The garden in one Clairemont home’s front yard tells you a serious green thumb lives here.
But when you walk into the backyard, the tableau opens up into an undersea masterpiece.
Longtime resident Carol Kent is the creative force behind the landlocked bit of sea scenery.
After looking around, it would be fair to call Kent a master gardener. But she demurred, saying, “No, it’s not fair.”
But anyone who would take a stubby succulent called a ghostie and put lacy Spanish Moss below it to make a jellyfish, well, some people might say that creation could only come from the mind of a master gardener
The inspiration for all of this dates back decades, to when Kent captained a scuba-diving boat. She also did a lot of snorkeling during those years.
“And I had 15 years of incredible stories out on the ocean and the sea," Kent said. "It's just, I'm so lucky to have done that.”
Visiting this garden is like snorkeling on dry land — and it’s drought-tolerant!
“If we have normal rain, I don’t have to water for six months," Kent said. "But in the height of the summer, I might water once a week.”
There is so much to see in this garden of wonder. An impressive variety of plants and other little surprises await visitors around every twist and turn. One species got special attention on a recent Clairemont Garden Tour.
“They don’t usually turn red. In fact, the fellow I bought it from is a specialist, and he has never seen one like this… It’s an Agave Impresa and it is impressive,” said Kent with a chuckle.
It’s not just plants that make this garden. There are also inanimate objects that help conjure the undersea look.
“I took a class to learn how to make ceramic fish and so they’re a pretty recent addition,” Kent said, pointing to some orange fish with blue spots, made to look just like Garibaldi.
When looking for plants on land that resembled undersea varieties, Kent kept an open mind about selecting species that had changed from their original look. She referenced one odd-looking succulent, “And then it mutates into that form where it’s very, very crusted… so it looks like coral.”
But it's the ceramics that are a favorite with the younger set.
“And you have your little turtle family here… the kids love to play with that," Kent said. "The grandkids come and the neighborhood kids come.”
It’s not all seascape. The largest plant here is very un-oceanic; an avocado tree.
“We love avocados, guacamole, so when we have good years, we have an avocado a day,” Kent said of her fruit-bearing tree.
Apart from the pleasure that comes with having a place like this to escape to, Kent loves to talk about an unexpected benefit that’s come with this garden.
“About once a month, I give away a truckload of succulents because they grow a lot faster than you think," she said. "So I meet a lot of people through that and I have friends that I’ve met by giving away plants and we do things together. It’s great.”
Kent is now on the verge of downsizing this garden. It’s a lot of work, and a surfing injury she sustained years ago means the physical process of tending it is painful.
But she was not wistful about the downsizing.
“I’m kind of a ‘now’ person. So, I feel really good having done this and as it changes it’ll be really great," Kent said. "And it’s documented so I can always go back and look at it.”
And she's right about that. It’ll live on the internet forever.
Kent laughed and smiled at that sentiment as she looked out over her marine masterpiece.
