My grand-mother's permaculture garden project - before (Los Angeles)

 My feature presentation :

the design of my grand-mother's garden in Los Angeles

Here are some photos before changes with observations.

The garden has barely changed since she has bought the house 65 years ago! About time to start preparing it for our uncertain future with permaculture principles!

Front yard - East

 The house is situated at a T-intersection which is a perfect spot to show off intriguing structures and attract attention. It is rather a quiet neighborhood with not too much traffic, and people do walk around, especially with their dogs.

The front slope used to be a monoculture of purple lantana. Due to lack of care and watering it died off in some parts. Although it's coming back with the winter rains, it's been a few years that the front garden keeps it's neglected look.

Lantana is a pretty hardy, good butterfly and long flowering plant. However for the sake of taste and wildlife the garden could have more plant diversity and play with texture and color.

The shrubs trimmed in rectangle shapes also give the front garden an odd look.

Beautiful and very useful lawn on the parkway...

The parkway is simply boring crabgrass lawn irrigated with broken sprinkling system.

The listeria normally grows on the porch and is of the most beautiful effect when in full bloom. It died off because one of its roots got cut off... but it will grow back eventually.

The large window is the dinning room window which is a nice view to observe the street. There is another lawn area that could be put to better use.

South front garden

This is the south-east corner of the house where I started planting natives 2 years ago. The gardener planted those coral-looking succulents, which are drought tolerant but do not integrate well with the other plantings. I had planned to put more natives.

South side garden

 

This is the area is the narrow side garden which used to be full of the New Zealand flax which makes flowers on long stalks that hummingbirds love. And as they are right in front of the living room window it's a perfect view point.

This area has the most sun exposure even though the neighbors have a lot of trees that are slowly growing in their garden.

When it rains water is cached on the concrete path, and the slant makes the water run along the house to the street instead of going towards the soil to be infiltrated and stored.

The ditch running along the path makes the water run faster towards the street.

Near the house that's where we put the temporary compost.

 

Back yard - bottom

This is a nice sitting area in front of the study door. It's in full sun in the summer. The wood is stacked along the old brick barbecue that has never been used since my family owns the house.

The aesthetics could be improved : my grandmother hates the look of the rain-barrels.

In front of the kitchen door some space has been made to grow some herbs and vegetables. Some space has also been cleared out on top of the brick wall for ease of access, but the rest of the top of the wall is occupied by another slope of purple lantana.

Back yard - top

The back yard is basically a slope with two flattish levels. My grandmother told me this area used to be orange farms before it got built into housing area, and we have two of them left in the back yard. There is also a volunteer fig tree.

The first flat level is mainly grass, part of it has been removed by my aunt to plant assylum. Assylum being an annual will have to be replaced.

Between the last two levels the slope is covered in ivy and vinca, which are nice, except that vinca is an invasive specie in America.

The last level is the wild jungle of the garden where my father has stashed all the tree trimmings waiting to be turned into mulch with our grinder and that have been waiting for a few years. Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) is taking over behind the orange tree.

North side garden

Nice erosion from the overflow of the rainwater tank

The north garden has a lot of shade and his a good place to store my grandmother's orchids. Staghorns have been attached to the ceder tree and need regular water.

We have trained the gardeners not to clear off all that wonderful mulch accumulating from the flowering eucalyptus and the ceder.

The overflow of two rainwater tanks run off down the slope and is eroding the path.