Succulents and More™

When you hear the word “rock garden,” I’m sure you think of something like this: Rock garden as envisioned by Adobe Firefly But that’s not the kind of rock garden Rick Bjorklund and his partner have created in San Diego. As you’ll discover in a little bit, theirs is something else entirely – something I’ve never seen before. Rick was gracious enough to provide additional information about the making of their garden. I’m going to intersperse his insights throughout this post. To make them stand out, they’re in a different font . ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅ Gerhard: When did you start your garden? Rick: I began renovating the yard and gardens shortly after renovating the interior of the house, 20 years ago. The front yard had ¾" white gravel, a few shrubs, a pine tree and small palm, and a very large olive tree. I dug in the gravel, removed many shrubs, and began adding aloes and agaves. The backyard had an un-terraced slope full of ivy (which I later discovered rats loved), several almost dead...

This is part 2 of my post about visiting landscape designer Mat McGrath’s personal garden in Rodeo, California in May 2025. For part 1 (front yard), click here . ⸻ ⸻ The slope you saw in the front continues in the back: The terracing on the slope inside the fence was done by the previous homeowner. There are three levels, offering a lot of real estate for planting. Take a look at these photos from October 2024... October 2024 October 2024 ....and compare them with this: May 2025 The succulent tapestry is gone, replaced with Mat's collection of found metal objects. Mat says he was ready for a change and wanted to simplify the look of this area. All of these metal objects were originally made for specific practical purposes, now they're appreciated as industrial art The object in the center is barbed wire wrapped around a wooden post; this is done when removing an old barbed wire fence The orange object is a ladder jack, according to Google “a bracket device that attaches to a la...