The next garden visit during Study Weekend, Connall

The Connall garden kicked off Saturday's garden touring during the 2025 Study Weekend event last June. 

I'd been following Kyle Connall on Instagram for awhile, and so I was looking forward to finally seeing his garden in person, it did not disappoint. From the tour booklet: "When we moved to this two-acre property 21 years ago, it felt like a blank slate with lawns, maple trees, and a few arborvitae hedges. Initially, we thought of creating an English garden, but after discovering how expensive water was, we landed on a Mediterranean, drought-resistant planting scheme. We started with the courtyard and long driveway by widening the borders on each side of the driveway and planting 500 lavender plants and eight eucalyptus trees. The trees were initially six-inch starts but now are quite stunning in their maturity, forming an archway over the drive." Stunning indeed! I only wish I'd been able to capture the magic of walking under them.

Kyle recently identified them (on Instagram) as Eucalyptus pauciflora ssp. debeuzevillei.

The courtyard...

"The courtyard includes a water feature, palms, jasmine vines, and other tropical-looking planting material. A new path was installed last year with 2x4 foot concrete slabs surrounded by cream-colored gravel."

Nice of the Brugmansia to bloom for the tour.

I love the dramatic, yet simple, stairs...

To get to the rest of the garden we walked through the plantings—see the start of the pathway to the left of the tall Tetrapanax papyrifer? The folks towards the back have emerged at the other end of the path. But first...

Agaves! And a Yucca rostrata (or two, or three)...

Looking on towards the back garden...

And looking back at the Tetrapanax.

The back of the house...

The description continues..."Next we removed most of the lawn behind the house. This created our largest area, which includes a meandering pathway, firepit, drought-resistant trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials. The cacti garden in far back section includes agaves, opuntias, and yuccas."

The wide swaths of a single type of planting really drive home what's possible in a large garden.

The use of Nassella tenuissima (aka Mexican feathergrass, at least I think that's what it is) in this part of the garden is magical, I should have taken a short video so you could enjoy the movement.

Again, perfectly timed blooms...

I just could not get enough of this planting.

Even better with friends. That's Ann on the left (LaManda is only half in the frame) and Alexa waiving in the center of the photo. Sadly I missed getting Emily in the image.

Yes, that's a Metapanax delavayi on the right (above and below).

Cotula, maybe C. lineariloba, or C. hispida, I'm not sure which.

The view goes on and on and on...

I couldn't decide which photo I liked best, so you get them both.

Finally, big impact containers along the side of the back patio. I had a recent conversation with Kyle where shared his plans for planting many more Yucca rostrata. I'm going to have to invite myself back to see the results!

The Bit at the End

If you've ever had the pleasure of hearing Karen Chapman give a garden talk then you know what a great communicator she is. She's doing an online presentation, "Global Design for Modest Spaces" on Tuesday, January 20th, and it's free! More information and registration here.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.