See us at the San Diego Fair in Del Mar

Visit our award winning display in the Flower & Garden Show at the fairgrounds in Del Mar. The show runs June 8 thru July 4.

Meet us, landscape designers David Pearling and Bianca Romani, on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the fair in our garden display "Pathway to the Planets."

Our garden display won the Walter Anderson Award for The Most Practical Landscape.

Let us help you create the landscape and gardens of your dreams. Using the five key concepts from my 'Quick Start Guide' (see link at right) your home will be the envy of the neighborhood.

To reach us directly... call my cell phone 630-863-5712

Or email me at dpearl1@hotmail.com

Call us now to schedule your free in-home consultation.

My projects...before and after

Our volunteer carpet of Mexican primrose

We'd like to thank our volunteers, Mexican primrose. Every spring we are treated to a fine display of pink flowering Oenothera speciosa. They come up by themselves by mid spring and for a few weeks this is our bouquet at our home in San Diego's North Park neighborhood. By early summer the plants dry up and almost disappear by themselves. Some minimal cleanup in the winter removes the dried growth in a few minutes and makes the beds ready for the following spring.

Delightful topiary garden in San Diego

A New Patio Garden in San Diego

These photos show the dramatic before and after transformation of a back yard garden located in San Diego's North Park neighborhood. Here you can see that the old patio was an outdated use of 12" x 12" concrete stepping stones. Alternating stones were stained darker to give a checkerboard effect.

The open soil area was a long neglected patch of bare dirt. The goal was to design a new 'outdoor room' that increased both the patio area and reduced the amount of concrete to the left to give more room for planting.

The concrete areas that have the orange paint marks were removed. This allowed for a lot more planting space adjacent to the back porch. All of the checkerboard pavers were removed and replaced with modern brick paving stones. A seating wall now partially encloses the patio closest to the home on two sides.

Here are some photos taken after the installation of the paving stones and seating wall had been completed. At this time the budget did not allow for a lot of planting. But the owners were able to get started on the planting right away. They love to garden and intend to fill in the open areas as time permits.

This project was designed by me and completed by Paving Stone of San Diego for whom I work as an independent designer. We also recommended that the open planted areas have the soil improved. The old soil, mostly heavy clay, was removed to a depth of six inches. An amended high quality top soil was added to these spaces. The new soil is wonderful to plant in.

Planting choices wisely include succulents and other low water use plants. And as important, no lawn! Lawns are extremely water thirsty and require vast amounts of maintenance time. You should eliminate as much lawn as you can.

This project was completed in only two days and ready to use immediately. The watering and maintenance needs will be minimal.

Please contact me if you would like more information or a design for your home.

Gardening Observation:

A Tale of Two Redbuds - The eastern redbud tree, Cercis canandensis, is one of my favorites for its profusion of pink, branch hugging blossoms in the early spring. The redbud on the left was photographed by me in Joliet, Illinois on May 1, 2011. It is small - only pehaps seven feet tall. The one on the right was also taken by me in San Diego on Feb. 4, 2012.

I only recently learned that redbuds can be grown in warm climates like San Diego. The Sunset Western Garden Book lists it for all zones in the U.S. including the hot desert if given some shade. I do not not recall ever seeing one in Phoenix however during the time I lived and worked there.

In the Midwest there is hardly a more charming small to medium tree. It has a profusion of flowers in late April in the Chicago area. It grows 30 ft. (10 m) tall and as wide. When grown as an "understory" tree beneath taller varieties it has a fairy land look when in bloom. If you live in Joliet drive by the home at the corner of Westridge Rd. and Timbercrest Dr. in late April and you will see what I mean. This subdivision is south of Black Rd. across from the Rock Run Forest Preserve near I-55.

A drive along I-94 in southern Michigan between Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor in late April is sure to please. There are hundreds of naturally growing redbuds where the forest meets a clearing beside the road.

Unfortunately, redbuds have a higher than average rate of dying when first planted. Many do not bloom or leaf out the first spring after planting. For this reason we were reluctant to plant them when we were in the landscaping business in that area. They need rich soil and do poorly in the heavy clay found in many subdivisions.

Which brings me to the San Diego specimen shown above. It was planted late last spring in the newly installed median garden in Thorn St. in the Altadena neighborhood in North Park. I believe it is the 'Forest Pansy' variety. For neighborhood beautification the pavement was removed in this wide stretch of Thorn St. and a block-long garden median installed. It is a nice addition to this neighborhood where I live. Five redbuds were planted. Only the one shown shows any outward signs of life now.

I wonder if redbuds were an appropriate choice for this location. Perhaps crepe myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, would have been better. The Sunset Western Garden Book does not list it for Zone 24 where I live but there are many that thrive nearby and throughout San Diego. I don't know why Sunset does not list it for Zone 24.

As a garden lover I find it interesting that to redbuds at least spring comes to San Diego twelve week earlier than it does to the far southwestern suburbs of Chicago.

A "Perfect" Landscape Design

Here is a landscape design we recently created for a client in Escondido, California.

She has a tired looking existing landscape consisting of mostly 3/4" granite and a few palm trees.

Instead, her goal is to transform her front gardens into an outdoor room entertaining space.

When we delivered her finished design, she said, "It's perfect."