Dustin’s Ballsy Totems

These stacked spheres are currently the stony exclamation points embellishing Dustin Gimbel’s Southern California garden/design laboratory/plant nursery.

Photobucket

Dustin has described his fascination with the geologic anomaly of concretions on his blog non-secateur and how his obsession with them led him to a concretion homage, these spherical eruptions in the front garden, which he is experimenting with in anticipation of a coming project for a client.

Photobucket

MB Maher visited earlier in the week, and then Dustin gave me a tour this afternoon and generously loaded me up with plants to take home. Don’t ever admire a plant in his garden unless you’re prepared to have it ride shotgun on the way home. Thanks, Dustin!

Photobucket

Photobucket

Left foreground, Senecio anteuphorbium, with dark aeoniums behind.

Photobucket

Dustin’s own gorgeous selection of the dwarf fountain grass, Pennisetum ‘Eaton Canyon,’ which he has named ‘White Dwarf,’ is destined to be a classic. Manageable size, great flowering, a beautiful landscape grass. Keep an eye out for this one at nurseries soon.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Cascade of silvery leaves on the right is Acacia pendula.

Photobucket

Echeveria gigantea

Photobucket

And we can’t leave Dustin’s garden without another look at his now iconic variegated St. Augustine turf ottoman, which gives new meaning to “lawn furniture.”

Photobucket

For those who feel they’re not quite ready to part with a lawn because they still need it under their back for an occasional bout of cloud gazing, perhaps a turf chaise lounge or ottoman would do just as well.

Photobucket

This entry was posted in garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Dustin’s Ballsy Totems

  1. Kathy says:

    I am all over those concretions-I love spheres..and the variegated Aeoniums dropped elegantly amongst the grasses ?..art .Dustin rocks…so to speak.

  2. hoover boo says:

    Beautiful beautiful California garden…thanks for the tour.

  3. Denise says:

    Glad you liked it, ladies. Dustin started this garden last April, and it’s far more wonderful than these photos depict. What an amazing plantsman he is.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *