A Stunning Fall Garden Tour with Landscape Designer Roberta Walker

Welcome, gardeners! I’m so honored to be at the home of award-winning designer Roberta Walker today! Back in the 2000s, Roberta helped start the movement to ditch the lawn here in California. She showed us that you can still have a lush, beautiful garden in our drought-prone state without wasting water. Roberta truly changed the game for landscaping here — and it all started with this garden! 🍂 Enjoy!

Roberta Walker Landscape Design: https://robertawalker.com/

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Dig, Plant, Water, Repeat
417 Mace Blvd Ste J # 238
Davis, CA 95618

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[Music] Hi everyone, Janie here. Welcome back. I am so honored to introduce you all to Robera Walker. She’s an awardwinning landscape designer. Uh you’ve been featured in Sunset magazines, different magazines, television, radio. You are the very first person who developed taking out the lawn, ditching the lawn. I did. So that’s also known as a drought tolerant landscape. But um back when I started ditching the lawn, I had some very courageous homeowners that were getting tired of mowing. And but the main reason is is that we get no rain in the summer. So we spend billions of gallons of water on lawns and it takes a lot of maintenance. So, it was back in 2004, but 2006 was the first Sunset article on losing the lawn. And they featured this landscape. This one right here. This one right here. Yeah. Okay. So, so we’re in Sacramento, California. We’re zone 9b. And like Robera is saying, we get drought. Like we get no rain and having a lawn, it becomes quite an issue not only for environmental issues, but also for the homeowner, right? Yes. And financially. Financially. financially to to to water it and keep it, you know, all that kind of stuff. Well, the days of having one monthly um price for your water is long gone. We all have meters and now we pay according to the water usage that that we use. So, you have your indoor usage and your laundry, your dishwasher and showers, but the outdoor could be three, four, five, 10 times the size of your indoor and you’re using that much water. Especially with lawns. so thirsty. So, did you get a lot of push back when you started the no lawn movement? Well, you know, I just started designing and um the movement happened because we were in a drought. So, I was interviewed on the news and because hey, someone’s doing something different. we have no water and um and then the movement kind of happened organically and because again there’s no water and the idea of prices going up but mainly the maintenance of mowing constantly so um it all started to roll forward which is what we needed to do and um for a while I don’t know what year but I worked with Habitat for Humanity and we built leadc certified homes which are the highest in energy efficiency. And on the team they said, “Well, what about what about having systems? That’s when you capture water, okay, and you keep it in barrels, which is a wonderful idea if you get water more than more than two or three months out of the year.” Yeah. If it rains, that’s a great idea. So, we did at one property because if the homeowner wants it, we do it. U we put in a 10,000galon tank under the garden. It was a massive house and so when it rains there are thousands of gallons that come off our roofs, right? And um so it filled up pretty quickly the 10,000 gallons and basically it was enough just to water in the summer their 25 foot square garden. Gosh. So systems really don’t work in our area. They’re wonderful in other parts of the world and even the Midwest, but here I mean where you get summer rain. Where you get summer rain. We we don’t. In fact, I mean we’ve this is an unusual year. We had I think two different rains, but I know it’s been lovely, but but you still couldn’t dig in the in the dirt, right? Right. So, when you first moved in this house, how long ago did you move in here? So, about it’s been about 25 years. Okay. And I waited 2 years. Um cuz there used to be a lawn here, right? This was all lawn. So, the only and this was um a Modesto ash. I don’t know if you know about Modesto ash, but they have a 55 year life. Well, this house was built in 1954. And apparently they knew that they only lived the planning. Um so one by one they all started to die. Oh boy. And then a friend of mine um there was a little brick a brick planter here and then she ran into it with her car and I thought okay it’s time that’s it. Time to make the change. And so the tree got cut down. And one thing about when you cut down trees um you’ve got a root system underneath. Yeah. And so the best way instead of trying to dig it out and cut it out is make a mound and as it decomposes Oh, I love that. There’s all kinds of, you know, wonderful soil bacteria and things going in and then you plant your new planting just aside from where the trunk was. Oh, I love that. So that’s what you did here. So that’s a mound. Yeah. Where the old tree was. Okay. And then you planted this new gorgeous Chinese pistache. This is stunning. So beautiful. It says, “Thanks for calling me new cuz it’s about 20 years old.” Right. Yeah. Right. Well, I just have to say it’s so fun with the I first met you all. I met you through our friend Michael Glassman, but I met you at the NorCal Home and Garden Show where you’ve done some presentations there on drought tolerant gardening. You’re a wonderful speaker. You are a really really And it’s so interesting to hear what you have to say about landscaping and gardening. So, I really appreciate you being here and I hope we can do more videos in the future. I know. I love talking about it. Pick your brain everything you have to say. Well, you know, I have um over the 30 years I’ve been doing this, I have thousands of before and after photos. And so, when I spoke at the show, and now one of my designers speaks at the show, um people love to see before and after because so many landscapes and homeowners say, “I can’t there’s nothing we could do with this. It’s just a mess. It’s a lost cause. There is no lost cause in nature. Mhm. It’s just I love that learning how to do it and you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars. You can if you want, but then gardening is all about um you know, you plant the seed, it grows. We’re not going to go that far, but if you have patience, yeah, you could grow your garden along with your budget. I love that. I absolutely love that. Well, let me grab the camera and then we’ll take a look around your own personal garden, which is an oasis. It like this is absolutely beautiful. And we are in basically November at this point and it is still looking absolutely incredible with no lawn. Yeah, no lawn. But it is fall so you’ll see everything just starting to go to sleep or lose the leaves are falling. I think it makes all the the ambiance. I think it’s perfect. Okay, Robera, we are in your front garden right now. I th this garden looks like it’s been here forever. It is so beautiful and the colors, there’s so many different colors going on. So like where do we start? Where do you want to start? Well, we could start here. So, try to imagine that everything here was just a green lawn. Wow. And when you have a green lawn, I’m just saying it was a green lawn. But generally, you have Bermuda grass and all these different weeds. So, let’s just let’s just say it was kind of a green palette. Green palette. I love that green palette. I love color. I’m just a color fiend. And so by you could create like a painting for your landscape by using plants that have fall color or like the red barbar here that’s got that deep plum red color. And this is amazing. And and what you have is you have yearround interest. Oh my goodness. This is really incredible. And one thing I have to say that I love about your garden, there are some blooms, but you’re not relying on the blooms for color. you’re relying on f a lot of foliage and a lot of texture which is really really neat. Well, that’s a good point because so many people um love the idea of an English garden. You look at magazines and they see beautiful fox gloves and roses. We don’t have that climate, but you could create something lush looking that doesn’t flower all the time that’s still full like an English garden. We’re at the end now, but I do have a lot of things that do come into bloom. the plumbago and the roses, ground cover roses, right? So, um, but to really have a landscape that holds throughout the season, consider using shrubs that have innate color. I love this. So, it’s hard to see that there’s a burm back here behind all the bushes cuz everything has kind of grown up over it. Yeah. Well, if I walk up Yeah. Okay. Now, I’m on top of the burm. This is so That is so interesting. So, if you’re going to cut down a tree, just fill it fill it in. Yeah. You know, you could chop it up a little bit and fill it in, but um it will decompose. So, if you chopped a huge log and sunk it, eventually you’re going to have a a swale up. Yeah. Yeah. I just your trees. We have the red Chinese pistache. The the black is that a plum. Yeah. A black plum. And then that’s another Chinese pistach. But it’s green, right? It’s green. You know, who knows? Nature is nature. And um it probably gets different light quality because I have a huge sigmoore in the back. And as the sun sets west, that’s getting more shade. So this is in the sun longer and knowing your plants and what works where is also really important. Oh, it’s just gorgeous. Can you tell me about what is this plant right here? This is one of my favorite plants. It’s beautiful. This is a juniper. Now, there’s all kinds of junipers, but the juniper confera, c o n f e r t a all gold, is a ground cover that’s drought tolerant. It’s just absolutely beautiful. I need this in my garden. This is stunning. This is so beautiful. I have such an appreciation for um evergreens and dwarf conifers. Yeah, I spent a lot of time actually in England looking in learning how they do things and I always had this, oh, it’s a juniper because you know, everyone’s got junipers and if they’re built, if they’re put in the 1960s and they get lumped, Yeah. then they’re like aliens in your yard. However, when I went to England, I have a family member that has a conifer garden and so she got all these conifers and dwarf conifers and all year it’s stunning. All year. This will always keep its color when everything else this is going to be cut down because it’s a um it’s a it’s a perennial and so when things and the crepe myrtles will lose their leaves. So at that point it’s your evergreens that are going to hold down the fort. So the juniper and then that’s a um um bottle brush. Bottle brush. Yeah. Cholestamon. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Is is that evergreen? Yeah. Okay. That is that is just beautiful. And then there are the invasives. This is a oat grass which is beautiful if you’re you know if you like to arrange flowers but you’ll have it all over your yard. Oh, I didn’t know that. I was just about to say oh I have to I have to get that in my garden. Yes. Let me gift it to you. I don’t know if I want it to spread everywhere. This is solidago which is golden rod. It just finished blooming. So it’s just this cascade of yellow. Oh, how fun. Oh, this is just so so beautiful. And then can we do a little look over down this way? cuz this is really beautiful as well. So, we have the bottle brush here. What’s underneath the bottle brush? So, we have um a ground cover rose, which when I do design work, ground cover roses, they bloom constantly. This one just stopped blooming. Yeah. And maybe every 3 years I’ll cut it back. So, it’s not a highmaintenance rose like some of your hybrid tees. Yeah. That have to be cut all the way back. So, ground cover roses could take the heat. They could live in part shade. Over here is aloe vera, which it plants itself. And so it’s a great plant because again a certain time of year it has these long stalks that come out. Salmon colored um flowers and the hummingbirds love it. And then this lavender, which is I’d say probably 10t long, was a little onegon plant. No. Yeah. Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah. And so you’ll have and and I you know I wagg it back now and again but um it’s just so wonderful. Lavender is wonderful and also the bees love it and when you take out your lawn you’re creating a habitat for everything else that lives around even cats. I know. Look at look at this cutie. He just When did he show up? A couple years ago. Couple years ago. Isn’t he just the cutest? Like I know he will old man cat. He’s an old man cat that loves to eat. Oh, I love that. That’s so cute. So, one thing I’ll say about your garden is I mean it’s absolutely stunning, but like it it you can tell it doesn’t need a ton of work. No. Which did you do that on purpose? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I have never in all my years and all the clients I’ve had never had anyone say, I want a really high maintenance landscape. No. Could you put in something that I have to work constantly or pay someone to come and pay to come? No. if you plant it right and either you research your plants or you hire a designer that knows the plants and knows what you like and knows what colors you like. And also I balance everything with evergreen. So 80% of the plants in my landscape keep their leaves. So you never have a deadl looking landscape. You are so good at that. I I see what you’re saying. This one that’s the Barbara. Careful. Oh, Barbara. Yeah, you’re right. But it is so pretty. And then of course deer resistant, right? It’s deer resistant. Yeah. And this is its fall color, but in the spring it’s bright red. It’s called orange rocket and it’s just amazing. And then underneath here is a nandina gulf. And over here is a nandina nanas. Nanas. Those turn colors and they’re evergreen and they are fabulous and they’re deer resistant. And then behind it is a is a cersus which is a red bud. What kind of red bud is this? it. Well, it was a weeping um Travelers. No, it’s not the Traveler. I think it was Burgundy Hearts. Oh, okay. And I had clients that had someone else plant them and they wanted it out. So, I transplanted it. And the dead part, one part, the part that was grafted, the normal is what’s come back. Oh, funny. Yeah. Oh, so it kind of took over. And this is a lucadendron. It’s an Australian plant that um again it was a onegon and now it’s massive and if you if you could see the little cups at the end. Yes, those are you pay a fortune for those for um flowering flower arranging a fortune. All you need and there’s many different kinds. Robera, I didn’t know this got so big. I thought it was a little shrub. This is the safari sunset. Okay, the other one. Yeah, you have to read. I’m making my list. I’m making my Okay, so safari sunset. that juniper over there for sure. And then the Barbar for sure. I’m making my list. And then there’s the Ailia kaleidoscope next to the barber. This one. And so yeah. So you you want colors to play off of each other. And then down below is a Santelina. Yes. That has yellow buttons. You’ll see the part that hasn’t been clipped. Wow. And then there’s these grasses. This is a carax. It’s the um prairie fire teslar. Oh yes. Oh yes. I love when this turns that orange color. It’s really lovely. And then it’s what is this? An agave. It’s an agave pari. And this was a baby from there. Oh, from one of these things and and the one over there. So, propagating succulents is easy. It’s wonderful. And I usually give them away. I give them away to clients or to neighbors. We we or to friends who have YouTube channels. Friends. Yes. Friends. I love that you’ve done the grass next to the agave. I love that that contrast and texture. That’s I mean that’s one thing I have to say. The contrast in this garden is so cool because even if the barbar and the ailia look kind of similar, they’re different colors. And then you come on to another texture over here texture and a spear like of the variegated yaka. Oh, it’s so fun. And then we have the wolfini um euporia. Euporia. Oh, gorgeous. Again, it puts itself everywhere. I love And I love the blooms on this one, too. Oh, I know. I love him. He’s just sitting there waiting for me to take a video of him. I know. He said this should be about cats. He’s like, “Wait, you’re filming? You got to film me. You got to film me.” All right, so we’re making our way to Robera’s backyard, and I just had to stop at your sideyard because your sideyard is absolutely beautiful. My goodness, look at this. And sideyards get ignored. I know. A lot. You did a whole feature on a sideyard, right? I did. It’s just more space. And with some of my clients that have sideyards that are sunny. Yes. We put in raised garden beds. So, you could have a garden. So, don’t neglect your sideyard. This is beautiful. Tell tell me about the trees that you have up here. Okay. So, this is a fruitless mulberry that was here. Okay. And um I don’t know why people have I don’t know. They give fruitless mulberries a bad rap like, “Oh, they’re so big.” But let me tell you, for shade and when we go into the hundreds, my neighbor I have my tree guy come and cut and he says, “Oh, no. I like it. It keeps it nice and cool over here.” Yeah. I mean, I can believe it. It’s like free air conditioning. Do you know what I mean? My house is always cold except when it’s over 100. And then there’s a um and that’s a pretty big deal for us in California to say my house is always cold. Well, thus we have our tree foundation which are trying to get people to plant more trees so they have shade and use less electricity. So it works all the way around. Oh my gosh, look at your garden, Roberta. This is my first time seeing it. So well, come this way and and look down here and then Oh my gosh. We’ll sort of go all around. Oh, this is incredible. So, this was all grass. This was all grass. This is all grass. And um now this here on the left, okay, this is a 300 ft cottage I built. Oh my goodness. How fun. So, you know, it’s for when guests come. I’ve also had it on Airbnb. And um what what an Airbnb, huh? To have to stay in this. It’s just a garden cottage. Yeah. It’s just Yeah. And we’re in town. Like we are in Sacramento and it does not feel like it at all. This I mean this is incredible. Everything was lawn except for See, now look to the right. You see that giant sycamore? Uhhuh. That’s what sold the house for me. I saw it over the roof cuz I wanted back then I was younger. I wanted a quarter of an acre and big trees. Yeah. Um so that tree was there. This shrub which I think is a fotinia but it’s just so old it doesn’t look like a fotinia anymore. It just looks like a big shrub. Yeah. The one behind it up above is a camper that straddles both my neighbor’s yard and mine. Oh, I love But these this tree here and that tree here, these are um an autumn fantasy and an October glory love maple. Oh my goodness. I absolutely love these that I put in. They’re so beautiful. And I love again, you’re looking at more of the the change in texture with the camp fur versus the maple and then the change in color. And then you even have the weeping cedar. Oh my goodness, Roberta, this is just incredible. And the maples will be going red. They’re really beautiful. Yes. Oh, this is really stunning. And then again, I put in the stone path with the concrete. So when people come in, they could roll their suitcase. But then from here out, we have the step zone. It gets more wild. Gets more wild. Do you want to go that way? Show us that way. And I love that you have art in your garden, too. Dragonflies. And yeah, little things all over and reflection balls. And Oh, this is just really gorgeous. And I love that this is an arch. And then there’s another arch that you’re walking through as well. And this is a Ceil Bruner Rose. She she just got chopped, but um once a year, my first Sunset Magazine article. Yeah. We waited for the front one to come into bloom because the entire rose over my doorway, which is the same rose, had maybe hundreds of pink roses. It was so beautiful. This Oh, this is just stunning. And this is my This is my more vegetable garden in here. And I put the fence to keep the cats out, which cats think is a joke. Yeah. They don’t They don’t listen to the fence. No. Oh, this is just beautiful. And I love you’ve done the stones for your raised beds. Yeah. This is just gorgeous. Do you find yourself growing a lot of vegetables or you kind of lean? Well, I’m I’m doing more and more now. So, it’s lettucees now that lettucees are close to $4 ahead. I know I’m growing my own. I grow all my own Roma now. Oh, that’s so that’s what I just put in is Roma and then I think I put some red lettuce in and I have artichokes. I have kind of all kinds of things here. I’m trying I’m trying to show every little thing cuz you have so much cool stuff like trees and pots and then little statuary and then even little ground cover over here. Is this mondo graph? Yeah, it’s dwarf mondo. Oh, it’s just so pretty in between the flag stones. It’s really gorgeous. It’s really great and so tough. It’s It’s really tough. And then I saw on YouTube this one um didn’t really do anything. But if you take ginger and you plant it, these are ginger. It’ll make more ginger. Oh, how fun. And it’s really pretty, too. Yeah, I know. It’s really pretty. Oh, it’s gorgeous. And now there is my clumping timber bamboo. So let’s make it clear to everybody. This is clumping. This is clumping. Whenever um Michael Glassman talks about bamboo, people are like, “Oh, bamboo.” No. So every type I have here. So I have this is a this is called Alons. No, that’s Alons. This is old hemi. I also use a different one. But this has been in for 20 years. And this is where it stays. Yep. Cuz it’s clumping. It’s clumping. And then here, this one’s really pretty. And that’s the Alons car over there. Oh, that’s really beautiful. And it’s got green stripes. And this one will only get to about 18 ft high where That’s another old Hami. Those are This is This is bamboo. Oh, it is 30 or 40 feet. But that hided hid the telephone pole behind it. Oh, I didn’t even realize there was a telephone pole. And then I made this fence here out of the dried bamboo. Wow. This was the bamboo that grew. It’s just It’s when they get brown. No. Oh, Roberta. Oh, I love it. I hope you guys can see that. That is so cool that you grew that. Yeah, that is so neat. And then the smaller ones I use to prop up plants. And then if you come this way, I will show you something that a lot of people don’t know. These are called combs. You see the little pointed? Those are new bamboo shoots. Oh, yes. Yes. Okay. Right there. If you were to cut those off and peel them, you have edible, fresh bamboo shoots. No. That’s where they come from. What? Yes. Yes. Those are so cute. Yeah. And so, um, I have a friend that’s got a massive bamboo forest and he sells them. He goes to San Francisco and sells them to the Chinese restaurants. Oh my goodness. Oh, I love that. Most people buy canned, uh, bamboo shirts, but that’s where it’s from. I think I’ve only seen them in cans, like in the stores and stuff. Yeah. Oh, this is so beautiful. And I I want to I don’t want to emphasize, but I want to remind everybody, we’re in a neighborhood. Yeah. You’re not out in the middle of nowhere. We’re in a neighborhood and you cannot tell at all. You can absolutely not tell. This is stunning, Roberta. This is so beautiful. Can I go this way? Keep going. Yep. So, and then you’ll see because this landscape has been here for so many years and the trees have been here that there’s so many roots, it’s really hard to dig in. So, I bought these half wine barrels. Oh, I love that. to um I grew cucumbers and squash and all kinds of things right now. There’s just herbs in there. And then this is my um mandarin that’s just just coming in. I love your DG with your bricks. I think that that’s so pretty. Yeah. So, this is my work in progress. You know, landscapes don’t have to be perfect. No, this is nature and there’s, you know, always things going on. How boring if it’s perfect and you leave it for 20. You know what I mean? How boring. You know what’s boring is having all concrete with concrete paving stepstones and astroturf or you know fake turf which is plastic. So anyway yeah this well this is absolutely gorgeous. Oh what are what are these? That’s a good question. You don’t know. I don’t know. So I had maybe eggplant or Well I no I had a lot of vegetables and all of a sudden I had masses of um tomote which I did not plant. So, this one’s starting to bud. And I I said, you know, if Yeah, this is a tommo. Oh, tommoatio. I said, if you’re gonna be a tommo, that’s it. I’ve had it. I’ve had enough tommoillos. Look at how pretty. Did you put that in the sun there on purpose? No. This just But you know what I mean? It kind of looks like it’s like you purposely put that to shine right there. Well, so so many people have seen Harry Potter, right? You know how the paintings move? Yes. They talk. Yes. That’s what your landscape does. Oh, I love that. My daughter who’s obsessed with Harry Potter is going to love that. Oh, good. That’s such a really great way to think about it. Yeah. Your garden is alive and it moves and it, you know, the sun shines at different times and illuminates different parts of it and it’s magical. And also, it gives you peace really. There’s a lot going on. And if you were to spend an hour in your garden versus an hour on social media, there would be two different things going on. Your body. Oh my gosh. And your mind. I need you just to talk to me every day. Do you know what? that. No, I Jamie, get off get off social media and go in their garden. It’s addicting. I know. Oh, this is beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Now you got the duck to come this way. Okay. And um Oh, you know. Oh, we got one. Look at you. There’s one. We got one last. This is Cecile Bruner. No, this this is a David Austin. It’s an old row. So, when these come in in the spring, they’re really tight and beautiful. Gorgeous. But this is the end. So, you never know quite what you’re going to get. Yep. Yep. So pretty. This is my garden storage area. This is your work area and my little garden shed. Even your work area is beautiful. Oh my goodness. What a f like I would love to spend a day in this garden. Well, you’re welcome. This is just amazing. And then I love that you have rocks still. Is this like a supposed to be a dry creek bed or Yeah, the dry creek bed. And you know the easiest way to create a landscape if you don’t have a huge budget is mounds and rocks and boulders. Okay. So if you do a mound like in Japanese gardening a mound represents a mountain in microcosm. Oh a cobble stream that’s dry represents a river. Okay. And then a boulder smaller boulders are more mountains. Yeah. And so if you had a big flat area and you created some mounds and you could do that easily because you could you could call pool companies who need to get rid of dirt. So you know you got to check the dirt. But anyway, yeah, you could do that. You could put in a cobble stream and some boulders and now the basis is set. Yeah. Now you choose your trees for shade. And remember when you choose a tree, it’s like you’re choosing a family member that’s going to be there. I love that. for 80, 90, 100 years. I love that, though. And that tree, you know, it’s a relationship. It’s going to give you shade and color, and you’re going to give it water and love, and it’s a family member. I love that. So, there there you go. You’ve got the bases, you’ve got your trees, and then you could start filling it in with the pretty stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And a drip system is much less expensive than a a whole spray PVC system, right? And if you have drought tolerant plants, which we started with talking about, very little water, you don’t need so much. And if you Everything in here in this back is on a drip system. Oh, that’s amazing. So, even though I have Japanese maples that are not drought tolerant, they’re on a drip system and they they do fine. And they’re protected from the sun by your shade of your mature trees, which are just so beautiful. And this this is a dwarf bamboo. I don’t even know what that one’s called. Oh, it’s gorgeous. I just have to show your pot sitting here. It’s just so pretty. Just everything looks so pretty, Roberta. Everything even the parts that you don’t really want me to to see. You just walk past them. I’m like, “Wait, this is so pretty.” There’s little things hidden. Oh, I love what a um fantasyesque garden you have back here. Do you know what I mean? Like I feel like I’m in like the Hobbit or something. Well, I’m I’m so glad. Well, now this is a dogwood that’s starting to go. And in the spring, these will all be pink dogwood flowers. Oh, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. And then you can see the trees in the background. Yeah, man. And this is gorgeous. Yeah, that’s that’s See, we were looking below, but that’s the top of the October glory. Oh, it’s just so beautiful. It is so beautiful. And right behind you is one of my favorite plants. It’s called a chemicus mops. It’s a false cyprus. Fall cypress. This is really And it’s evergreen, too. So, again, there’s some beautiful evergreen things. And then this bird of paradise got massive. So, you could barely see my three graces in the back. Oh, beautiful. They are. Oh, I love love that. What are those behind them? Poor cararpus. That’s a pocarpus. Mhm. That’s the henali as more weeping. Oh my goodness. I need that. Add that to the list. Need that. Is this a birch? Yes. Wow. And this birch has been here for years and years. I was going to say that birch looks very mature for because birches sometimes don’t do as well in our gardens. No. No. Well, they used to, but now because of our drought ongoing for years, the water table has dropped. And so the de, you know, so so many birch are dying. Yeah. I regularly have my tree guy come and take off what’s dead and it’s it’s right by this little fountain, so it gets lots of water. And you can see my hostas, they’re in pots and they get lots of water, right? But I kind of keep it concentrated. Now, why do you have your hostas in pots? Is that because of slugs? Yeah. Okay. They get decimated. I believe it. I believe it. I look at these magazines of the, you know, of back east and people just plant them like in parking lots. In parking lot parking lots and I’m like, what? How does that happen? Yeah. I don’t understand. I know. It’s It’s So anyway, you you could you could have your cake and eat it, too. You just need to know where to put it. Yes. And and um how to treat it. Yes. Now, what is this chameleas? This is the chameleia. So, your chameleia is blooming already. I know. Is it a senqua? Do you know? I don’t know. Years ago when I bought the house, if you look at the bay, somebody planted the chameleas too close to the tree. Okay. So, they’re part of the tree and that ivy I’ve cut down a million times and it just grows back. So, but it’s so pretty. Pretty much you just give up at a certain point. It’s so pretty. Like, it’s like I know we’re not supposed to plant ivy. I get it. I get it. But, oh my goodness, it’s so romantic and beautiful. I I just love it. Okay, so let’s finish off with Oh, another kitty. That’s another kitty. Yes, we have lots of kitties. Hi, sweetheart. Oh, he’s That’s Juniper. He’s um very old, so he’s deaf. Oh, but he was born He and his siblings were born in the yard in the bamboo in a rainstorm. Oh my gosh. A bamboo piles of Yeah. So Oh, so he probably didn’t even hear you coming. Oh, I love that. And those bamboo poles were also dead pieces that we cut off. Roberta, oh my gosh, I love this. Oh, I just love this. Okay. So, it’s a it’s a metal pergola. This one’s metal. Okay. And then above us is redwood. Okay. And I have west western sun coming in. So, that’s why I planted the two big maples. Yeah. And put up the pergolas just for protection so you can be out here. Right. And then above this pergola is um a $20 shade sale from Costco. Love, which is perfect. It’s perfect. And I like the leaves catching in it. I think it’s so pretty like that. Sometimes the cats sleep in between. Oh my gosh, I love this. Now, tell me about this. This is beautiful. So, I created that for one of the home shows. Oh, you did? I had it vertically and I had it standing vertical and it was a little partition between where the barbecue was and the dining area. Oh, I love it. And also these two. This is um polycarbonate. Okay. It’s a plastic. Oh, so you could use things like that. And also the polycarbonate is over this overhang which will keep it dry. Oh, I love that. You can have what looks like an open pergola to let the light in because a lot of people don’t want their house to be dark. Yeah. So you could have it open and you could put what looks like glass but it’s 100 times stronger than glass which is and will last and will last. Yeah. Through raintorms. Did you just make this out of 2x4s? Yep. I made it out of 2x4s. Oh my goodness. And then I had um the same the same welder that made this pergola made post for it. Oh my goodness. I love it. This is so I want to do this project. Yeah, I’ve actually designed another one just like this into my um clients and it was just a thought, an idea. Well, that’s a good thing about social media. Yeah, because you could find a lot of ideas. You get you go down a wormhole and you can find the most interesting things. I have a whole list of like to-do projects that I want to do. This is on it now. This is on my to-do projects list. Yeah. So, that’s just that’s just 2x4s. This is gorgeous. And then I just have to point out your chandelier. This is beautiful. So, there’s little glass that goes here with with the lights and then I I buy a florist ring that I soak in water and I I put it here. I slip it over the top and then I have fresh flowers cascading when I have parties here. Oh my gosh. I know. Or you could do dried flowers. There’s nothing in it now cuz we have the rains coming. Yeah. Yeah. But even even with just these, you know, I mean, these I’m assuming are just kind of cheapy pearls. Yeah. And then you can hang crystals. And then um and these are LED light. Yeah. And so they’re on a a different switch. So at night, this is illuminated. You can have, you know, dinner out here. And this is the time of year we could be out here. I know. This is so This is so beautiful. It’s not too hot. It’s just gorgeous. Well, Roberta, I have so many questions, more questions for you, and I want to hear you talk more. Can I know you have a lot of projects going on. Would you be willing to let us come and Yes. maybe film a couple projects. So, I have a project that’s on go that’s going it’s ongoing. It’s a very large project. It’s 2 acres and it’s it’s an 8,000 foot house. But here’s the interesting about the house that’s on a creek in the back. This house originally was built years ago by the people that had the lumberjack stores which were preomeo. Oh, yes. I know what you’re talking about. Yeah. And then they sold the house and whoever bought it, I don’t know the person’s name, kept it empty for 24 years. Oh my gosh. Yep. So, my clients bought it a year ago and um the house is being renovated. So, we stripped everything. I took out the b the tennis courts and I’d love to I’ve just started planting in portions because depending on the renovations inside and the trucks. Yeah. You know, in the areas that we can plant. I would love to have you come and in segments Yes. watch it being developed because two acres if you if you’re not a landscape designer is overwhelming. What do you do with all this? Now I have half of that and I’m overwhelmed. So I can only imagine you guys can’t see my face right now but my jaw is open and I’m like nodding like yes yes yes we’ll have to do it. And I designed um I designed this beautiful gate. It’s a it’s 20 feet long. She showed me pictures 10 foot flanges. And when we go there I’ll show you my drawings for it. And then the um the metal worker, the um what do you call him? Anyway, welder. Welder. Thank you. Yeah. Um built it according to my drawing. And then we held up, you know, it’s got little balls and so we held up everything. And so for me to have the um to have that to work with is really something. So is it your jumping off point kind of? It’s Well, it’s um normally, you know, for years myself and my designers, we we’ve do done landscapes everywhere, but they’re in neighborhoods. They’re small. Yeah. So to have um a piece of land and the finances to develop it into what’s going to be and what you have what you could imagine, right? Like Yeah. So you’ll see what’s I think our next step will be between a new library that was built and the main room. We’re doing a Japanese garden. Oh my gosh. So you tell me when and where and I’m there. Okay. So we’ll we’ll set that up. But I’d like everyone to come with us on that tour because you could see um just what was there and then the concept and most concepts that come to me come to me through a conversation with my clients and the land and what I know. I love it. It’s always a co-creation. I love it. So, so tell everybody Roberto Roberto Walker Landscape Designs. You offer consultations. You work mainly in Sacramento or do you go further than that? We go a little further than that. So, we do the Sacramento area. So, we we go up to Auburn. We go a little bit down to the Delta, wholesome, Roseville. So, all around. I have two designers. And my website is robera walker.com. I will link it all. I’ll link all of the sunset articles because they’re very very interesting to read. They’re very fun. And I just wanted to say I feel so so special that I finally got to come here and see your beautiful garden. Same. I love talking about gardens and I know you do a brilliant job. plant nerds. So, we um we were at Michael Glassman’s Halloween party and we were just sitting at the table with Jim Putnham just talking for hours and I was like, “Okay, Robera, I got to come to your house.” I know. Well, I was at a table where, you know, nobody thought I was weird, you know, talk plants. And her and Jim Putnham kept talking um scientific names of plants and I was like, “Oh, wow. We’re we’re nerds here.” I know. I know. Botanical names. Thank you. Thank you so much for letting us come to your beautiful home. I mean, even in fall, I know it’s not in its peak, but it is just absolutely stunning, and I cannot wait to see more from you. Oh, good. Well, you’ll have to come in the spring, but then we’ll work on the project together with my ongoing landscape. I love it. So, I’ll keep you all updated. Huge thank you to Roberta and a thank you to all of you for watching. I hope you enjoyed this and I hope you have a chance to get in your garden today. [Music]