it takes years for a yard to mature and grow into a great landscape

There is a wonderful article in this months Veranda about Molly Chappellet and her amazing garden in the Napa Valley

If you have the magazine, read it!

I embrace her philosophy about listening to the land
 and not having some grand design that needs to be followed to the letter 

 Living on a property with 20 plus, 300 year old oak trees is really amazing...you really feel like the custodian of something wonderful and spiritual, but it's also a lot of work

 We have an arborist here about twice each year to inspect the trees,

 to trim and lace out the dead stuff

We take great care to water correctly too
because the oaks can die very quickly with water at the bases

 The two trees in the photo above were barely visible when we first saw this house.
It was a mess of over grown shrubs and ivy...
Now the oaks are healthy and clean
with the veggie beds, lavender garden and lawn surrounding them

another "before" with the dry patchy grass and weird patios, 

but it sure seemed like  it had potential to us....

a decking project this size is pretty time consuming 

and takes a good layout 

especially trying to include two huge trees into the plan

 it also takes a ton of lumber!

and finally

 here is how we delt with the trees coming through the decking...I was thinking of just a simple cut out of some sort buy my contractor came up with this
clean hexagon trim idea 

 the railing floats on the inside of the deck,

 so there are no visible bolts or screws

 I added a nice over sized landing on an angle for pots and flowers and it really helps to invite you to come on up and sit under the trees...

 the west corner of the lot has yet to be worked on but

 we have some ideas for this nice sunny spot and there is a gorgeous huge oak in that corner...actually one of my favorites on the property

this weekend we plan to work in the garden

and hopefully we will take some time

to listen to the land

happy gardening

Ojai Country House: Garden Design Elements

We have finally finished up this little project called " the yard".  It is a full acre of land and we are done with about 2/3rds of the property and have yet to touch the house (only paint) OMG!

The rear garden project was finished off with the garden room design of spilt redwood posts, a vintage gate and a cable and turnbuckle system to support our yet to be planted grapes.  They are coming from a grower in Atascadero and should arrive next month.  In the center are the apple trees.

The cable is really my idea of an invisible fence and yet it has an industrial ranch house appeal

Here is a garden element from repurposed metal items topped with an antique roof finial.  The irrigation is a micro emitter that runs through the base of the tub and up into the copper planter

This area will be the rose garden for the David Austin roses on order.  There will be a total of 40 plants surrounding this metal planter.  They will be arriving in January.

The raised stone beds were also completed (6 total) and four will be used exclusively for vegetables.  The two at the rear of the garden are for ornamental and cutting flowers.  All of the stone came from the property and we have used it extensively in the garden, plus its FREE : )

The front of the property was completed with the installation of this water feature.  It is a reinforced concrete product and can be painted or stained any color.  I worked on this for about two days trying to match the stone work, what a job that turned out to be.

The white iceberg roses will fill in and compliment the rest of the roses around the ranch fencing.  This is actually a wonderful place to sit, but it just so happens that a woodpecker has deceided to nest in the oak and the pecking and wood chips are a bit annoying!

The gravel driveway was actually the last item to be finished last week because we were still moving around dirt and planting.  But it is finally done and we love it.  It is also really clean and the dog loves to lay on the hot stones in the middle of the day.

Front gates allow us to close off the entire front from the street.  I designed these to be sort of like a traditional picket but with a bit more ranch feel since they are 20 feet wide.

The rear yard has a big patch of grass.  Not the most water wise but this will eventually become part of the house when we remodel and add an outdoor kitchen/pavilion area

The croquet set is ready and waiting!  The decomposed granite paths are really nice and a great gardening surface as well.

All of the bases of the  oaks are lined with smaller stones to keep the roots unexposed.  This happens to also be an "Ojai" look that you will see all over the valley

The arroyo is dry now but is ready to handle any welcome rain this winter

All cool season vegetables are in and sprouting up pretty quickly.  These beds are irrigated with micro emitters and the water use is very small.

The tuteurs are planted with both edible and cutting sweet peas.  Surrounding the bases, I planted about 100 tulips per bed (Mrs Sheepers and Perestroika)

So thats the end of the project, at least for today!

Looking forward to sitting in the chairs this next weekend....it's about time

best to all~*~  kelley