How Aloe*N Garden was created

Back in 2019, when the world was very much in pre-pandemic mode. My wife and I decided to move from our 8th story condo in the East Bay to a house which could allow my daughter more room to roam and explore. We had two dogs, and unfortunately, they had to walk one city block from our unit to the elevator and go down 8 stories just to go sniff outside. Sometimes accidents happen and that isn't how you really want to start your Monday morning. 

We searched high and low and finally settled on a house with a hillside garden in the back. The agent who listed the house painted the interior all white and threw 3 tons of mulch on the hill and planted two plants in the hard clay soil. Those plants soon died. 

When trying to figure out what to do with the backyard, I remembered the gardens I grew up in and the places I had lived. My parents had a beautiful ornamental garden in San Francisco. Think heritage roses and 2,000 tulips bulbs planted around a fountain. 

My wife and I had just returned from a trip to Morocco where we visited Le Jardin Secret and Le Jardin Majorelle. Intrigued with the beauty of those two gardens I looked up the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut creek and I purchased my first agave. I also saw tree aloes that reminded me of the time I spent in Africa going to a boys school located on a nature preserve. 

Besides the dry rocky clay on the hill, there was a family of 8 deer living behind our house. On the deck was a cinderblock trash incinerator with no fence, no irrigation, and no lighting. You get the picture. This blog is the story of how I created a garden which is still evolving. Why "Aloe*N" ? Well it wasn't really a safe place for a child and my wife wasn't really interested in gardening. So this was a time for me to garden and often I was alone with one aloe that I had planted as a test to see if the deer would eat it.

As I spent more time trying to get it completed, I realized I had bit off a little more than I could chew and after two years, I was feeling like it would never be complete and all the time I was spending away from my family was being misinterpreted. In my mind, I was working so hard to create a space that would eventually bring us together. 

I came close on several occasions to giving up and there were times I became depressed. There several of low points like when I injured my back carrying well over 10,000 pounds of dirt down several flights of stairs. Another time, I injured my shoulder carrying a boulder that was too heavy. One day, after lugging a full size Agave Attenuata up the hill a deer came by and ate the whole plant!!!

I hope you enjoy following me on this journey and seeing the garden develop. I'll start with a photo of our old condo a few days before the movers came. Also, some photos of what the hillside looked like when we had just moved in. I'll add some more posts about demolishing the cinder block wall. Singlehandedly moving 10,000 pounds of dirt. My love for aloes and agaves. The garden evolving over time and the different gardens we visit along the way and how they influenced me. 

                                               

Our place before we moved

The hillside had these concrete piers pointed to our house. Some were just inches from rolling down the hill. 

One of the two sisters who lived in the yard. The tree is a California bay tree and it had some type of beetle or termites living in it. Huge branches would just break off and come crashing down. 

This cinder block wall reminded me of Alcatraz. 

This little guy was growing some horns. 

A picture from the real estate listing. I swear they just dug holes and put a few plants in the hard clay. After escrow they were all dead. The Mulch was over old trash from the 1950's. As soon as it rained I found boots, old liquor bottes, broken glass, rusted metal etc. It all came sliding back down into the walkway. Not great for a 3 year old child. 

Every day this bay tree deposited an entire bag of dead leaves and the occasional 100 pound branch on the deck area. The property next door was owned by trustees of an estate who did not want to take care of the issue. Their rep split the cost of the trimming.

My neighbor said the hill was once all ivy and poison ivy. The deer ate everything because they were starving on due to the on going drought in California. I thought this backyard could look so much better, but I had no idea how much work it would take. What could grow under these extreme conditions?