As long as the plants can’t grow together
successfully, planted together
they’ll never look right to him.
Carmel Valley House, California
Trainor says, “I had to design with
a perfectly adapted plant palette.
The site’s challenges didn’t allow for
even a tiny margin for error.” He
was talking about the shallow, rocky
soil, the hungry deer, the bareness
of the beautifully rugged 11-acre
hilltop with magnificent Carmel
Valley views.
Trainor’s planting palette included
mostly California natives—two dozen
different kinds, from grasses
to trees—along with some highly
adapted Mediterranean plants. For
the areas away from the house,
Trainor says, “My clear intent was
that the landscape not look intentional.”
He planted Monterey pines
and live oaks on the bare slopes
where highly fammable chamise
(Adenostoma fasciculatum) had been
cleared for fre safety. He stacked
sandstone excavated from the site
for walls that line the driveway.
Above the walls, and in a circular
planting area at the top of the drive,
among the original scrub oaks, he
put in “low-growing plants that
actually grow”: Ceanothus impressus
‘Vandenberg,’ with tiny, tough,
khaki green leaves that deer ignore;
Ceanothus gloriosus, a sharp-leafed
creeper; and purplish-leafed Arctostaphylos
pajaroensis, native to the
local area.
In deference to the fora of California’s
chaparral habitat, Trainor
scattered plants in “dollops, like the
wind blew them in.” He explained
the distinctive look of chaparral:
“This is not Oehme van Sweden.
Plants don’t live in big drifts like that
here. Irrigating a meadow would be
prohibitive.”
Near the house, the plantings have
a more controlled and formal look.
In a sun-drenched parking area is a
mass planting of lavender in
↘straight rows, and Thamnochortus
insignis (thatching reed) is lined up
against a low concrete wall.
Just off the front entrance to the
house, an enclosed (deer-proof )
courtyard, visible from interior
rooms, is tranquil, with a stone
fountain that attracts wild canaries
and a combination of half natives
(less scrufy types) and half nonnatives.
A grid of Arbutus ‘Marina’ provides
shade, evergreen foliage, and
beautiful red trunks. Dense roundish
Raphiolepis umbellata ‘Minor,’
also in a grid, punctuates a ground
cover of native strawberry. Mounds
of Elfn thyme, wild grape on a fence,
lush Woodwardia fimbriata (giant
chain fern), and California poppy
add color.
Several rooms open to small gardens
with wild touches. A small terrace
planted with live oaks brings nature
up to the living room. Nearby, the
pungent scent of a mass of California
blue sage (Salvia clevelandii) is
the essence of chaparral.
Australia Garden, San Francisco
Botanical Garden
Instead of displaying Australia’s
amazing array of natives singly, like
odd-but-true botanical equivalents of
the platypus, Trainor’s landscape at
the San Francisco Botanical Garden
shows how to use these highly adapted
plants in California home gardens.
The project was a major overhaul of
an Australian collection originally
dating back to the 1930s, created for
the 1939 World’s Fair in San Francisco.
To bring the plants into better
view for visitors and to create the
feeling of an authentic eastern Australian
landscape, Trainor added a
dry stream and meandering paths.
The decomposed granite paths are
bordered by perennials, shrubs, and
trees, which are sometimes overgrown
enough to obscure their discreet
labels.
For the most part, Trainor chose
colorful plants that don’t require
much maintenance: several species
of Correa, particularly ‘Ray’s Tangerine,’
with orange bell-like fowers in
winter, and Banksia seminuda, with
intricate burr-like golden blooms.
Even a giant spear lily (Doryanthes
palmeri), with strapping leaves and