Winter in San Diego!
Quail botanical gardens has recently changed its name to San Diego Botanical Garden. Although it will always be Quail to me, I like the change. I hope it will give them a well-earned boost in attendance. Want to learn more about their reasoning behind the name change? They explain here.After the sun goes down, the Garden is transformed into a dazzling winter wonderland with over 100,000 sparkling lights illuminating the Garden for a magical holiday experience. Many of these lights are LED, which are much brighter than regular lights. Adding to the sparkle is the “Poinsettia Garden,” festively decorated with many varieties of poinsettias. Numerous activities include horse-drawn-wagon rides, holiday crafts, marshmallow roasting, visits with Santa, live music, and refreshments. Special Holiday Tales and Tunes for children ages two to six will be offered several nights in December.
Admission: Members, Seniors, Military & Students $8; non-members $12. Children 3–12 $4.
This front yard design was done by Los Angeles based Landscape Architect Rob Steiner, and I like it so much I wanted to show it off as this week's home highlight. It is full of ideas you can apply to your own front yard remodel. Here are just a few:
In San Diego, I often meet ex-East Coasters who miss their wonderful fall color and claim that San Diego has none. I would like to change to the record to say that it isn't that we can't plant fall color trees, it is that we don't. Many of my clients chose not to plant deciduous trees, opting instead for the consistency of an evergreen.
What is lost is the gorgeous colorful leaf display in the fall. Here are a few trees that grow well in Southern California, and have a nice fall display.
- Some of our most reliable fall color comes from our Liquidambars. The varieties come in different shades of fall color from yellow to burgandy, so be sure to check which one you are buying.
- Lagerstroemia, or Crape Myrtle, is quite variable but gives excellent color in cold years. Plus, it has a gorgeous summer flower display. Its small size makes it idea for suburban gardens and as a patio tree.YOU'D THINK it would be easy to murder a lawn, since many of us have had plenty of success without even trying. But finishing off that green sponge takes a smart strategy, or it may come back to haunt you.
Removing lawn seems basic enough: Dig it up and haul it away. But it's best to subordinate reflex and forgo brute hacking, experts say. "Don't dig up your lawn if you have Bermuda," advises Barbara Eisenstein, horticulture outreach coordinator for the Native Plant Garden Hotline, a collaboration between the Metropolitan Water District and Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. "Don't rototill. All you're doing that way is planting the grass, because it grows from the stems."
Gerischer says people often make the mistake of hiring a crew that just skims off the top of the lawn, leaving the root system. You're left with the LAWN That Will Not Die. "It can be hard to kill lawn when you don't do it right," he says.
That means bumping off the grass before you dig. Claremont resident Andrea Gutierrez, online marketing director for flower grower Monrovia, stopped watering her front lawn, and after a month it browned out. "We were sure the neighbors were freaking out," she says. She and her husband then plowed the turf, attacking it with a rented mini-Bobcat excavator, counter to the advice of experts, who recommend disturbing the soil as little as possible to avoid activating weeds. The couple did wind up with residual weeds, but the result is a garden of lavender, blueberries, fig trees and blackberries.
The excavation approach is just one way to go grassless. Other options:
* Layering. This approach is increasingly popular among those who want to avoid chemicals, but it takes time. Cover the turf with six or more layers of cardboard or newspaper. On top of that, add 4 to 6 inches of organic mulch -- chopped bark, leaves -- and water. The layers prevent any light in or growth up. Grass dies in two months. Then you can dig right through the mulch and newspaper and plant in the soil.
* Spraying. Many gardeners prefer not to use herbicides, but Tom Smith, a turf specialist with the Institute of Agricultural Technology at Michigan State University, says an agent such as Roundup is one way to go, particularly if you're going to replace the grass with something else. The spray is "absorbed by the plant and root system but doesn't have a soil residual," he says. Spray it once or twice, and in seven to 10 days the fescue has moved onto the big golf course in the sky. "It's the simplest solution," says Catie Lee, who runs CRL Landscape Design in Encino. She says that almost all of her clients are trying to lower water consumption and are looking to replace some of their lawn.
Want to take out your lawn and replace it with a gorgeous drought tolerant garden? We can help! Go to www.sageoutdoordesigns.com and click on the contact us link.
These fixtures, by designer Damian O'Sullivan, were displayed in the New York MoMA until May 2008. (I came across them on the Sietch Blog). He calls them the Solar Lampion. His exhibition focused on design's reaction to changes in technology and science. Hopefully, this is one case where art will inspire a change in product design and put an end to those gawky awkward lights we have all gotten too used to seeing.
