PROJECT 1

This is a landscaping project I worked on for 2 years, in an effort to manage the overgrown weeds and vines, as well as establish native wildflowers, plants as well as other pollinator flowers. Given the significant weeds and vines (both oxalis and non-native grass), it was on ongoing effort that I anticipated would take about 5 years to complete.

I did multiple tests throughout the garden to understand where wildflowers would and wouldn’t grow, and how much maintenance without pesticides I would have to do to allow wildflowers to compete with the weeds. I unfortunately had to move out before I had a chance to fully establish my vision, but I learned a lot about native wildflowers, seed-starting, over-wintering, landscaping, the multi-year process of establishing certain plants, and the give and take of working with overgrown gardens.

Below are the before, process, and “after” photographs, taken with both film and iPhone.

1. The Original Garden, as well as process photos.

A before of the garden before any landscaping. Patchy grass.

A before of the garden before any landscaping. The morning glory was suffocating all the other plants underneath.

Clearing the garden with only hand tools, didn’t want to use pesticides.

Cleared garden

Layed a simple paved path.

Next, I tackled the morning glory.

The initial deep pruning of the different vining branches, particularly the morning glory which was near suffocating the other plants.

I cleared the vine section up and bit, and put down some mulch. You can also see the landscape fabric I laid down to try to prevent weeds (wasn’t that successful with oxalis, as you will see, but it was a good learning lesson).

Though initially bare, over time the different vines came back nicely. (Bougeanvillea, passionfruit, and quince)

Started to plan a native wildflower meadow section and plug plants about 50/50 native CA plants and other pollinator plants.

This was my control box for the native clarkia, which I wanted to use as a baseline of seedling growth to compare to what I planted in different parts of the garden.

The oxalis was brutal in taking over the landscape every fall with the rains. I gradually realized I was not going to be able to fully establish a complete meadow, especially in areas with less sun, so I decided to at least tackle some areas and deweed those by hand.

An example of patchy de-weeding. (I did more after this, of course)

You can see the clarkia wildflowers pop up where I hand plucked oxalis roots from. A tedious effort, but worthwhile to save certain sections from the intense oxalis.

As you can see here, I wasn’t able to fully get rid of the oxalis, but I read up on living with weeds and figured that if I was persistent, over time I could keep establishing the natives and gradually push out the areas where oxalis grows. It would take years, but would be worth it to preserve the topsoil without too much interference.

I figured one thing I could do is to naturally find paths where the oxalis grew and lay a simple stone path over them, while maintaining the areas where other plants were thriving. That would at least help push out some of the oxalis.

The stone paths I made from the oxalis growing paths.

Another angle I made from the oxalis growing paths. In the after series, you will see how I established the clarkia meadow over time.

2. Photos of the garden, wildflowers, and pruned vines after 2 years.

PROJECT 2

This is an in-progress landscaping project I’m designing and gardening on my own in Albany, CA.

Before/Initial Planting
The gardening area was sparse other than a few overgrown bushes that I pruned or removed. The owners wanted a garden that interspersed vegetables/herbs with pollinator plants (as many native as possible).

2. Progress/Iteration

After the native wildflowers died down, I planted in vegetables to harvest for the late summer/early fall.

PROJECT 1

PROJECT 2

FLORAL ARTS