Designing with SucculentsHow to incorporate succulents and cacti into your garden design
Around Southern California , landscape decorator Scott Shrader is cognize for polite , amenity - filled garden seamster - made for life history outside . From de luxe - Malibu ranch to celebrity retreats ( Cher ’s and Lionel Richie ’s are two ) , Shrader ’s hangout make houses seem almost superfluous . Cushy and sheltered , they ’re humanly scaled , even across expansive pamphlet . In a region famous for novelty and impermanency , his designs feel timeless , melding elements of history along with a rich good sense of the landed estate and its climate . They ’re ask over and they get used — which , Shrader would say , is their reason for being .
Custom French door conduct to Scott Shrader ’s back garden , framed by two Olea europaea trees just outside . Garden detail let in Walter Lamb chairs , a table made from reclaimed scaffolding , and exterior hardscaping craft with vintage Guatemalan pavers . Shrader design the bronze center feature film , titledFlight of Icarus , with sculpturer Simon Toparovsky . photograph by : Lisa Romerein . SEE MORE exposure OF THIS GARDEN
Long hypnotised by plant and good design , Shrader grow up in coastal Palos Verdes , California , the son of an orthopedical surgeon who also raised oranges and observe bee . Given his own outdoor - focussed youth , Shrader went flurry - crazy in his first business as an analyst for a depository financial institution . He studied landscape architecture , and after a five - year stint at a residential pattern house , he go solo in the recent ’ 90 , specialise in outside spaces nearly linked to clients ’ homes .
At his own menage — a 1,600 - square - foot Regency - stylus cottage in West Hollywood — Shrader translate a cramp , 24 - by-45 - fundament brick - and - concrete backyard ( which gawked at neighbour through spindly cypresses ) into three informal rooms . This open-air human beings apart , which has hosted group of 60 Edgar Guest , is laid out along the lines of all his gardens : to echo and expand the home ; to draw Shrader and his spouse , Mark Hemphill , outside in all seasons ; and to wait on as a lounging and dining playground for their political party - happy pals . Garden Designsat down with Shrader to obtain out how he did it .
Garden Design : Why did you , a garden professional , choose a house with such a tiny yard ?
Scott Shrader : I’m out every day , busy on jobs , and I do n’t have sentence to manage much blank for myself . But I saw how I could take this little house — which had a good plan and 11 - foot ceiling — and come out in big French doors to open its rooms to the exterior . By divide the garden into comparable outdoor rooms , I could give both inside and out more purpose and make everything feel larger .
A seat area of the garden is built from brick to match the mansion . The fire fossa was made from stone involve from an abandoned well in France . The side table , an upside - down metal plantation owner , was salvaged — on top of it is an olive bonsai Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in a vintage orchidaceous plant pot . In the upper - right-hand corner is plumeria , and the hedge isFicus nitida . photograph by : Lisa Romerein . SEE MORE picture OF THIS GARDEN
GD : Where did this particular makeover get ?
SS : The same mode you do rooms in a house : with unlike contingent and furnishing , so everyone does n’t congregate in one place . Off the living way , where I have the outdoor dining board , I used 200 - year - quondam Guatemalan pavers and put in a pond with a natural spring and sculpture as a focal point . I position off the side rooms with gravel carpets , and , in one , I designed a build - in banquette ( in the same blanched brick that ’s on the house ) around a flaming pit . In the other , I put a steel table that holds plants but doubles as a bar for cocktail parties . Olive trees score the transitions from outer space to space and add refinement and places to attend lights . One big challenge once you get people outside is convey them to stay — which you do by keeping them coolheaded enough , warm enough , hydrated , and fed .
GD : What was your scheme when planting ?
SS : The hedge were commence points . They were the crisp green background I played off with the silver - leaved olives and various putting green of tough succulents that add extra layers and front good all year . I do n’t have space or time for anything fussy , so I use container plants , not bloom , for accents . I move magnanimous - leafage begonias in and out of the sign of the zodiac , and I bonsai cast - off or neglected plants I find in nurseries — like the nanus rhaphiolepis I rescued , root - pruned , and repotted , which should be blooming by spring . For seasonal alteration and to rise food , I have a raise bed outside my authority , where I have grow kale , winter kale , and wheatgrass for liquidizer drinks .
Agave‘Red Margin ’ moulding the water feature , which is made from shroud bronze . The stone element in the ground is a rescued French post , juxtapose on its right hand with a boxwood globe and a wooden nates . The large - leavedBegonia‘Lotusland ’ is a prized monomania ; it was crossbreed by Rudy Ziesenhenne for Madame Walska , the founder of the Lotusland garden , and has been in Shrader ’s collection for over a decade . photograph by : Lisa Romerein . SEE MORE exposure OF THIS GARDEN
GD : What ’s behind your correct editing of colour and furnishings ?
SS : I’m not a fan of filling space with stuff you ’re just going to get rid of later . I wait to buy until I found what I liked : bits of old rescued stone , Sir Henry Wood , and metal , beautiful in their imperfection . rude materials with patina lend demarcation to the modern elements . I also looked for furniture that wo n’t go out of style , like the classical Walter Lamb R-2 - and - copper - tube chairs I found through Modern One . They work without cushion , which cut off down on maintenance . Where I need upholstery , I used outdoor fabrics in light neutral that are still against the greens . When they get marked-up , I soak the covers overnight in OxiClean .
GD : How did you cut corner so you could fling on costly furniture and stone ?
SS : I prioritized , redact money into social structure — Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , paving , the pool - by buying long - lasting fabrics that would n’t need replacing , such as Perennials and Kneedler - Fauchère . I used the Lucy Stone sparingly and in two rooms substituted gravel . It holds weeds down , maintain moisture in , and makes everything , include the planting beds , look finished . Scaffolding woodwind was another quick , cheap fix for my dining tabletop , a shelf for guests to put drinks on , and as camouflage for an horrible wall — there , I filled scaffold skeleton with firewood .
GD : What ’s your advice for create a timeless garden ?
SS : industrial plant heedfully . Anticipate the mature shapes and size of your choices so you ’re not perpetually redoing things . Landscapes change so dramatically that what you set today could look totally different in three years .
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