Mediterranean Berkeley Garden, Photo Gallery
A pair of Himalayan fishtail palms (Caryota gigas, grown by a friend from seed) towers over the garden’s water feature. Instead of a typical allée of cypress trees leading to the fountain, Tyson gave things a twist by choosing Dr. Seuss-like tree aloes (Aloe barberae, syn. A. bainesii), underplanting them with a glittering assortment of succulents. The effect is of a Persian paradise garden.
The fountain, modeled after one found in the courtyard of a Los Angeles apartment complex built in 1926, was surfaced in reproduction D&M tile, custom-made by Diana Watson of Native Tile & Ceramics.
Tyson and his plant-aficionado client Amy Harmon missed no opportunity to create a home for unique plants, even a narrow bed by the sidewalk (much enjoyed by the neighbors) filled with palms and succulents like aloes. A hedge of chocolate-scented Azara dentata screens the house from the road.
Stalklike ceramic sculptures by Berkeley artist Marcia Donahue look alive, emerging from a tapestry of black-foliaged Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’ and Banksia spinulosa ‘Schnapper Point’, and intentionally mimick the timber bamboo in the background.
Though the garden is small, Harmon wanted pathways and places to sit to appreciate the plantings. Here an antique bench (a gift to Harmon from her husband) looks over architectural Kalanchoe thysiflora and a yellow-flowered groundcover of brass buttons (Cotula lineariloba).
The goal of the garden was to match the drama and charm of the Harmons’ 1930s Mediterranean home, which still has its original paver driveway.
One of designer Tyson’s fortes is certainly drama, like the juxtaposition of the spiny trunk of a floss silk tree (Chorisia speciosa), the succulent foliage of Aloe rubroviolacea (with fiery red flower spikes) and the reed-thin leaves of Strelitzia juncea.
Harmon and Tyson both have an appreciation for tiny flowers, though the delicacy of this Josephine’s lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) gives no hint of what lies below ground — at planting time each bulb weighed a whopping 12 pounds.
Behind the tiled fountain is a rock wall filled with niches for plants to volunteer and a lush backdrop of tree ferns.
Two variegated cultivars of Aeonium (‘Kiwi’ and ‘Sunburst’) encircle an urn adorned with clay beads by Marcia Donahue, showing off Tyson’s passion for texture and color.
