Category Archives: Southern California Rain

WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Class

03 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by in compost, drought-tolerant, planning, Southern California Rain, Uncategorized, water-wise garden

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It took about six hours to dig up the turf.

Bye, bye lawn. It took two guys about six hours to dig up the turf.

I attended my first WaterSmart Makeover Class a few weeks ago. It was really inspiring, so inspiring that I went home and ripped out the grass in the front yard! Actually, I learned that you don’t have to do that. There is a way to eliminate your turf without the expense and hard labor of digging it out, but that is for the next class.

Workbook for WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Series

Workbook for WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Series

The class is put on by the San Diego Water Authority and started with an overview by the Assistant Water Resource Specialist Joni German. I won’t get into all the details of the drought in the state of California but for San Diego, I learned some interesting facts that explain why my Hydrangeas look dead and my vegetable garden won’t grow the same way it did.

First of all she explained that the rainfall in San Diego this year is actually above average! We usually get 10 inches a year and this year we have had 11 inches already. Then why do my plants look so crappy? It is because our temperatures have been hotter than normal for the last fifteen months. 2014 was the hottest year on record for San Diego. This heatwave, combined with our water conservation efforts, have left my garden looking horrible. It’s definitely time for a change.

Change requires work–and homework. I had to do some drainage testing, soil testing, and draw up a basic sketch of the existing landscape and irrigation features. It was stuff I like to do…

Dig a 12 X 12 foot hole fill with water. Let sit 8 hours. Then fill with water. Let sit one hour. Measure how far water has gone down. Look up your results on drainage scale.

Drainage test. Dig a 12 X 12 foot hole and fill with water. Let sit 8 hours. Then fill with water. Let sit one hour. Measure how far water has gone down. Look up your results on drainage scale.

Next class is on landscape design–I’m so excited. The third class is where we put our skills to work and show our design plans to an actual designer. We each get thirty minutes of consultation.  The final class is on irrigation. If you are considering replacing your lawn with water-wise plants, I highly suggest you sign up for this free WaterSmart Makeover Class. It is a very useful and interesting class and it’s FREE. You can’t beat that. You get dinner too.

The next class is on my 15th anniversary. Your spouse can go with you. I’m sure it will be a very educational anniversary. Maybe I can bring some champagne!

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Water-wise Gardening: San Diego Demonstration Gardens to Visit

13 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by in butterfly garden, drought-tolerant, Southern California Rain, water-wise garden

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 ( I apologize for publishing this earlier without the text!)

With the turf replacement rebates from San Diego Water District and the state, we are thinking of replacing our turf in the front yard with some lower-water use plants. Since I have a cottage garden, I need to find something in this style. I don’t want rocks like above, but I liked that fake stream, which we might put on our hill one day.

I recently went to the Master Gardener demo garden at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad for a look at different water-wise plants from different regions: Mediterranean, South African, Australian, native… it’s a good way to learn about different plants from different regions but not so much about landscaping.

Over the weekend, I went to Cuyamaca College Water Conservation Garden in Rancho San Diego (www.thegarden.org), which was tremendous and I recommend going.

Most of the pictures are from the Cuyamaca garden. I loved how natural everything was, yet there was still lots of color and lots of green. (The rock stream with the log “bridge” photo at the start of the blog is also shot there.)

Below are photos of plants that want to remember for my yard: African daisy and creeping germander below. My landscaping idea is to replace our turf with patchwork meadow of water-wise groundcovers. We will also add a much needed walk-way meandering through it. The trick will be to find ground covers that look good all year and don’t die down in the winter. I will need some evergreens and hearty heat-lovers.

A very cute bunny topiary with two other cute bunnies on display in the topiary garden.

I like the fern below. Once established, some types of ferns do not require much water. This is a Wooly Lip fern. There is a lantana in the front (purple ground cover).

The blue fescue grass in the lower left of the next photo will probably be one of the main grasses in my front yard meadow.  Then I think I will plant Santa Barbara Daisies and blue geranium incanum  with it. In the lower left part of the photo is snow in summer ground cover, but it doesn’t live for more than a year or so and it needs water. Maybe that’s why it is under the pink bush.

Below are pictures from the Flower Fields Master Gardener displays. The first picture is of native plants, and I like the Dudleya succulent in here this picture. To the left is a native huechera and in the front is a native penstemon. It’s a little sparse for my taste! (And I had that native penstemon and it died fast!)

The plant below with red flowers are  a type of protea from the South African garden–great for flower arrangements, too. These would be good on our hill. The next photo with the “bee hive” is of a herb garden with thyme, rosemary, etc.

The Cuyamaca Water Conservation Garden will have a Butterfly Event in May 9 and also the college has a spring garden festival coming up. They sell plants too.

As I am writing this, I realized I missed the meadow garden. I was on the way to see my horse, and I had three little girls with me so I was in too much of a hurry and a little distracted. Oh well, good excuse to go back!

If you know of any groundcovers that would look good in my meadow, let me know! I want ones that will look good in winter and summer.

Garden after Much Needed Rain

07 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by in roses, Southern California Rain

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Latte Rose blooming in November.

 

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Rainwater captured in the fountain.

Last week, we had two days of rain and it was wonderful. The plants all look revived and some of my roses went into their last blooms before dormancy.

My vegetable garden perked up a bit, too.

Best of all, everything was clean and fresh looking.

It could have rained for the rest of the week and wouldn’t have complained!
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Serious Drought Stuff

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in California native plants, drought-tolerant, garden, Southern California Rain

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Note: of course, I started writing this last week and now that I have time to finish, it is raining :-0

I heard the governor on the radio the other day, and it made me realize my yard might not get much water this summer.

This is serious stuff. And it is likely to continue into the future. I might as well face the facts.

I have decided to delay planting our front yard. Why plant, if I can’t water or shouldn’t water? I am going to wait until the fall when it is cooler.

That said, I am also going to plant even more drought-tolerant plants. This poses a problem for my style of gardening — I love cottage gardens. I am not a fan of a cactus or succulent garden; I have seen enough of those growing up in the desert!

I am going to search for cottage plants that don’t take water. The one that comes to mind is lavender. My lavender on the “hell strip” by the street never gets water. I spray it for a second or two once in a while to wash off the salts. I think the morning mist waters it.

I could plant my whole fountain area in lavender and have a few of those succulents that have the hot pink flowers–Calandrinia spectabilis. It is supposed to be indestructible, which is good.

Sage (the herb), salvia, alstoemeria, moonshine yarrow and a native verbena like De La Mina also might be good. I rarely water my alstoemeria once established and it still blooms. I also think artichokes would be nice–of course, they will likely need a little more water. That is one thing I have learned that can be difficult about mixing low water plants with ones that need more water–if you water too much, you kill the drought tolerant ones and if you water too little, well you know.  I think you have to pretty much go whole hog with drought tolerant! At least zone your plantings to match your sprinklers so you can have a low water area, and if you need it, an area that needs more sprinkling. Usually the plants will live without water but they just won’t bloom. I have found this true with day lillies.  They like water to flower.

Of course, grass falls into this category. We have a tiny figure eight of grass, which is ugly anyway due to other grasses mixing in and compacting of the dirt (and holes the dog dug).  We could brick it over or try a native grass–no more mowing. Another option is to make the grass even smaller and edge each border with a gravel or river stone then have the grass. I have seen this in larger yards and it looks beautiful.

In the shade, I like drought-tolerant ferns: here is the article I have been searching for in Sunset Magazine on ferns that like it dry. And this article has some other ideas for “wild and romantic” drought tolerant designs. Some of those look pretty.

Better Homes And Gardens has some other good garden ideas for drought-tolerant plantings. This page for Intermountain Nursery has a lot of the plants I like. You can see moonshine yarrow, mimulus, and other plants here, including Carpenteria Californica, which is planted on my hill and is about to bloom for the first time. (Maybe it needed a really dry year to bloom.) I am really excited to see it and will post a photo.

Looks like I will have time to plan this new drought-proof garden all through the hot, long summer.

Finally Some Rain!

27 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by in Southern California Rain, tomatoes

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It’s finally raining her in Southern California!

My garden has been waiting. The rain washes away the salts that accumulate in the soil from months of watering with hose water (which was probably piped here from miles away). That’s one reason plants look so much better after a rain. Rain water is also high in nitrogen to help make plants green (okay this is a super simplified chemistry lesson or is it biology?–don’t ask me for technical details! I am a writer!). Rain brings the dust back down to earth to bring other nutrients to the plants.

It’s good timing too. I went to Armstrong Gardens yesterday with my coupons (LOL). I subscribe to Armstrong’s email newsletter. I bought three $1.99 tomatoes and $3.99 New Guinea Impatiens. Sign up for the newsletter at at http://www.armstronggarden.com and you will get great deals, too.

Enjoy the rain!

Today in the Rain

20 Wednesday Jan 2010

Posted by in garden, gardening, roses, Southern California Rain

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Today my garden soaks up the rain. The palm trees whip the sky and the cold drizzle shines the leaves of roses and society garlic, pincushion flowers and pink pom pom flowers on groundcover that I can’t remember the name of — sea foam, maybe?

It is a good day for the garden.

The old dog dug a gigantic hole in an unused bed. (Smiley face.) Still a good day for the garden.

Millions of little seedlings mass in the outside-the-wall flowerbed. These will grow to fringed purple poppies, orange mariposa poppies and Toadflax–all spring favorites. Right at the lamp post six or seven daffodil shoots are now pushing through the once dry dirt, enjoying the rain, I am sure. The Hollyhock I planted where my Blue Hibiscus tree  died is revived, tiny knots of buds forming along its stem. I hope it grows tall as the tree it replaced, one giant HollyHock as tall as the sky.

I want to buy fertilizer and sprinkle it everywhere. I am waiting for a break in the rain. When this happens, I may try to clean up my vegetable patch, now overgrown with Swiss Chard I’ve never eaten, spinach the snails have indulged in, six or seven snap peas straining to grow upwards. I have only supplied a few bamboo sticks that haven’t been supportive enough to keep them safe from this wind.

El Nino? La Nina? The weatherman says this rain won’t be enough to make up for three years of drought. But let’s not dwell. Let’s watch the garden and say, 

Hurray for the rain!