Then and now...
Dave and I found our Pleasanton home in 1981 and have loved living here, especially enjoying the art of gardening...in the back yard. Early on, Dave laid 2 tons of flagstone, created a rock garden with steps, built brick planter boxes, and replaced gravel with new irrigation and grass (all for our dog Buddy!). In the back yard, Dave created an oasis for us, a place of peace we enjoyed every day. I wanted to transplant all this into the front yard.
The backyard on the day of Dave's celebration of life, June 10, 2023.
I love the color and sense of peace Dave's design provides us.
Dave redid this round planter box 3 times before it matched his expectations. I love the flagstone and would use it in the front yard as a major element for a new walkway and steps.
I knew I wanted to use flagstone in the front for a new walkway
with the same shape as the one in the backyard.
I also knew I wanted lots of color out front, just like in the back yard.
We had talked about redoing the front yard for a few years.
But he reminded me, "You know, if you take out those junipers you are going to have to put in water". Yes, I knew it would be a very big undertaking to pull out the junipers and start all over, but it just seemed like time to try.
When he passed from mesothelioma in 2023, I decided to take the leap and create something beautiful to honor him by bringing elements of his unique backyard design into the front. In addition, I had the house repainted in 2024 and choosing new plants and hardscape out front would be a chance to make a total transformation and highlight the new paint color.
The almost 50 year old juniper-filled front landscape had outgrown its welcome. I know, it didn't need water, but man it was ugly and getting so overgrown you couldn't even appreciate that a home was behind the evergreen junipers.
The most notable feature in the front yard really is the huge ball shaped olive tree! Dave used to get up on a ladder and trim it himself. This caused me great anguish as you could imagine. He did it to prevent the olives from setting and dropping. But when he reached 75 years old, we both agreed...no more ladders or wielding a heavy trimmer overhead.
So we said...let it go natural.
In the summer of 2023, I hired a company to trim it and get it started on its path and to
"natural beauty"....
The tree was opened up and provided the theme for a new Mediterranean Garden
I found an urn from Giannini Garden Supply in SF. I chose this one because it is called "Etrusco" and reminds me of the wonderful Etruscan art Dave and I admired in Italy.
Our new flagstone walkway in the similar shape as our back yard walkway.
I needed a way to gain access to the plants on the sloping yard so I asked the contractor to build me some steps, again similar to Dave's plan in the back yard. The poppy was a volunteer!
