Water-Wise Garden with Style

Find out how landscape designer Molly Wood melded environmental consciousness with personal flair for one Shady Canyon couple's backyard.

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An outdoor room with breezy curtains awaits at the end of the yard

t is signature Shady Canyon as you drive up the hill lined with grasses, succulents and pepper trees and roll through the gate. It is Shady Canyon style still as you make the turn into a neighborhood of Mediterranean-esque homes with numerous interpretations of drought-tolerant landscapes along the street.
But when you step into the backyard of Karen and John Booty, drought-tolerant transitions into a livable design with a personality that says Molly Wood – Wood on the dry side, that is.

Wood, a landscape designer, has fashioned a scented and insightful garden with European touches and inviting spaces – a garden that drinks no more water than most of us use to fill a bathtub. It’s a wonder the Bootys don’t live outside except for the fact that they don’t have to. Their house is fashioned with so many windows that the couple can see their garden from all sides.

“It’s definitely all Molly,” says Karen. “She understands what a woman wants in a garden.”

Yellow kangaroo paws frame purple verbena bonariensis

What the garden isn’t may be more obvious than what it is. There is no muscular hardscape so over the top that it interferes with the idea of a garden. With a slight touch of flagstone for a patio, gravel for the walkways and a pergola that is substantial but doesn’t slap you in the face, you might imagine the garden has evolved over a few generations. It has a softness you don’t often see from the design community.

“My goal is to get my clients outside to enjoy their yards,” says Wood. “I include many spots for sitting and inviting destinations.”

Indeed. Bent willow mixes with weathered furniture in shades of gray. Stone blends seamlessly with wood. And not as an afterthought, but as a focal point, there are the plants – colorful, scented and full of surprises. Typical European plants such as climbing roses, Boston ivy, slender cypresses, and weeping pepper trees frame the landscape and give it structure. Iris that bloomed in spring gathers energy in its blades for the next season.

Wood says her favorite plants are kangaroo paw that thrive on neglect, and miscanthus because it goes through so many cycles – the way it pops up in the spring, blooms in the fall and catches the sunlight late in the day. Aeoniums are another favorite plant because Wood loves their graphic forms. Among these mainstream plants are other drought-tolerant selections such as verbena, bouncing its purple heads between the ornamental grasses. Succulents such as crassula and echeveria thrive in the cool shade under the trees.

Wood used these untraditional plants in traditional fashion, planting them in a symmetrical style reminiscent of Italian landscapes. There are also touches that Karen may not have even known she wanted but that Wood was sure to include. Scented thyme between the stepping stones only enhances the experience as you explore the different areas of the garden.

Gravel, with its decided crunch, leads to a side garden that is more about viewing with its intricate design of gravel and succulents. A “dry” fountain of grasses takes the stage with four equidistant trees planted for balance.

Exploring further you come to a side yard that leads to a secret courtyard garden – Karen’s favorite space. A dining area and seating for four are arranged around an outdoor fireplace that borrowed from Mission architecture in style. Four ornamental pear trees lend the space a European formality, but it is softened again with climbing roses and swaying grasses that catch the breeze.

It has a classical European framework with a totally new plant palette, says Wood. It’s old and new, and certainly succeeds because the Bootys enjoy their outdoors whenever they can.

Molly Wood Garden Design, (949) 548-1611; mollywoodgardendesign.com

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