I love porch swings — this one is in the front yard

I was out riding bikes with my brother Scott in the East Bay area east of San Francisco when I came across Riza’s garden. Her gardening is unique to an area that relies heavily on junipers, agapanthas and nandina(my pet peeve). Her garden reminds me of summer in the Midwest, but she pretty much has this abundance all year around.  She graciously gave me me a tour and allowed me to take photos. I also asked her many questions; the answers are below, in her own words:

“I’ll try to answer your questions as accurately as possible. I became interested in gardening in 1991. We had our previous house professionally landscaped and hired the contractor to do the maintenance. We had a falling out with the contractor and I could not find a gardener competent enough. The landscaping was really fancy and I wanted to keep the garden in good condition so I did the maintenance until I could find a gardener. That got me hooked! I’ve been gardening ever since. When I started I couldn’t even tell the difference between an agapanthus and an oak, now I’m like a walking dictionary of plants. I make flower arrangements, too, from the flowers in the garden and I like to read. I like most plants. It’s pretty hard to list them since I like most of them so I will just list the ones I don’t like .

• Junipers (my number 1 pet peeve since they are overused in this area because of the drought).
• Oleander — I noticed when I went to Europe they are really liked by Europeans and treated like specimen plants.
• English Ivy
• Privet — I hate, hate, hate them. My neighbor has two trees and they drop their seeds on my yard and millions of seedlings are sprouting all the time. I call it the evil tree.
• Monterey Pine — ugly and messy. The happiest day of my life was when another neighbor behind me cut the diseased Monterey pine and I was finally able to keep plants alive on that side of the house.

I get my plants everywhere, from the local CVS, Ace Hardware, KMart, Home Depot, Costco to the more high-end nurseries. The community colleges have plant sales 4 times a year and their plants are unique, healthy and rare and they have good prices too. I brought plants from as far as Wisconsin, Washington State and Oregon.

I have a “Mow and Blow” gardener who comes once a week and that’s all he does — mow and blow. I have another gardener who is more specialized and prunes everything by hand and he comes 4 times a year for general pruning and general cleaning. The rest of the time I do most of it.

My guess is I have at least 300 plants — Just the roses alone I have 75 bushes, so when I get a chance and count them I will let you know.

Tip for home gardeners — do not limit yourself to any type of plant or color of the foliage because you might be missing out on some beautiful combinations. For example I have a neighbor who does not like gray plants and I think she’s missing out a lot because gray is a very unifying color. Another friend does not like succulents and cactus and I think she is missing out because cactus has so many interesting shapes and textures and forms.”

Wow! 75 rosebushes! I don’t even have one because of the deer!

Succulents are another element of the garden

On the web: Lots of concerts at botanical gardens, for one:

• Descanso Gardens (Descansogardens.org)…Summer evening jazz concerts thru August 25
• Theodore Payne Foundation (theodorepayne.org)…classes include relief printing, irrigation primers, hypertufa container
• Los Angeles Arboretum (arboretum.org)…Concert on the Green by The California Philharmonic
• South Coast Botanic Garden (southcoastbotanicgarden.org)… 7/22… ensemble Spirati woodwind quintet concert
• Fullerton Arboretum (fullertonarboretum.org)…Nature photography class, Bug safari for adults
• San Diego Botanic Garden (sdbgarden.org) Thursday Family Fun Nights
• Sheridan Gardens, Burbank — Summer Sale (sheridangardens.com)

Casa La Paz at Tree of Life Nursery

Tree of Life Nursery in Orange County has been a leader in encouraging homeowners to lose their lawns. The information below is taken directly from their website. It’s a fantastic destination nursery to visit anyway and now they are giving away a terrific seminar, plus a barbeque lunch on the 18th:

Replace Your Lawn Workshops this June — Our Four-Part Series condensed to Two!

Our Replace Your Lawn Series designed to help you learn how to replace your lawn with beautiful and sustainable California native plants will be presented in its entirety this June on two Saturdays, June 11 and June 18th, 9:30–11 am.  Each Saturday will cover two parts of our popular Replace Your Lawn Workshops.  Please join us and get twice as much information in almost the same amount of time.  Longer-distance customers, these workshops are for you! Saturday June 11, 2011 — Replace Your Lawn I and II — 9:30 am — 11:00 am

9:30 am — 10:10 am — Kill the Grass!
Learn the basics of how to kill your lawn.  We’ll cover the basic steps of identifying the grass and plants you have, followed by appropriate measures for removal of the existing landscape to make way for a sustainable native plant garden.

10:10 am — 11:00 am — Design Elements.
Guest speaker and landscape designer Rob Moore will return to Tree of Life to lead the Design Elements session.  This will be structured as a discussion format addressing various issues you may have with your property (come ready to discuss!).  Rob will address some design parameters and criteria by providing ideas on plant selection, hardscape, and how to organize your thoughts around a theme!

Saturday June 18, 2011 — Replace Your Lawn III and IV — 9:30 am — 11:00 am

9:30 am — 10:10 am — Creating and Caring
Come learn more about how to initially install and care for your plants and how to plan for the long term well-being of your native garden.  We will introduce plant selection by discussing the importance of structure and balance using our “Thirty Plants” plant list as the pallette.

10:10 am — 11:00 am — Plant Selection: Thirty Plants
We’ll discuss foundation plants, trees, shrubs, flowering perennials, accents, and groundcovers with plenty of plant combination ideas.  There is a lot to consider when picking out your plants, but we’ll keep it simple and help you break it down to what you need to know!  Join us!

Saturday June 18, 2011

12:00 noon — Stick around for our Customer Appreciation BBQ also known as, “Yes Virginia, there IS a Free Lunch (just not very often)!”

Tree of Life website: www.californianativeplants.com or go to Tree  of Life Nursery under Orange County Nurseries to the left of this post.

Esmeralda and newborn baby Gnat

What can one say about mothering and nurturing? Mothers aren’t always nurturers and nurturers aren’t always mothers. However I find that gardeners are always nurturing their plants and often the environment. Mothering a plant? Why not? My succulents are like my kids. They seem almost human to me because the different kinds have so much personality..brash, prickley, shy, cunning, gregarious, introverted and totally frustrating!

But getting back to Esmeralda and Gnat, they are mothered by Susan of  www.farmgirlfare.com. This wise and witty blog follows Susan’s unique perspective of going from city to farm. Go on and if you like what you see, subscribe…you will not be disappointed!

I lost my mom in June of 2005 but I’m blessed with my wonderful mother-in-law Ruth. I never thought I would be a mom but I lucked out with my wonderful daughter Holly.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who nurture!!

My succulent babies

On the Web:

Andersons La Costa Nursery, Encinitas: 20% off on all fruit trees thru May 12 / andersonslacostanursery.com

May 7:

Theodore Payne Foundation, Sun Valley: 8 am:  A birds eye view of native plants / 10 am: 3 part Native plant design / theodorepayne.org

Venice Garden and Home Tour, Los Angeles / Venicegardentour.org

City Farmers, San Diego: Raising Tilapia as simply as possible, 1:30 — cityfarmersnursery.com

Descanso Gardens, La Canada: Iris Walk and Talk 11 am.…..Flower Mart Tour 7am — 2pm.…..May 8 Various Mother’s Day events including brunch/descansogardens.org

May 7 & 8: Geranium Show at the Los Angeles Arboretum –arboretum.org

May 9: San Diego Horticultural Society meeting: The Alchemy of Plants and Gardens: Source of Life and Inspiration — sdhortsoc.org

Grevillea synapheae in the background identified by small yellow blooms

The light bulb went off for me the other day. I was doing a little pruning and wishing I could remember the names of some of my  plants (among other things!!!). For one of them, I realized the only recourse would be to photograph it and email the photo to purveyer Jo O’Connell, owner of the wonderful Australian Native Plant Nursery (www.australianplants.com).  The other plant, coreopsis rosea, was identified after a lot of research. This is one reason why I don’t want to be a garden designer…can’t remember all those latin names! I had known the names at one time — why not use garden markers as a permanent reminder?  I bought these shown in the photos from Berkeley Horticultural in Berkeley, California. It’s a fantastic destination nursery and worth a trip any time you are in the Bay area. Most upscale nurseries will have a choice of garden markers, though you might want to call ahead.

Grevilleae Synapheae close up

This information is taken from the San Marcos Growers (www.smgrowers.com) website: The grevilleas are a remarkable and beautiful group of plants. The variability between species is incredible but characteristic to the Protea family (Proteaceae) of which they belong; the namesake of the family, the god Proteus was noted for his ability to change his appearance and form at will. Among the 270 or more species, almost entirely from Australia, the habit can be that of a large forest tree or a diminutive crevice plant. The color and structure of the flowers and leaf size and shape are so different in the many species that their relationship is often lost to the casual observer. Shared attributes that might be noted as common to the genus are that they are woody evergreen plants that usually have interestingly intricate and beautiful flowers. Grevilleas are planted their floral and foliage display as well as ability to attract nectar-feeding birds to the garden.

As the plants are a diverse group, there are a wide range of conditions that they will grow under. The following generalized statements regarding the cultivation of grevilleas would apply to a majority of the plants in cultivation. Grevilleas flower best in sunny, dry locations although they will also grow in light shade. Plant in well-draining soil and be very careful of any fertilizers applied to these plants; many Grevillea, especially Western Australian species, are highly sensitive to phosphorus and the use of fertilizers high in this element can be fatal to these plants. They also do not like excessive watering and garden water tolerance or ability to grow near lawns will be exceptions rather than the rule. Regular pruning after flowering is recommended to enhance and rejuvenate flowering and plant growth. Most varieties are drought tolerant, as well as frost hardy down to 20 º F.

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Coreopsis is an all-around great plant in the garden

The Coreopsis ‘Pink’, Coreopsis rosea, with a yellow center, is a flowering variety of the Coreopsis family. In the Tickseed family, the daisylike blooms flower from June through October with a plant height of 10–12” and a minimum spread of 14–18”(mine has happily spread to about 5′). The dark green fernlike foliage makes a great contrast with the flower color. ‘Pink’ Coreopsis should be planted in full sun. Pink Coreopsis is drought-tolerant and tough but does need well-drained soil. It should be cut back early and late summer to extend the bloom period. ‘Pink’ Coreopsis looks great with any type of grass, in borders or mass plantings in sunny gardens. This plant likes to volunteer all over the place and blooms all year where I live (near Santa Monica).