The first photograph of my house at 1345 Granada just after it was built showed no apparent landscaping. There were however two "Japanese tubs" with young palm trees on the porch. I suspect that sometime after 1916, they were replaced by the current concrete pots and that they may have been brought home by Mr. Price from his Model Farm at the Panama-California Exposition.

  When I purchased the house in 2002, the front yard of the house had a very simple landscape dominated by a Bermuda grass lawn. There were a couple of small sickly hibiscus bushes in front of the porch in a planting bed with two rather old Eugenias flanking it by each of the steps. Directly under the windows on both sides were hedges of Cape honeysuckle. Mrs. Coombs, who had lived in the home since she was a little girl, recalled that the honeysuckle originally was only on the right hand side and that her father had transplanted some in front of the dining room.

Unfortunately, the honeysuckle had damaged the stucco and concrete. The hedges and hibiscus' were removed in order to repair the walls. This left the yard in 2003 looking much as it did at the conclusion of the construction in 1909. Since the house was a spec house and used as a rental for its first ten years, there may not have been any initial landscaping but to give the home a finished appearance I wished to design a simple, historically compatible garden plan.

In order to recreate a period front yard which would look similar to what one would have seen in 1910, old photographs from Gill houses of that decade were used along with plant lists and articles from the turn of the century. Historical references were also found which mentioned plants prefered by Irving Gill. A further concern during the implementation of the garden design was to assure that as much of the plant material as possible would be propogated from heritage plants.

The concept for the initial restoration of the front yard landscaping came from Esther McCoy's notes about Gill's favorite plants for his buildings. Many of the same plants were also suggested by San Diego's own Mother of Balboa Park: Kate Sessions in her article about Seashore gardens written for California Garden in October 1909. How the plants might be arranged was seen in the above photograph of one of Mary Cossitt's Gill-designed 1910 cottages on 8th street. There is a row of white river stones parallel to the sidewalk used to define a planting bed. An installation of such a border is seen here to the right.

At the Marston house, which was designed by Irving Gill and landscaped by Kate Sessions, the original lawn was not grass but rather of a ground cover called lippia. This low-growing plant was introduced to Southern California by Francesco Franceschi of Santa Barbara in 1898.

Lippia as a lawn substitute was used in the south east corner of City Park (i.e.Balboa Park) Now called Golden Hill Park, it was one of the earliest landscaped sections of the park and was just a few blocks away from the Price House. Even today in sidewalk strips in the older neighborhoods of Marston Hills and in South Park surviving remnants of lippia can be found. This ground cover was a natural choice for the front yard of 1345 Granada.

In October 1909, as construction was being completed on Peter Price's spec house at 1345 Granada, San Diego horticulturist, Kate Sessions wrote her article in the Califoria Garden magazine recommending plants for seashore gardens. One of her seven recommended vines was the single white Cherokee rose. An early example of the use of this particular sprawling vine was found in the garden of Rancho Guajome. The adobe's specimen was likely brought by Couts family members from Tennesee and planted in 1887 for Cave Couts Jr's wedding to Mary Belle Clemens.

The front yard of the Price Spec House #1 in May 2006 shows how the garden has filled in. Now just to keep it trimmed!