See how a Hollywood set decorator created magic in her Altadena garden
Erik Hillard and Peggy Casey have transformed their sprawling Altadena lawns into a colorful landscape of plants and flowers. Last year, they let pumpkins overtake the empty area of the backyard, pictured above.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
The front yard is alive with California and Australian natives, neat rows of edibles, pretty ornamentals and abundant wildlife.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
In the front yard, Casey is growing eggplant and Swiss chard, red celery, heirloom tomatoes and peppers, bicolored corn, cucumbers and fennel.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
The gardens circle the house, which is on nearly 3/4 of an acre, and add a softness to the clean lines of the cabin-like 1950 Midcentury home. “I just planted what I loved,” Peggy Casey says.
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A view of Hillard’s workspace from Casey’s garden shed.
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Lavender from the garden hangs to dry next to garden tools in Peggy Casey’s garden shed.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Erik Hillard and Peggy Casey in their Altadena garden. “She doesn’t have green thumbs,” Hillard says of his wife with a laugh. “She has green arms.”
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The hummingbirds are abundant in Peggy Casey and Erik Hillard’s Altadena garden.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Separate work spaces — a garden shed for her and a small dwelling for home brewing and mountain bike maintenance for him — also entice the couple outdoors.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Casey installed a tub from the Czech Republic in her garden shed.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
The couple assembled two sheds and a chicken coop off-site with recycled materials from the Habitat for Humanity store, and then had a crane drop them on the property fully assembled.
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The grounds are jampacked with colorful plants and flowers of all shapes and sizes, including drought-tolerant grevilleas, traditional white David Austin roses, hardy succulents and tall Pride of Madeira to attract bees, butterflies and birds.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
A detail of the drought-tolerant Australian native Grevillea ‘Peaches and Cream.’
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Drought-tolerant scabiosa in Peggy Casey and Erik Hillard’s garden in Altadena.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Kangaroo paw, an Australian native.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
The couple say that wildlife, such as this Western Scrub-Jay, multiplied after they installed a Bauer oil jar water fountain from Potted.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Leonotis leonurus, also known as lion’s tail.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Quail bush.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Peggy Casey and Erik Hillard’s front yard in Altadena.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
The drought-resistant South African native Cotula, ‘Tiffindell Gold.’
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Detail of a poppy.
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A white African iris.
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A detail of a drought-tolerant Tower of Jewels plant, which attracts bees, butterflies and birds.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
A close-up of a vibrant hollyhock.
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Begonia Bellfire.
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A native California milkweed plant serves as a host for caterpillars of the monarch butterfly.
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A David Austin English rose.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Trailing Mayflower plant.
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Colorful stems of the drought-tolerant plant Pride of Madeira.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
An agave plant.
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Flowering succulents.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
A red Bauer oil jar water fountain from Potted brings wildlife to the yard.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Lamb’s-ears, a hardy perennial.
Scabiosa can handle full sun in Altadena.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Grevillea filoba, an Australian native.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
A bowl filled with Echeveria succulents rests on the back patio
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Kniphofia, also called red hot poker, which is native to South Africa, attracts hummingbirds in the Altadena garden.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
When Casey and husband Erik Hillard bought the 1950 Norwood & Delonge-designed home four years ago, the sprawling property consisted of lawn, ivy and 16-foot-tall hedges. Today, the backyard is a lush retreat composed of gardens and outdoor lounge areas complemented by a beehive, a chicken coop and an 8-by-10-foot chicken run.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)