Montecito Natural Rising from the Ashes

The story of this garden starts a long time ago. The property used to belong to San Ysidro Ranch and in fact was the location of the stables. Anyone who has been around awhile will recall that the Ranch had a stable and horses and guests could take rides on the San Ysidro Trail. That was before the Ranch got really fancy! It was fun, in fact the Stable Manager was a friend of mine and we used to ride in the Montecito foothills.

Pardon me for digressing.

A beautiful, Spanish Revival style home was built and we worked with the owners many times, mainly as consultants as they continued to improve the property.

Then, on the evening of January 9th all hell broke loose. At the time we lived right down stream from the property and the Ranch. At about 3am I was standing on my side porch and witnessed a massive explosion, the flames of which reached hundreds of feet in the sky. Chris and I laid atop our bed fully clothed and knew we were going to die.

Little did we know of the drama that was unfolding with our clients up the hill.

To make a very long story short, the fireball I saw and heard was our clients’ home exploding due to a natural gas service line that ruptured in San Ysidro Creek. Holy Cow! Yes, you read that right.

Anyway, my clients are superhuman and heros and survived. I won’t get into details, but the story would make your hair stand on end, curl your hair and blow your socks off!

Fast forward a year or two and we got a call from them asking for our help. We spent the next two years consulting them gratis on where to start to make the property livable again.

They rebuilt the house and after it was done, called us to help with the landscaping.

This client is so special, they are extremely involved in their land and garden, so most of it was consulting him and helping him achieve the end result he was looking for.

You will note there is a MASSIVE boulder in the garden. This boulder WAS NOT THERE before the debris flow. It flew through the air from God only knows where and landed on their property! And it is BIG.

The garden itself is what we call a Natural Garden. Full of native plants and permeable pathways. Fruit trees are scattered throughout and there are raised beds for vegetables.

We used the natural stones that were scattered everywhere (deposited by the debris flow) as garden accents and stone paths. The idea is that the paths are meant to look like you are strolling through the Montecito Foothills surrounded by nature.

Yes, it is a long story. But it is my favorite kind, one with a happy ending. Enjoy the rebirth of this landscape and say a prayer of thanks to whomever you pray to.

Lisa Cullen

Photo credit: Holly Lepere of Lepere Studio