// Ashley Coon
Crevice Garden & Misc.
// Ashley Coon
Crevice Garden & Misc.
INVESTIGATION
In 2016, I purchased a home on 2 1/2 acres outside of the town of Joshua Tree, CA in the Mojave Desert. The home was a fixer homestead from the late 1940s and the majority of the native flora had been removed. While tackling the renovation of the house myself, I used the site as a laboratory to test concepts of permaculture design and water harvesting, discovering what worked, what was appropriate for the local condition, and what I was capable of with limited resources. In the harshness of the Mojave, a high altitude desert that averages only 4" of rainfall annually and experiences hard frosts, failure is common. I found that the hardest part of any restoration attempt is going from nothing to something. Stuff begets more stuff, and a feedback loop can form- but nothing begets nothing, so the initial infrastructure and up=front labor is crucial. In brittle arid environments, natural recovery can last centuries if at all. Learning the ins and outs of drip irrigation systems was crucial to establishing whatever was planted.
Building off of experience from the Mid City (LA) house, I continued to use cheap lumber as a building material. I experimented with Yakisugi (a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation by charring the surface of wood) as a means to extend the lifespan of wood in the landscape. Additionally, I tried various building techniques like earthbag/superadobe for retaining walls and rammed earth.
An extensive swale/berm network of earthworks was built over the property by hand to maximize the storage of rainwater in the rare rain events of the desert. Native and drought-tolerant tree and plant species were planted along these. An added trail network that snaked through the property was part of the overarching design of creating a ecological refuge- one I termed "Central Park West".
I developed an approach that now forms the strategic backbone and ethos of all subsequent landscape designs here which is an emphasis on infrastructure first. Beginning with a Master Plan for development over time, the architectural component in the beginning is crucial to mapping out how the machinery of the site functions over time. Based on that, irrigation needs can be planned, realistic logistical zones established, and a narrative can be constructed for the intended use and consequent appropriateness of future design steps.
Landscape and gardens are byproducts of deep time. They are dynamic. You can better predict and choregraph this future state, and it all begins with the infrastructure that will allow for it.
Unfortunately, many of these projects were never fully realized as I sold the house in 2021.
I've created various sections that describe particular vignettes in relation to the house and the larger site.
While I spent a good deal of time renovating the interior, these images show the exterior projects, growth over time, and even decay.
Existing Site Conditions
New Site Conditions
Process: Future Concept Iterations of the Remodel
2016
2021
Process: “Casita” (West Side)
The “Casita” side refers to the fact that the house was split into two separate houses joined along a shared wall. The West side was originally a chiropractor’s office addition to the existing homestead in a live/work capacity and added in the 1970s/80s. It was later converted into a mother-in-law’s suite with a kitchenette and bathroom. The last iteration of the house plan was to demolish half of the casita side and convert it into a protected outdoor room with a potential greenhouse. This was due to the condition it was in, and recent storm damage had compromised portions which made it more economically feasible to “add by subtraction” rather than attempt to restore the unusual layout. This would create a more formal entry side for guests and private outdoor room and with wind protection (the Mojave wind is a magnificent beast).
This area originally had an unfortunate higher sandy slope that fed directly into the casita wall and during rain events, led to water damage and poor runoff. The strategy was to scoop away the areas closest to the house and create a series of terraces that would later be mature garden zones and help cool the West wall from the intense afternoon sun. A small faux retaining wall made with “earthbags” and clad in redwood fencing helped channel the rain a sand away from the house.
Process: “Sunroom” (East Side)
On the East side of the house, I recycled an existing fence fragment that had multiple mounted spigots into a collection of planters. A pathway leads out into what was the beginnings of a small citrus orchard which was close to the water connections with drip irrigation. This area also includes a planted buffer near the covered patio.
Process: “Patio, Carport, & Shed” (North Side)
The greater plan for this areas was to create an outdoor BBQ / dining / fireplace under the patio, with a carport that had a roof deck, and to repurpose the lonely shed into something both useful throughout the year and with a wrap-around observation deck.
Process: Site
The site itself was 2.5 acres and the majority of groundcover had been removed prior. Things grow slowly in the desert, but after 5 years, things were starting to take shape.
The design strategy involved creating a series of swales which I dug by hand (at great peril to my back) which would retain the sparse annual rainfall and that drip irrigation could be connected along. Luckily, there was a defunct system of irrigation in the ground which was a relic from decades past, so there was active water hookups further out from the house that I could tap into to extend the irrigation zones.
Natives were mostly planted with occasional drought tolerant species that were cold tolerant to hardiness Zone 9A. I experiemnted with every type of watering system mainly to get things to survive the first few years. Incidentally, despite the average rainfall of 4” at the site, the two most devastating forces were wind and wildlife damage, so eventaully, “grow tubes” (which are commonly used in mass planting of browsable and vulnerable young trees) were used in addition to DIY hardware cloth cages.
Early Swale Layout