One Year LaterThis garden design & restoration was created for a client who wanted to provide lizard habitat and increase plant diversity in his family's garden where visitors can learn about the plants while viewing insects & animals that thrive in the garden. We created a series of lizard 'beaches' made from loads of sand and existing recycled concrete and stones that were collected from around the property. Here, we've incorporated many types of Salvia, Lavender, Achillea, Buckwheat and other Mediterranean plants to create a low water, natural escape for man, animal & insect alike. A pump-free water feature that runs with the irrigation was made from on-site recycled concrete to provide a water source for the wildlife. This garden has become a haven for local neighborhood garden watchers.
Lizards!
Creating lizard habitat was an interesting learning experience. The general formula involves sand & shelter, with a readily available water supply. In less than one year we've seen a remarkable increase in the lizard population, so much so that the owner remarks he often finds them inside the house and neighborhood kids & cats chasing after them. Because lizards eat primarily insects & spiders, we knew that active soil life would be a priority which sets the stage for effective food chain dynamics. In every garden, insect life functions as a living kind of barometer, providing ample indication of soil & ecological health. In this garden, there is no lack of insect or animal activity.
Hummingbirds
Another priority was incorporating plants which attract & feed hummingbirds. We have found that the Salvias and Penstemons are the most frequently visited.
Mediterranean Plants & CA-Natives
Of course this is a low water garden highlighting a virtual encyclopedic variety of Mediterranean & California native plants which are readily adapted to our local weather patterns & micro climates. These plants are tough, beautiful, take well in poor soils and require a minimum of care. As an added bonus, many of these same selections provide the food, brush & cover that birds, bees & insects rely on for regular functioning.
WaterfeatureTo provide a subtle focal point and to highlight the usage of recycled materials, we created a custom water feature using only recycled concrete collected on site, left over from previous construction. This water feature utilizes the drip irrigation for water delivery and requires no pump or power source. This small feature also functions ecologically in providing an on site water source for animal and insect life.
Alyssum
Due to a recent and rather major transplanting of 16 roses, the side strip naturalized with Alyssum, which can become invasive if not monitored. As it continues to grow and fill in as an aggressive and successful ground cover we keep careful watch and remove it from the main garden areas at first sight.
All in all the garden's first year has shown an incredibly productive period of growth & development. We feel that we have achieved the desired goals of creating a fun, beautiful setting for birds, insects, lizards & humans.
Today's tomato harvest yielded several pounds of Brandywine, Early Girl, Roma, and cherry tomatoes. Grown in a vegan specific environment, these tomatoes were fertilized once during planting time with an actively aerated liquid compost tea which contains no animal by-products and no chemical fertilizers and were left unfertilized during the growing season.
Vegetable gardening links to our collective past as a species. Not relegated to commercial food or restaurant consumption, growing & cultivation are age old art forms which span the visible horizon of food-chain dynamics. It's often said that if each person with available land used it to produce their own fruits & vegetables that we as a nation would find ourselves liberated from the chain of dependency which stretches from market to stove-top. In lessening or eliminating the need to drive to the local supermarket for fruits & veggies, and eliminating the usage of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, store bought compost, mulch and amendments, we are in a way taking control of our lives at a basic level so important and overarching in our culture as to seem a new phenomenon - but it's nothing new.
As we engage in the process of high-yield, vegan gardening & garden maintenance services we learn more than a few things about cultivation, bed preparation and overall resource availability using only on-site resources which are abundant and self-replenishing. Using the an evolved offshoot of the French Intensive method, first widely hailed here in the U.S. by one Alan Chadwick in Santa Cruz in 1971, now called 'Biointensive' by John Jeavons (a local Bay Area & international gardening hero) we are hoping to help create and sustain a food rich culture of best practices, highly influenced by the values put forth by our friends & clients. Staying true to these values has absolutely no drawbacks, cuts down on the resource chain so embedded in our petroleum-rich culture of years past and ensures that the land, culture and people can better provide for themselves while helping mother earth rest just a little easier.
"Invasive plants damage ecosystems around the world. They displace native species, change plant community structure, and reduce the value of habitat for wildlife." 
Annual bluegrass
Annual sowthistle 
California burclover 
Common groundsel
Cutleaf geranium 
Lesser-seeded bittercress 
Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima) A low, spreading perennial 2" to 3" tall. The small, white, (sometimes light purple) fragrant flowers can be seen blooming for most of the year.
Tristaniopsis laurina is also known as the Kanooka or Water Gum, and is of the Myrtaceae Family which consists of over 3000 species in 100 genera and are found in warm regions including Australia and North America. This plant, which can be grown as a tree form or large screen-shrub, tolerates full sun, and light shade and is said to be drought resistant once established.
Many value Sweet Alyssum for its fast growing, fragrant bouquet and bright white to violet flowers but the question remains, is this an invasive plant and should it be removed from local gardens to prevent its spread? We prefer to treat this issue on a case by case basis and see no need to exclude this ready ground cover - when managed - from a diverse plant list. A main point is in limiting the spread of the plant and removing it frequently, with no fear that the plant itself may die back as they are incredibly vigorous growers. 
Mixed in with the low growing ground cover we also found a few small flushes of Woodland or California Strawberry (Fragaria Vesca), which we believe is a simply wonderful plant which serves the dual purposes of adding attractive cover while providing a ready food source for our local birds & insects, so we opted to leave some 2-3 feet out from the base.
