PRIVATE GARDEN · ALDER CANYON · 0.4 AC · 118 NATIVES · 2026
A canyon lot that had stopped draining
The house sits at the bottom of a short canyon and took every winter runoff from the street above it. The lawn had been patched twice and the concrete path had lifted at both joints.
BEFORE
MARCH 2026 · REAR YARD · EXISTING LAWN AND PATH
AFTER
AUGUST 2026 · SAME VIEW · FIVE MONTHS AFTER PLANTING
DETAIL
SWALE INVERT · SET BETWEEN SALVAGED BOULDERS
- Site
- Canyon-bottom lot, north slope, clay over decomposed granite
- Area
- 0.4 acres, rear and side yards
- Planting
- 118 plants, 34 species, all California natives
- Water
- Roof leaders to a gravel swale; inline drip on a timer
- Hardscape
- Salvaged concrete steppers, decomposed granite, local boulders
- Built
- Spring 2026, nine weeks, crew of five
We started by watching where the water already wanted to go. Two rain events in February gave us the line, and the swale follows it rather than a drawing made in the office. The old path was broken up on site and the pieces came back as steppers, which saved a dumpster and gave the garden a floor that already matched the house.
Planting is one long drift of white sage, buckwheat and deergrass through the middle of the yard, with a single valley oak set well back from the foundation. Nothing here is placed as a specimen. The client asked for a garden that would look like it had been there before the remodel, and drifts read that way faster than a collection does.
The irrigation is deliberately plain: one valve, one timer, emitters the owner can find and replace without calling us. We came back in June to cut the run times and again in August to thin the buckwheat. Those visits are part of the work, not an add-on.