After gardening by trial and error, Pasadena homeowner gets turf transformation right
After installing a series of different designs in her front yard, Linda Paquette says her ever-changing landscape had become something of a joke in her Pasadena neighborhood.
“Sometimes I’ll meet up with people who are walking their dogs across the street from my house and they’ll sigh and say, ‘She’s changed it again,’” she says with a laugh.
It began in 2002, when the attorney installed a lush English garden outside of her 1912 California bungalow, complete with lawn and birch trees.
Years later, however, as Southern California entered into a drought, the dry weather made it clear that she needed to rethink the thirsty garden.
“I have ice on my windows when I wake up. By 10 a.m. the heat is so hot you can smell the varnish burning,” she explains. “How can a plant survive that? It was not like that when I first moved here. There has been such a huge and dramatic change. And the weather patterns have nothing to do with the seasons anymore.”
She visited a cactus center, hired a designer and removed the lawn; but the new design didn’t last more than a year. “Someone advised me to plant succulents and roses,” she says. “I’ve since learned that you have to put plants together that need the same amount of water. And the Mexican ornamental grasses looked good but then I couldn’t get rid of them.”
In 2012, she started over again.
This time, Paquette installed 17-millimeter Netafim irrigation tubing underground and a dry rock riverbed inspired by her days spent hiking with the Sierra Club.
“I wanted it to be greener, with lots of color and ground cover,” she says.
This time, some of the plants survived, others didn’t. “Some of them took over,” she says. “I pulled up a bunch of plants that were too invasive and donated others to friends who were happy to use them.”
Today, the garden — with its mix of succulents, agave, kangaroo paws, Dymondia margaretae and three crape myrtle trees — has evolved into “survival of the fittest.”
“What I learned is an evolving, organic system,” Paquette says. “The plants and the [irrigation] system determine what will survive.”
A glimpse at the decor of Lloyd Wright’s Dorland house in Altadena by designers Miao Miao and Scott Franklin
Looking back, she admits she wasted a lot of money on plants. She also feels she has learned from her mistakes as a novice gardener. “I was lazy and let someone make all the plans for me,” Paquette says. “Now, I take pictures to Lincoln Avenue Nursery and ask them what they think. They’ll tell you if a plant won’t work. They’ll shake their head and say ‘No.’
“I accept the fact that, in the end, the sun, wind and rain are the determinant,” she continues. “You have to give in to that and don’t fight it, or the natural character of the plants.”
But if you do it right, she says “ it will evolve into something wonderful.”
If you’d like to submit photos of your drought garden makeover, please do so at home@latimes.com. Bonus points if you include “before” images taken from the same angle as well.
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