Ferreira garden in SLO: The quiet joys of cultivation

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• The Gutzmann garden in Atascadero is an inviting, verdant hillside garden

  The Gutzmann garden in Atascadero is an inviting, verdant hillside garden

  One hundred is the magic number for Ed Gutzmann of Atascadero. Gutzmann built more than 100 theaters in Southern California and throughout the West before he retired to west Atascadero. But retirement wasn’t part of the plan once he got busy landscaping his hillside property. Friends marveled at the result and asked him to “help” them with their yards.

  That “help” turned into a full-on landscaping business resulting in more than 100 projects throughout the area. Gutzmann both designed and did much of the labor on his projects, each one capturing the vision of what the owners wanted to “see” from inside their home.

  Landscaping wasn’t new to him, as his father was a landscape architect in Orange County, and Gutzmann remembers tagging along as a boy to the project sites. He’s always loved creating, and with an engineering and design background, landscaping was a natural. As he says, “I have a P.E. (Practical Experience) degree in landscape.”

• Varni garden in Oceano: A taste for succulents

  Varni garden in Oceano: A taste for succulents

  Charles Varni says he’s always been “a nature boy.” As a child, he sometimes went to work with his father, a gardener at Lotusland in Santa Barbara. He particularly recalls his fascination with the succulent gardens that the estate’s owner, Ganna Walska, was developing at the time.

  But Charles’ interest in succulents lay dormant during many of the 40 years that he taught Sociology and Human Services at Hancock College. It was rejuvenated only after he took some courses in handbuilt pottery at Hancock for his own enrichment. He soon became adept at pot-making, and his favorites were pots that were suitable for succulent plants.

  When Varni moved to his current half-acre location in Oceano in 2001, he created his pots in an unheated greenhouse. After retiring from teaching in 2003, he became a full-time potter, and began growing the succulent plants that seemed appropriate for his pots. He also installed a photovoltaic system that produces electricity for the kiln in which the pots are fired, as well as for

• A morning visit to San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden

  A morning visit to San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden

  In contrast to what we normally think of San Francisco, there is a quiet little garden that continually draws tourists and locals to enjoy its surprises. The Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park is only minutes from the crowded sidewalks and clanging trolleys of downtown, yet it offers a moment of solitude and reflection once you enter its gates.

  When we arrived early one morning, we noticed a sign for a free walking tour of the garden offered by San Francisco City Guides, knowledgeable locals who volunteer to share their city. Our guide, Linda Cahill, an expert on the Japanese garden, enthusiastically educated us on the history and meaning of the garden and the tea ceremony.

  The five-acre tea garden was inspired by Mikoto Hagiwara in 1894 for the California International Exposition. A successful landscape designer, Hagiwara constructed the garden and teahouse, and remained manager of the garden for 30 years, living on the property and personally financing much of the development.

• Trogdon home in Nipomo: Water, pottery and dogs

  Trogdon home in Nipomo: Water, pottery and dogs

  After establishing his Nipomo-based tropical plant business, Pacific Sun Growers, in 1979, Ben Trogdon wanted to live near his workplace. The lot that he and his wife Robin purchased was part of a large eucalyptus grove. They lived in a trailer house on the property during the two years it took for them to clear an opening and build their house.

  They designed their home with environmental consideration. A south-facing sun room brings solar heat into the open living-kitchen-dining area, and a woodburning stove keeps the home cozy in winter. Solar panels on the roof provide most of their electricity; a photovoltaic system, recently added, supplies energy for the couple’s electric pottery kiln.

  Initially, a lawn surrounded the house. In the backyard, the grass was removed gradually and replaced by the Mexican blue palm, acacias, Catalina cherries, bottlebrush, timber bamboo and Ceanothus that now grow there.

• Edible gardens will pay for themselves in produce

  Edible gardens will pay for themselves in produce

  Does your home landscape deserve the time, water and money you put into it? Consider increasing your rewards by developing an edible landscape — incorporating plants that can be eaten, with or without plants that are purely ornamental.

  The ongoing scarcity of water on the Central Coast, the rising cost of grocery store produce and the importance of conserving energy make it difficult to justify spending resources on gardens that do not pay their way in some fashion.

  Having a variety of beautiful, edible plants, trees and shrubs among the ornamental ones can add an element of beauty, functionality and fun to your landscape.