Shades of Gray : This Tiny Garden Takes Its Cue From the Rocky Coastline
GRAY IS GRAY, right? Not always. The color gray offers endless possibilities, as illustrated by this Rincon Beach garden designed by Santa Barbara landscape architect Isabelle C. Greene.
Greene chose gray for this beach-house garden for two reasons: Not only is it appropriate to a setting of driftwood and mist, but she has long been committed to drought-tolerant design, and most gray plants need little water. The garden here consists of just four elements: the combination parking area-entry yard, two narrow side yards (which are little more than passageways) and a back deck. In perfect harmony with the gray foliage are the stone grays of gravel, pebbles, exposed aggregate and natural concretes. This hard-scape has been structured to lead visitors toward the front door, which is tucked away on the side of the house.
In front, the feathery silver of Senecio vira-vira sets off the fluffy, pewter-gray of Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ and the spiky, steel-blue of Senecio mandraliscae. Lavender’s aromatic flowers and dusty gray-green foliage rise above prostrate, almost-white snow-in-summer ( Cerastium tomentosum ) . Emphatic, chalky-gray succulents and soft, fuzzy lamb’s ears punctuate the composition. On the ocean side, the gray-green of Pittosporum crassifolium ‘Nana’ and the leathery, hazy green of New Zealand Christmas tree ( Metrosideros excelsus ) look neat and cool despite summer heat and salt spray or fierce winter storms.
Though gray sets the theme for the garden (even the fences and the beachside deck have the gray patina of weathered wood), there is a healthy dose of green in the foliage framework, and flowers are in dawn and sunset colors that mirror the morning and evening sky. These range from soft, blush-pink bougainvillea ‘Pink Dream’ through rosy, trailing bougainvillea ‘Rosenka’ to the burnt-red of kangaroo paw ( Aniqozanthos flavidus ).
A swatch of mondo grass and variegated Ophiopogon jaburan ‘Vittatus’ serves as a transition to the side yards. Here, full-shade makes it difficult to grow gray plants, which generally prefer sun. Steppingstones carry a gray thread through the greenness, and the sunset pinks are continued in begonias, camellias, Francoa ramosa and foxgloves.
Grays look good by moonlight, and at night silvery grays stand out like white clothing in a car’s headlight beams. When the fog rolls in off the ocean, you can feel the gray in the damp air. With its textures softened by the gray light, the composition is both subtle and striking.
