project One

I’ve always loved gardening. When I was a child, I’d spend hours with my Dad in the garden planting all kinds of wonderful flowers, fruits, veggies and perennials. My parents always had beautifully landscaped yards, with meticulous attention to every last detail. Gardening is simply a cathartic, meditative and very satisfying exercise for me personally, and I was keen to get my hands back in some dirt. When we arrived at our Sonoma Villa, I was delighted to see so much space and potential to create the garden of my dreams. With eight olive trees, multiple apple trees, pear, fig, apricot and plum trees plus a cutting garden surrounded by a small vineyard of merlot grapes, I was giddy with excitement as I imagined garden adventures to come. 

I quickly discovered that the garden had been neglected over the years. Many of the plantings were dead or dying, the irrigation system was broken and there was a layer of plastic over the roots of the fruit bearing trees, basically suffocating them. A haphazardly built fence partially covered the septic system switch, and behind our guest cottage raised beds had rotted, with weeds reaching my height. It seemed overwhelming the amount of work it was going to take to get the yard into shape, but I began to visualize what might be, first just by observing other gardens I encountered on my daily walks or outings.

Once I had collected several ideas, and taken a bunch of pictures of local plants for inspiration, I was ready to get some help. I was fortunate to find Thomas Bottari, an expert in organic gardening and the owner of Totem Landscaping. Thomas took my ideas to the next level, creating a brilliant design, then putting his team in place to make it all happen.  

Our first priority was ripping out everything that was dead or dying, along with all of the haphazard rotting structures and overgrown plants. We removed what must have been a million misplaced bulbs, dying shrubs, old irrigation piping, broken outdoor lighting, mint run amok, and weeds galore. But once that was done, we had a blank canvas and began to see the potential. Thomas guided me towards drought resistant plant selections which would also act as pollinators for our fruit trees.

Our second priority was to create an edible garden with raised beds, complete with six foot fence to keep our deer friends out. We repurposed the former pétanque court (who plays that game anyway?), which provided a perfect space just outside of the kitchen. Thomas and team built the most beautiful beds, then helped me fill them with an initial set of veggies that would grow during the winter. I enlisted help from my kids to plant broccoli, brussels sprout, onions, garlic, multiple lettuces, kales and mustard greens. Who knew you could plant so many wonderful edibles heading into winter!? I’m learning that California is even more of a magical bread basket to the world than I had understood. How wonderful to be able to grow things year round!

With these initial two projects now complete, we are taking a break and focusing on the inside of the house for the next little while. But when we revisit the outside, we have many future projects planned including sprucing up the plantings around the front door, planting a mini orchard behind our guest cottage, adding cypress trees along our back property line for privacy, new outdoor lighting, to name just a few. Gardening, landscaping and maintaining is a never-ending project, but one that brings such joy and fulfillment. My dad would have loved our garden. Sadly he is not here to enjoy it in the flesh, but I know his spirit visits often from heaven above. 

Sonoma has several wonderful nurseries and wholesale spots to purchase everything your heart desires for your garden. I often optimize around convenience, so close to home always wins in terms of how I select where I shop. Sonoma Mission Gardens is one of my favorite places, and while it's a bit expensive, the quality and service are worth every penny. The staff is wonderful, and you get a 20% discount if you spend over $500. So it's worth it to save up those garden visits, and do one big shop for the season where you'll receive the discount. Plus, they deliver anything that is oversized. 

When we arrived in Sonoma, we moved right in having bought our home furnished. We decided to wait to make any updates until we had lived in the house for a bit. That was all well and good, but the dated yellow color of our stucco walls was driving me crazy. After eight weeks of living with it I had reached my limit. Commence project 1.5, a full interior repaint! 

We picked a wonderful bright white, a special paint imported from Italy that was low on fumes, and high on aesthetics working perfectly with our stucco walls. After three coats, and three weeks of painting, things began to feel light, bright and fresh. As work finished up in our laundry room, which is on our second floor above our dining room, the painters unfortunately did not hook our plumbing back up properly. The first load of wash unleashed a massive amount of water all over the laundry room, and into the dining room below ruining both the reclaimed hardwoods in the laundry room, and the freshly painted dining room ceiling below. 

Well one thing led to another, and as we embarked upon fixing the laundry and dining rooms, we decided to tackle most of the interior projects we had planned, as one room was basically connected to another. We also realized there would be economies of scale, and ultimately more cost effective, to have all the trades in at once, versus spreading projects out over multiple years. 

So what was going to be a simple paint job, turned into a laundry and dining room repair, which then turned into three bathrooms plus a kitchen remodel. While we are at it, we are going to replace all of the flooring, doors, hardware and moldings. Oh and we’ll fix the lighting too. Did I say our house was a fixer upper? That is certainly the case. Oy Vey. Good thing I have my garden to go play in, because it's a mess inside the house these days!