by TERESA WOODARD photos CAITLIN ATKINSON
“COLLECTING AND STARTING SEEDS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS OF GARDENING. IT IS PURE MAGIC.”
—CAITLIN ATKINSON
Caitlin chose a large number of native plants to support local wildlife and reduce water usage, but her low-maintenance garden is also a good fit with her traveling lifestyle. She does, however, enjoy annually collecting and sowing seeds—such as the silver bush lupine, white sage, and blue fescue outside her bedroom window, above. The natural tones of the chairs and firepit, far right, blend with the woodsy setting. The cream color of the ‘Moonglow’ California poppy, below, a variation on the state flower, is in keeping with the garden’s subdued palette.
ake a peek through the windows of Caitlin Atkinson’s home and you’ll see just how thoughtfully she designs her garden. A desk in her bedroom looks onto a meadow of blue fescue punctuated by a bold agave. Just beyond, swaths of silver lupine and foothill penstemon are backlit each morning as the sun comes up. It looks like a photograph, and that’s by design. “Framing the view is part of the photographer in me,” says Caitlin, who specializes in shooting landscape architecture projects around the country.
When Caitlin and her husband, Annamalai Nagaraj, decided to convert her family’s barn near the Sierra Nevada foothills into a home, she wanted to create a garden that was at ease with the surrounding landscape. “I started to think about not just making a pretty, low-water garden but about giving it a sense of place with plants,” she says.
To that end, Caitlin amended the red clay soil (compacted from years of serving as a barnyard for cows and sheep) and replaced the weeds with a mix of California native grasses and wildflowers along with other low-water plants. She employed two primary palettes—the silvery blues outside her bedroom window and, just beyond the kitchen’s sliding glass door, a brighter scheme anchored by a green fescue meadow interspersed with white yarrow, purple aster, and goldenrod.
The effect is at once wild and intentional. It’s also extremely welcoming, thanks to livable touches through the landscape. In the garden outside the kitchen, for instance, a series of concrete pavers and a dining table seem to sprout naturally from the meadow. And beneath a large California black oak, Caitlin poured a patch of gravel so she could set up a small seating area around a firepit. “It’s a nice human element in the wilderness,” she says.
JOURNAL Use garden photography as a visual record of your wins and fails. Seeing your garden through a photograph can also give you a different perspective on your space. “It helps to see what does and doesn’t work,” Caitlin says.
SHOT LIST Start a garden shoot by walking through the space and noticing where you pause. These spots often make good photos. Capture the big picture as well as vignettes and plant details.
TIMING Photograph the garden at different times of day; the soft lighting at sunset or sunrise or on a partially cloudy day is often ideal. In general, a garden won’t look its best in the harsh afternoon sun.
EQUIPMENT If you’re shooting with your cell phone, play with features like adjusting exposure (sun icon) or tweaking the background blur in portrait mode. Also experiment with editing apps like Snapseed. To stay organized, file images by season or plant type in folders on your phone. If you have a digital camera on hand, Caitlin recommends learning the manual setting. To level up even further, work with a tripod and polarizer lens, which enhances colors and reduces glare.