Diana Stratton Design BHG Garden Shed

Better Homes and Garden Special Interest Publication: Garden Shed

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True Blue
by Carla Breer Howard (Spring, 2006)

Once upon a time this vibrant garden was all white. For nonbelievers, landscape designer Diana Stratton produces old photos of the white greenhouse and the white flowers that filled her Healdsburg, California, hillside in the 1980s. Oh, it was pretty elegant, all right. It positively glowed on full moon nights. But it was also a bit of betrayal.

"It was white, white, white! Diana says, laughing at the previous incarnation of the 1/3-acre property she shares with husband Paul Radford. "I was creating that garden for what other people would want, not for myself." But in 1993, she found herself craving color.

"It started when I painted the greenhouse that purple-blue," she says. "Once I did that, there was no holding me back!"

Diana had connected with her favorite shade of blue when she began collecting cobalt-hue glass. By introducing the color into her garden, Diana resurrected her earliest impressions, gathered as a child living in Casablanca, Morocco.

"I remember the textiles and also the blue-painted doors and entries," Diana says. "You'd go into a huge room with an arched ceiling in blue tiles. That blue really got to me."

blue metal pane and chair The Moroccan indigo wasn't the only unexpressed longing camped out in Diana's psyche. Responding to a love of Hawaii's Kuau'i, she began bringing in big, sculptural, tropical plants. It was a risky move for a landscape designer trying to grow her business, as her preferences ran contrary to the prevailing wine country garden aesthetic of 'Iceberg' roses, masses of lavender, native grasses amid artfully placed boulders, and century-old olive trees.

Today visitors entering Diana's garden she such expectations when passing under the enormous angels' trumpets (Brugmansia spp.) hanging overhead. This South American native, with its pendantlike, golden-peach blossoms, sets the mood in this lush oasis, which Diana describes as "an eclectic combination of Asian, Hawaiian, and Moroccan-Mediterranean."

Further, horticulturally savvy guests are surprised by the success of Diana's collection of warmth-loving plants. Situated low on the east side of Fitch Mountain, the garden gets morning light, much of it dappled under a sweeping canopy of indigenous oaks. Amazingly, this tribute to the tropics forgoes all direct sunlight from November to February.

wooden walkway with plants "The plants have taught me how resilient they are, how forgiving they are," Diana says, impressed at how many of her favorites have survived over the years.

Like Diana, this very personal garden has multiple dimensions. From the onset, she visualized different destination where she and Paul could go and relax, each spot with its own character.

Aside from the greenhouse at the end of the linear space, thee's also a gazebo, which has a calming water feature and deck, at the halfway point. Both a small but vividly blue upper seating terrace and a miniature sculpture garden are inset into the hillside above. This last pays tribute to the artistic women in Diana's family; her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother were all artists.

"The way I garden" she says, "its like painting, painting with plants."

large red draggon kite in trees What is her favorite plant for artistic expression? "oh, its the red leaf banana, with its 8-foot-long leaves," Diana says. "It's incredibly architectural, so striking."

It's not just plants that excite Diana's creativity, but also the inclusion of a whimsical building, such as her blue-and-chartreuse greenhouse. She also sees art pieces as essential.

"They don't have to be fine art," she says, "but can be found objects like spheres, which I love in different sizes, or a Balinese kite. These add an extra little element that really makes a garden unique."

At the end of a long workday, Diana retreats to the chartreuse interior of her greenhouse. "The garden has taught me patience," she says. "It has allowed me to be myself. I learned to let creativity flow."