Garden Name: Mokuri Gardens
Coordinates: California
Area: approximately 300 square meters
Orientation: East, South
Light time: 4-8 hours
Age: 4 years
Garden features: natural and wild rustic style
On the other side of the ocean in California, there is a garden, and in the garden, if you look into the distance, you can see the rolling hills.
The mountains in the distance of the garden are covered with a thin layer of snow
On a clear morning, you can witness the sun rising from the valley; on a full moon night, the moon will quietly climb the hillside and sprinkle the moonlight all over the garden.
Aoi's Garden: Mokuri Garden▲
Full moon night in the garden ▲
The above pictures are not only seen in the movie, they are really in Aoi's garden. In this garden, there is not only a beautiful view in the distance, but also more than 100 kinds of plants growing freely in it.
The garden blends into the surrounding nature, and the small animals nearby often use it as a playground and restaurant.
Eagle, American quail, squirrel ▲
Today, we take you into this rustic garden in California, USA, and let us experience the garden life on the other side of the ocean.
If you want to live actively, build a garden!
Since junior high school, Xiao Aoi has fallen in love with planting flowers and sowing seeds, because there will be expectations when seeds are sown. Watching them grow up every day, especially when they see the flowers blossom, that sense of accomplishment makes people live more actively.
Autumn sowing grass flowers ▲
When I first arrived in the United States, I stayed in an apartment with an empty balcony. Aoi said, "The empty balcony must be planted with flowers!" So I planted more and more on the balcony.
Former balcony garden ▲
One day, even the gardeners in the community gave a thumbs up to the small Aoi on the balcony, and the neighbors also appreciated that the small Aoi's balcony was the most beautiful balcony in the community.
In 2017, the Aoi family moved from the apartment to where they currently live. The garden in the dream began to become a reality step by step from then on.
Spring garden ▲
Since having a garden, Xiao Aoi has not been idle for a day, from design and planning to replanting the soil, there is a lot of work to be done every day.
Before you start designing your garden, you'll refer to the garden style of the locals. Due to the Mediterranean climate in the area where Aoi is located, the summer is dry and rainless, and the winter is humid.
The garden used to be mediterranean style▲
The local garden style is basically a combination of large trees and shrubs, and then dotted with succulents, plus a few moon trees or a few clumps of centaurea. However, Xiao Kui prefers a cottage-style garden with one scene at a time, and the plant matching is more inclined to be high and low, natural and wild.
The remodeled garden ▲
The garden is surrounded by A-shaped houses from the north, east and south, and the front garden in the west belongs to the public green belt and is managed by the community.
Schematic diagram of the garden plan▲
There are some shade-tolerant evergreen plants in the north, two maple trees, various shrubs and root plants in the east, and the largest area in the south, with a long planting area around the fence, house and high wall, divided into three flower islands in the middle, and the stone paved path winds through it.
East and south of the garden
Flower Island to the south
To the south is Aoi's favorite area, where the sun rises and sets and the grass warblers fly. The perennial plants will serve as the garden skeleton, two tall blue thistles as the background plants of the garden, the foxglove is all over the garden, and the tall flower stems when flowering are very good to raise the garden level, and the annual grass flowers will act as feathers to plump the entire garden.
Tall blue thistles do background ▲
Foxglove is dotted in the flower landscape
Since sunflowers are grass and flower lovers, they buy seeds for autumn sowing every year, and each season uses different flowers to create different flower landscapes. Xiao Kui said: "If they are all perennial, there will always be a feeling of 'similar flowers from year to year', which is a lot less fresh." ”
Same angle, different garden atmosphere ▲
In the early spring, the garden has bulbous plants such as daffodils and tulips, followed by blue thistles and various herbaceous flowers, and in late spring there are various colors of irises and moons.
Daffodils and tulips ▲
Blue thistle▲
Iris ▲
Monthly season "Desdemona"▲
Since California has been basically rainless since April and has not received rain until November or even December, summer temperatures can reach as high as 45 degrees, most of which are drought-tolerant and sun-resistant plants such as dahlias, verbena, centipedes, and sunflowers. Only when it rains will the garden come alive again.
Summer Garden▲
Sunflowers and dahlias▲
The first impression of Xiao Aoi's garden is perfection, and there is not a single residual flower or leaf in the past, but such a perfect garden also has a "rollover" time.
The star in the summer garden: Kiku Ohama ▲
The first package of seeds I bought at the beginning of the garden was a mixture of wildflower seeds, and I was going to make a wildflower meadow-themed garden, but the final effect was completely different from what I imagined, especially in May, when I was completely crazy and grew into a real meadow
Create a wildflower meadow ▲
Later, Xiao Aoi summed up the experience, not only to achieve a state of natural wildness and vigorous growth, but also to avoid chaos. Before sowing, pay attention to the height after flowering. The tall species is in the middle, and the dwarf species is on the edge. Flowers that are prone to lodging are not particularly liked and will not be planted again the next year.
Two different varieties of old stork grass form a flower path ▲
Xiao Aoi said: "The early transformation of the garden requires a lot of time and energy, and with the passage of time, the garden gradually takes shape, as long as some fragmented time is used every day to complete the work." ”
Hobbies are the spice of life, and there are bitternesses and pleasures that are not boring
Since the beginning of planting flowers, the life of the little sunflower has never been boring, the bulb season took two months to plant more than 600 balls, the autumn sowing season is busy sowing grass flowers, and the spring flowers will be filmed in the garden from morning to night.
Spring tulips ▲
Not all that's new in the garden revolves around the plants, but also animal visitors. There is a flock of turkeys patrolling the hillside outside the garden every day, and there are often small animals visiting the garden, most of which come to eat plants, and the little aoi often cries and laughs because of this.
Turkey open screen ▲
From the time when the balcony was planted with flowers, the squirrels would come to dig up the bulbs in the pots, and hide the chocolate and bread in the pots. Later, corn lilies were planted in the garden, and the variety of "blue bird", which was very popular with Aoi, was also dug up by squirrels and eaten.
Corn lilies that were bitten off by squirrels made cut flowers
Fortunately, the corn lilies were dug up after flowering, which somewhat left a good memory for the garden of the little sunflower. But the buttercup was not so lucky, and at the end of the flowering period, there was not a single flower, and all of them were shaved out and eaten by squirrels.
Squirrels often eat in the garden
But nature always has its laws, and the eagle taught the squirrel a lesson for Aoi. Once, an eagle landed on a rock in the yard, and after a while, a squirrel sneaked into the garden, only to come in and meet the eagle head-on, and the eagle opened its wings and barked, frightening the squirrel to rush into the bushes on the edge of the fence and flee.
Hairy flowers are plants that squirrels do not eat
Of course, in addition to the squirrels that love to eat plants, there are also cute birds. The American quail will drag the family to the mouth, the hair on the head looks very funny, sometimes with a small baby, super small, especially cute!
Birds that stand on blue thistles every day and sing, American quail ▲
Every day, hummingbirds will visit, and once witnessed two hummingbirds fighting, I didn't expect that the little ones would be super fierce when they fought.
Hummingbird ▲
As a full-time housewife, Xiao Aoi is often asked: "Aren't you bored at home?" To this question, Xiao Aoi only wanted to say: "I would like to invite you to my garden, you will find people with hobbies, there will be no boring word in the dictionary." ”
The secret to creating a low-maintenance garden: go with nature
The global climate is warming, and for California, which has little rainfall, the amount of rain in the rainy season in the past two years is getting less and less. For Xiao Aoi to take care of the garden alone, watering in the dry season is a heavy burden, usually in the morning or evening to set aside time. In the summer, it is poured once a day or two, which takes an hour or so.
In the past, when the plants were short, they were watered daily by an automatic watering system. Later, the plant grew too tall, the sprinklers were blocked, and many places could not spray water, so they had to use water pipes to manually water.
Therefore, the small sunflower will plant more drought-tolerant plants after consideration to conform to the increasingly arid climate trend here. For example, plants suitable for cultivation in arid environments: iris, euphorbia, mother-in-law, incense snowball, lily, lavender, thyme, Mexican flying puff, feather-leaved stork, purple flower, heather, hairy flower.
Fragrant snowballs dot the garden, low maintenance can be self-sown ▲
Lavender is very heat-resistant and sun-resistant▲
Mexican flying puffs are interspersed along the garden path, and the mother-in-law is noted
In addition to bulbs and grass flowers, there are also suitable monthly seasons in arid environments, such as "Absolute Beauty".
Moon Season "Absolute Beauty"▲
Aoi believes that if you want to create a low-maintenance garden, you must choose plants that are suitable for your environment. Go to a nearby nursery to see what new plants are available or learn their flower-setting techniques.
Aoi often goes to the Filili Garden
It is recommended that Annie's Annual & Perennial Nursery visit the planting area and a variety of exotic flowers and exotic grasses retail area▲
It is important to improve the soil before planting plants. As long as planted in well-drained soil, plants can grow healthily and weed problems can be solved.
How to improve heavy clay, Aoi shares her experience:
Dig a pit in the planting location, dig the soil, mix it into the gardening recipe soil, mix it into the organic fertilizer, and then a small amount of sand, stir well and then fill it back. As the garden was gradually filled with plants, most of the soil was improved. Coupled with the application of organic fertilizer several times a year, the original heavy clay has now begun to gradually soften.
▲The soil before the renovation of the garden
Even if it is not easy to build a garden, whenever you walk into the garden, do some work, pick up the residual flowers, and water it, your troubles can be left behind, and you can find a moment of peace in a chicken feather, and you feel that it is all worth it.
Aoi makes a vase of flowers from garden plants
As Adam, Aoi's favorite gardening host, said, "We all know that we are in an era full of uncertainties, which makes me more aware of the peace that the garden brings to my life." Isn't the most important thing about gardening expectations, that is, all the connotations of gardening? ”
After planting flowers, what moments make you feel that you have not lived up to the time? Welcome to leave a message to tell us ~