Almost like déjà vu: visiting tz_garden in Livermore

Visiting other people’s gardens is always fun, but it’s even better when it’s a fellow blogger whom you’ve followed for a while. Through their posts, you see their garden change and evolve, and you become familiar with it to the point where you think you know it well. But when you actually see it in person for the first time, there can be unexpected surprises. I remember the first time I visited Loree (danger garden) in Portland, I was stunned because I had expected her house to be on the other side of the street. I was going, “Nooooo, that isn’t right!” Weird how you create a certain picture in your mind, based on nothing at all.

Tracy on her front porch, with a pretty darn impressive staghorn fern

Fortunately, there was no such surprise when Loree and I visited our mutual friend Tracy in Livermore a few weeks ago. Tracy is relatively new to the blogosphere – she started her blog tz_garden in February 2023, so just two years ago. But she posts frequently, documenting the ongoing tweaking and refining she’s doing, mostly in her backyard. As a result, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect, and I’m happy to say that Tracy’s posts didn’t trick me: Her garden was just as I had pictured it, except bigger. At 12,000 square feet, her property is almost 50% larger than ours.

Tracy’s house from the street, the front yard on the right

Satellite view. Imagery ©2025 Airbus, Map Data ©2025 Google.

In her very first blog post, Tracy said that she was “transitioning to a mullet garden – perennials in the front and cacti/succulents in the back.” What a great description. That’s exactly what she’s doing.

The front yard used to be all grass, as is typical for just about any suburban neighborhood in California. No more. The lawn is long gone, replaced with perennial beds and decomposed granite walkways. Tracy has even commandeered the hell strip in front of her house, ripping out the grass (so useless) and creating a meandering mound bordered by Corten edging. You can never go wrong with Corten steel.

Corten edging up close

This little hosta, next to an aeonium, was an unexpected sight

Just a few photos of the front:

Corten planter with three Pseudopanax crassifolius, a small tree from New Zealand whose juvenile form is wonderfully weird. Needless to say I love it; I have several pseudopanax myself. The only source in Northern California that I know of is Troy McGregor (Waltzing Matilija).

There are several staghorn ferns (Platycerium sp.) on the front porch. They came from Tracy’s daughter’s boyfriend, Ivan, who is a frequent garden helper.

The one on the left is particularly nice

With the staghorn ferns stealing the show, I almost missed these tillandsias

What a beautiful presentation

Now we’re in the backyard. Unsurprisingly, the patio is home to a variety of succulents, including an Aloidendron ‘Hercules’ and several Agave attenuata.

Nice chairs, too!

More plants lined up against the house:

The fence shared with their next-door neighbor is the perfect staging ground for succulents. As I like to say, vertical gardening is the final frontier.

Tracy and I share a love for Corten steel. You already saw the edging and planter in front of the house. More Corten edging in the backyard:

When Tracy and her family moved into the house about 15 years ago, the backyard was completely unfinished: “full of clover, weeds & horrendous clay,” as she writes on her blog. “I was used to gardening in the Portland area and this was quite a change, and added to that was the very dry heat. I remember trying to dig into the sloped area and it was like cement. I would just chip chip chip away at it, amend the soil, plunk a plant in and hope for the best. I was so desperate to get some green going, looking back it’s all like a fever dream.”

Well, it is a fever dream no more. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. As you can see below, Tracy’s backyard would make any magazine proud.

The pool is large, but there is plenty of room for plants

The lath house and the deck in front of it are recent projects. The lath house was largely built by Ivan, with assistance from Tracy.

Probably my favorite view: an awesome day bed in the middle, in-ground succulents to the left and behind it, and an array of potted specimens on the right

This view is pretty sweet, too

Cacti, agaves, and three Acacia cognata ‘Cousin Itt’ softening the edge of the pool

I didn’t take many photos of the slope because it was in deep shade, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth exploring: all kinds of succulents – aloes, agaves, yuccas – and Australian shrubs and trees.

And a few golden barrels. OK, more than a few. But there’s room for more!

The backyard looks and feels spacious. There are lots of plants, but they have room to breathe instead of being squished together like sardines in a can.

The flat section features several mounds surrounded by paths which are comfortably wide. Often they’re too narrow and crammed, like in my tiny front yard.

Mounds...

...and paths

Plantings against the fence on the far side

Mexican fence posts (Lophocereus marginatus) and Opuntia robusta with almost perfectly round pads

Repurposed chimney flue liner from Urban Ore, a salvage yard in Berkeley

Another one with hechtias

Even a small crevice garden! I’m both impressed and envious.

Even the smallest plants are beautifully grown and staged

Brunsvigia orientalis with completely flat leaves

After seeing so many perfect Aeonium ‘Sunburst’, I want to give them another try. They struggle in our summer heat, but if they survive in Tracy’s garden, they should survive in mine, too. (Livermore and Davis have a very similar climate.)

Aloe speciosa, still in flower, with Aloe marlothii on the left

Agave titanota

Few cacti look better backlit...

...than Cleistocactus strausii...

....aka the silver torch cactus

Tracy and Loree

Another look towards the far fence...

....and towards the pool

Aloidendron ‘Hercules’ couldn’t look better if it tried

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more inviting day bed. Can you imagine lying there looking out at the beautiful plants all around you?

If you look at my garden and Tracy’s, you’ll see that we like the same plants. It was almost comical, me walking around thinking to myself, “I have this plant. And that one. And the one over there.” In fact, if this were my backyard, there’s little I would change. From one gardener to another, that’s about the biggest compliment you can make.

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To follow Tracy’s gardening adventures, head on over to tz_garden.blogspot.com.

To read about her recent visit to Davis (UC Davis Arboretum plant sale, my garden, Kyle's garden), click here.

To read Loree's post about Tracy's garden, click here.

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.