Posts Tagged ‘SoCal’

A mag­nif­i­cent grove of Dra­caena Cinnabari

I have a soft heart for pointy plants. Espe­cially suc­cu­lents in all their fleshy some­times spiny glory. As I flipped thru a Conde Nast Trav­eler mag­a­zine recently, an arti­cle came to my atten­tion on the island of Soco­tra and Dra­caena Cinnabari, or the Dragon’s Blood Tree. To my way of think­ing this is a gor­geous tree, with its twisty sculp­tural trunks and spikey canopy. Unfor­tu­nately it is endan­gered in its habi­tat by the grad­ual warm­ing and dry­ing of Soca­tra, a United Nations World Her­itage Site located near the Horn of Africa and Yemen. In ancient times the deep red resin derived from the tree was used as a dye, tooth­paste, astrin­gent and rheuma­tism med­i­cine — this is a plant that could earn its keep. It still pro­vides var­nish for vio­lins, among other uses. It would be per­fectly suited to our SoCal cli­mate but seems to be very hard to find. Wish I had known about this trees 3 months ago when I was in Egypt — that is prob­a­bly as close as I’ll ever get to Soco­tra and its Dra­caene Cinnabari.

For the arti­cle on Soco­tra: www​.concierge​.com/​c​n​t​r​a​v​e​l​e​r​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​5​0​3​111

On the web:

Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 26:

• Bonsai-​a-​thon @ Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens, 2/​26 — 2/​27, 10:30 — 4:30, Bon­sai mas­ters share their pas­sion, live auc­tion at 3 pm, included in admis­sion; www​.Hunt​ing​ton​.org, (626) 405‑2100
• Theodore Payne Foun­da­tion: Relief Print­ing Work­shop, 10am — noon, $25/​35 non­mem­bers, $15 for mate­ri­als, and Let It Drip (drip irri­ga­tion sem­i­nar) 1:30 – 3:30, $20/​30 non­mem­bers, theodor​e​payne​.org/​818 – 768-​1802
• Edi­ble Natives for the Local Eater with Hank Kraus of Moosa Creek Nurs­ery, 1:30, free @ City Farm­ers Nurs­ery, San Diego, city​farm​er​snurs​ery​.com
• Com­post­ing 101/​11 am and Her­itage Oak Walk/​11 am — Des­canso Gar­dens, both free with admis­sion, Des­canso Gar­dens, (818) 949‑7980
• From Seed to Skil­let: A Gar­den Con­ser­vancy Talk with Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, Los Ange­les Arbore­tum, 11:30 – 1:30 The Gar­den Con­ser­vancy and the Los Ange­les County Arbore­tum and Botanic Gar­den are pleased to present Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, authors of the new book From Seed to Skil­let: A Guide to Grow­ing, Tend­ing, Har­vest­ing, and Cook­ing Up Fresh Healthy Food to Share with Peo­ple You Love. Jimmy learned all about veg­etable gar­den­ing at the knee of his grand­mother, a South Car­olina native from a tra­di­tional Gul­lah com­mu­nity. Susan, a gar­den writer and edi­tor, has been grow­ing veg­eta­bles at home for more than ten years. The two have cre­ated a per­sonal, beau­ti­fully illus­trated gar­den man­ual aimed at help­ing all gar­den­ers, from begin­ners to experts, grow edi­bles more suc­cess­fully. They will share some of the secrets to gar­den plan­ning, cre­at­ing healthy soil, rais­ing strong, pro­duc­tive plants, sav­ing seeds, and enjoy­ing the har­vest with fam­ily and friends. $20/​25 non mem­bers incl. admis­sion /​optional lunch/​jill.​berry@​arboretum.​com /

On the Nile River at Aswan, Egypt

It’s 4 in the morn­ing on my first night back from my trip to Egypt — can’t sleep so I may as well write. What a splen­did, dis­turb­ing place Egypt is. It’s inde­scrib­ably dif­fer­ent from the USA — like being on another planet. I was priv­i­leged to be there for 2 weeks with my brother, his wife and our fam­ily friend. We cov­ered Alexan­dria to Abu Sim­bel — that would be Lower Egypt in the North to Upper Egypt in the South (I know it sounds wrong, has to do with the Nile). I’m always look­ing for the gar­den angles when I travel but in this arid land they were few and far between — the desert and its dust always looms in the back­ground. May be a por­tent of things to come in SoCal. I’ve wanted to go to Egypt for as long as I can remem­ber but had no idea what it would be like. Lovers of art, archi­tec­ture and his­tory will adore it — lovers of human and ani­mal rights will not. I am both, and had some dif­fi­culty on the trip. I’m so glad I went, though, and would rec­om­mend it to most trav­el­ers — the Egypt­ian peo­ple are won­der­ful. Just be pre­pared that it is not easy, but the good news is it will be worth it.

For more on the def­i­n­i­tion of Upper and Lower Egypt: http://​en​.wikipedia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​U​p​p​e​r​_​a​n​d​_​L​o​w​e​r​_​E​g​ypt

And on the Tem­ple Com­plex at Kar­nak: http://​en​.wikipedia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​K​a​r​nak

A dog naps at the Great Tem­ple Com­plex near Luxor

On the web:

Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 20: 9:00 am-12:00 pm

Eyes on the Har­vest: part II : Eat the Yard! Organic Edi­ble Gar­den­ing series, with Jonathan Davis, eth­nob­otanist, gar­dener, and pas­sion­ate foodie

Fuller­ton Arboretum

1900 Asso­ci­ated Rd.
Fuller­ton, CA 92831
(714) 278‑8347

Fee $25.00; pre-​registration required

Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 20: 10:00 am-12:30 pm

The Har­vest Table and Wreath Work­shop: fea­tur­ing a culi­nary demon­stra­tion, sam­ple menu tast­ing, and wreath construction

Ran­cho Los Alami­tos
6400 Bixby Hill Road
Long Beach, CA 90815
562−431−3541

Fee $55.00; pre-​registration required

Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 20, 2010

City Farm­ers Nursery/​San Diego Founders Day

If you need an extra excuse to visit, swing by this Sat­ur­day for Founders Day! Bill started City Farm­ers Nurs­ery on Octo­ber 20th, 1972 – mak­ing this year our 38th Anniversary!

Sun­day, Novem­ber 21, 2010

Wild­WingsLA in Sher­man Oaks

Wild­WingsLA is lead­ing a fall morn­ing bird walk @ the Sepul­veda Basin Wildlife Area from 8 am — 10 am. For more info and to RSVP: WildwingsLA@​gmail.​com.

For SoCal event infor­ma­tion: www​.paci​fi​chor​ti​cul​ture​.org/​c​a​l​e​n​d​a​r​/​S​o​C​al/

Chihuly’s art at the Mis­souri Botan­i­cal Garden

Dale Chihuly’s art is exe­cuted in glass. His blown glass shapes are orig­i­nal and oth­er­worldly. Chi­huly pieces grace high rise build­ings and casi­nos, the­atres, muse­ums and churches. But my favorites are the botan­i­cal gar­den instal­la­tions, such as the New York Botan­i­cal Gar­den and the Mis­souri Botan­i­cal Gar­den. Chihuly’s gen­er­ous prac­tice of putting together teams of artists with excel­lent glass blow­ing skills has led to the devel­op­ment of unusu­ally large, com­plex mul­ti­part sculp­tures of dra­matic beauty. The inte­gra­tion of his art with plant mate­ri­als shows respect for both his art and the gar­dens. My per­sonal expe­ri­ence with his art is that it looks so alive! www​.chi​huly​.com

Dale Chi­huly pieces

On the web:

11/​20/​Saturday: The Har­vest Table and Wreath Work­shop, $55.00, Ran­cho Los Alami­tos, (562) 431‑3541

For SoCal event infor­ma­tion: www​.paci​fi​chor​ti​cul​ture​.org/​c​a​l​e​n​d​a​r​/​S​o​C​al/

Peo­ple are rais­ing chick­ens every­where. Even on the rooftops of Brook­lyn. Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brook­lyn (www​.rooftop​farms​.org/) is home to a flock. Good soil is at a pre­mium in NYC, and chicken manure is the answer. Annie Novak, co-​founder of the high-​rise poul­try farm, says chick­ens are fairly self-​sufficient, mul­ti­func­tional and charm­ing. Another happy chicken farmer is Orne Fox, 13 year old owneer of 23 chick­ens and author of the “Happy Chick­ens Lay Healthy Eggs” blog (www​.Hap​py​chick​enslay​healthyeggs​.blogspot​.com). He offers some expert advice. When my daugh­ter was young we hatched chick­ens and ducks on our din­ing room table, using a sty­ro­foam incu­ba­tor and a spot­light. It was easy and fun and we had no trou­ble find­ing homes for them.

Los Ange­les County, where I live, has lenient rules for keep­ing chick­ens: www​.laan​i​malser​vices​.com/. Other web­sites include: www​.back​yard​chick​ens​.com, www​.wik​i​how​.com/​k​e​e​p​-​c​h​i​c​k​e​n​s​-​i​n​-​a​-​c​ity, and the Mad City Chick­ens DVD @ www​.tara​zod​.com.

On the web: There’s a lot of great stuff going on:

11/​13, Sat­ur­day: Native plant sale fea­tur­ing native plants for foothill gar­dens, Cal­i­for­nia Native Plant Soci­ety, 626−476−4163, adedwards8​@​hotmail.​com, Plan your spring gar­den, Des­canso Gar­dens, www​.des​can​sog​a​r​dens​.org/, Fall color walk, Des­canso Gar­dens, www​.des​can​sog​a​r​dens​.org/

For more SoCal events: www​.paci​fi​chor​ti​cul​ture​.org/​c​a​l​e​n​d​a​r​/​s​o​C​al/