A Bay Area Terraced Flower Border

The homeowner for this project is a keen gardener. Looking through the photos he shared from his travels in Europe, I noticed how many featured plants, landscapes and gardens.

Planting layout for the terraced hillside flower border

The slope receives plenty of sun and drains well, but holds little water. We therefore chose retaining-wall terraces to create planting beds. The redesigned beds retain considerably more water, with a gravel layer and drainage pipes at the bottom designed to help prevent waterlogging during the rainy season.

Terraced planting beds during construction; original privacy masking preserved

For the planting, we mainly selected drought-tolerant, sun-loving plants with long flowering seasons. Kangaroo paws, salvias, fine-leaved verbena, gaura and plumbago bring flowers from spring through fall. Their small blooms and airy, mist-like forms complement the homeowner’s roses in the front row without stealing the spotlight.

To complement the yellow tones of the Mexican feather grass the homeowner likes, I chose more blue and purple plants for a complementary color palette.

Looking down from the top of the slope, the planting increases in height from near to far so that the front rows do not hide those behind them. The last row is intended to reach around 4–8 feet, where lion’s tail and plumbago together can create a striking backdrop. The second row is around 3–4 feet. The existing roses in the front row need to be kept at about 3 feet so the whole composition can be seen from above.