September- Behind my Garden Gate. Mint, bees and Country Gardens Magazine

September. It began with a phone call asking "Do you have mint?"

Yes. Mint with bees and mint without.  

Stalks of mint flopping through seasonal asters in  a mass of perfect imperfection.

Mint weaving over the roses and through the steps, up into the vegetable lined path. 

 I took my gloves off to pull the sweet smelling stalks of mint out from beneath the  Brandywine tomato. Trained up, the vine has climbed a full-story high.

My uphill neighbor, Sandy, leaned over our shared fence. We chatted about roses, the exceptional holiday weather, good bugs and bad bugs. Promising to get together soon, I gathered a couple ripened veggies and armloads of mint enough to make mojitos for all the wanna-be Cubans in California. 

"Accidental" clippings with the hillside mirrored in my study window

On occasion, I splurge on bottles of  Broguiere's Farm Fresh Dairy  milk, as much for the smiles when the charming containers are passed along  to friends as vases. Like the one who will soon be enjoying rooted slips of mint and spearmint.  

Now to enjoy my garden. To observe.  The slender ruby hummingbird feeder hanging from the brugmansia (angel's trumpet) is a bird magnet. Hummingbirds and orioles. But like our "mighty" Southern California rivers, it too frequently runs dry. 

These come to me in my garden: a thought. Plumbers tape stops leak on threaded hose bibs, why not on threaded necks on nectar reservoirs? YES. Oh happy birds. 

Garlic chives. The whole of this wonderful wildflower can be used for cooking. Or left to reseed and come again next summer. 

Carrots. Like people, come in many colors.

Just in case our friends do not understand how obsessive my garden- passion is... Wouldn't it be fun to serve purple carrots in the garden near where the Rose of Sharon blooms? Match food to flower, like shoes to a dress.

In the dining room, dappled light shines on the cover of the newest edition of one of my favorite magazines, Country Gardens.  If circumstance should ever remove me from this beloved plot of land, I should still love this magazine, for as much as any other, it plays the strings of my heart in a happy melody.

Until we meet again, thank YOU for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful. 

Lydia  

Waterwise is a Strategy, not a Style ~ Eat Your Garden

"Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized."  ~ Alan Armatage

Edible Landscaping 

 It was a class at the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanic Garden  by Rosalind Creasy. She's the woman who wrote the book on planting a garden good enough to eat. Literally. In fact, many books. 

I was in the mood for her brand of optimism. Waterwise is more than succulents and cactus interspersed amongst gravel. It is a strategy to get the most out of the resources at hand. Its beauty is not just one vision of paradise- and it can taste mighty good.

Two of her books came home with me. I  intended them as reading material for the stack I'm saving for some soon scheduled bed-rest, but I was too tempted. That weekend's Sabbath was filled with joy and wonderment. For I am a gardener who likes to bring the outside in. Not just the view through the window. I like to bring the ingredients  which the rabbits and squirrels leave as our portion for working "their land."

Lavender blossoms infusing scent and taste into a jar of  Bakers Sugar

Some facts from 'Ros'. The scalloped shape of the tomato below is sculpted from multiple fertilized ovaries. The reason the ugly brown and funny green tomatoes taste so good is that the color genetic-code comes with a flavor boost. 

 Haggen  grocery is open in Diamond Bar. On a nieces recommendation, I went in. They know where to find delicious produce when it isn't in season in my garden. The gorgeous specimen sliced up on a bed of baby spinach and feta cheese just waiting for a family member to anoint it with their choice of salad dressing- this is heaven on a plate.  

Recipes from the Garden

It makes me smile to know that anything edible which can be grown at home is not only more delicious than store-bought: it uses far less water than a commercial crop. When we grow our own food, this leaves more produce for the rest of the nation. Which makes my using a little bit of water patriotic. 

 Last winter, all of California prayed for rain. A polite amount fell. Mostly on weekends: followed by warm workdays. Good for not tying up our notoriously wicked commuter traffic more than usual. Also good for keeping the local mosquito population off any endangered list. 

Next year we need to throw in a request for snowpack. May God throttle- up the volume of fluffy white frozen crystals evolving into clear liquid from trickle to flow. And during this time of drought, may we have the wisdom to be preparing for the rain to come. 

Until we meet again- Thank YOU for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful. 

Lydia 

Quote found on Self Sustainable Life

South Pasadena is Beautiful- Part IV - Artists as Garden Designers

"All gardening is landscape painting." 

~ William Kent 

Add caption

Flowers propped in a vase, plucked fresh from the garden- if there was any trend in 2014- this is it. 

Peter Dudar and Sally Marr painted Jo Lane's water wise  garden with artistic sensitivity for color and texture. Perky lavender blooms atop light green finely foliaged  succulents sings to pedestrians passing by "I feel pretty."  

Built in 1923,  the modest home is  bursting with happy details melding garden to home. Note a break from boring: window mullions are  framed in a bold teal. 

 It is difficult for low-chill Southern California to host tulips for consecutively annual glorious blooming seasons. However- the floral bearer of the message "perfect love"  can be replicated in art glass for a lifetime of  enjoyment. 

An expanse of mocha stucco  has potential to be be blah, blah, blah. By punctuating the space with a graceful bit of iron, the eye has something interesting to behold. 

Speaking of interesting, a passageway into the petite backyard Eden begins with a hard right turn from the driveway.  The galley of a patio, lush with a trumpet vine overhead, bisects the house from the open air orchid room. 

There is a palpable coolness to this space. Filled with orchids and hanging plants, the multitude of green leaves tames the afternoon heat.  

Outside, the space is lush with fruit trees. Succulents overflow the rock-edged soaking basins .  

The rarer water is, the more it should be celebrated.  It may be wiser to have gravel flow down pathways than a motor-powered stream: however the magic in this scene is the rippling surface of water in a fountain. 

This fascinated me, how this narrowest of side yards is dressed to impress. The visual foundation was the width of a coat of paint. The creative finish mimicking expensive mason skills,  so graphic a trompe l'oeil. Fabulously more cost effective than changing up actual masonry material. The rose at the sunny entrance acts as a brooch on a youthful bosom- a discrete signal pointing where to look without being obvious about wanting attention.

Rosemary trained flat to the fence is simply genius, this girdling up and in of a plant which easily matures to overtake a narrow space.  

 Arbors are ever so useful in designating focal points.  The white color bringing structure and "wow" to the vignette. 
   

Blocks for retaining walls require a bit of a initial investment; but they are sturdy investments. Dry laid, they are without the environmental issues posed by railroad timbers for building a raised edible garden.

Judging by the number of people checking out the kidney-shaped stack of stones filled with veggies; leaning over to their partner, chatting about what they would grow to eat in such a space at their home- the local home-centers must have done quite a bit of business in selling retaining blocks afterwards.  

Until we meet again, Thank YOU for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful. 

Birdwatching in Huntington Harbor Memorial Day Weekend.

To share the wonders of nature with a child is a fine path to happiness. For both of you.

Egret landing

Fleeting beauty memorialized at the speed of a camera shutter.  Is there anything so beautiful or miraculous made by man which compares with the works of God?  

An egret guarding its nest- but what kind of egret- please share 

Measured in the number of driveways and across the lane from from where my granddaughter lived since she was born, her new home is a world away.  Where she lived before there were tweeties and dove. Now there are large birds she can watch from the family deck. Why?

 Just as your girlfriend might prefer a broad meadow with a shade tree and a swing to read under, while you prefer the lower maintenance of a balcony with geraniums, different creatures find happiness in different ecosystems. 

If you want big birds, plant big trees

Charley now lives closer to the mini-park where dogs play and do their 'business'.  Instead of  small patio gardens, there is a pocket park  hugged on two sides by a hedgerow of broadleaf paperbark trees (melaleuca quinquenervia). Australian immigrants, the tree's appearance is distinguished by  uneven layers of deciduous bark peeling back in layers of tan and white from branches reaching up to 30 foot tall and twice as tall. 

Listen closely: the sound of wind whispering through fine leaves is joined with the call of large birds nesting high above the reach of predatory mammals known to hop the neighborhood's fences in search of small pets and poultry for dinner.  

Okay, bird aficionados- send over your bird ID's.* Especially that bird on the right. It is shaped like a hummingbird, but the size of  a small turkey.   

Charley just started walking and wants to know "What is up there?"

Until we meet again, Thank YOU for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful. 

* Thank you to Tom and Joan Bolton- and to Catherine Pannell Roberts. The white bird is a snowy egret and the other is a black-crowned night heron. 

South Pasadena is Beautiful ~ Part III ~ A Hillside Family Garden

 Welcome to Southern California. The day this picture was taken, half the country was shoveling snow.  Here: we were touring gardens and taking pictures to send to our relatives in upper latitudes. 

Surrounding the mid-century traditional home built in 1948 on the crest of of a .34 acre lot, Stella Binns, proprietress of Barristers Nursery  conjured up a soft landscape palette of muted greens and purples. Accents of contrasting bursts of precocious California poppies and roses dressed in pastels provide visual oomph. 

Nearly to the summit, a bit of a flagstone landing juts through the sea of plantings, providing a place for garden tourists to  safely dock. If I had clippers, I might have (with the owner's permission) fished for flowers to fill a vase. 

The Marengo area of South Pasadena is noted for mature trees 

I caught my breath, admiring the picturesque hillside garden of Jenny Hertz- Newman and Brian Newman.  A few more steps up the steep incline, and I would be behind the main garden gate. 

A rule of all design: practical items should be equally useful

When there are small children living on a hillside, a strong gate which can be locked closed is a safety must.  

Cross-fencing a playard  close to the house makes this an outdoor playroom. 

Strolling past from the house,  the playful lightness of the front gives way to tell a slightly different story. One where darker, richer colors encrust a forested garden, appearing as if fine gemstones  surrounding a giant Mother Nature's eternity ring. 

Ferns, low hedges and a fountain add definition

Paths of decomposed granite meander to where the real magic begins.  Under the shade of an old oak. 

 Can't you hear the laughter of little children, their imagination soaring on the arc of a disk swing? If you have a big tree- there are no excuses not to have one now. The are everywhere. Even Walmart  carries a similar model.  Check the weight limit- I've seen some which are rated to carry up to 250 lbs- even us bigger kids can come out to play):- 

Both red and lime green outdoor furnishings are hot fashion trends 

When setting up a child's area- don't forget your own adult comfort.  Placing the lime and red seating at the back corner, the parents elevates the the enjoyment of supervising children at play.  

One of the best features of the garden may be how it demonstrates that moderate water needs does not have to mute an aura of lush retreat.Once established, roses and begonias are more drought resistant than most people imagine.  How the giant flax punctuate the boundaries- simply masterful.  

Farewell, fine garden. We hate to leave. But there are more gardens to see. 

Until we meet again, Thank YOU for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful. 

South Pasadena is Beautiful ~ Part II ~ I Brake for Gardens

First the dirt gets under the fingernails, then it seeps into your blood. That is how gardeners are born. Through contagion. Once addicted to gardening, there is no cure. None is sought. 

Warning. . Tailgaters beware: I brake for gardens.  

On days gardens are open, this obsession is not contained to the map provided by tour sponsors. This is one garden which reeled me in from an officially open garden down-street.

Houses don't have to look-alike to be good neighbors

This California cottage modeled a place-specific modern turn to the vernacular. Its charm is not from being pasted with artifice, but through carefully curated details. Gracefully aging swaths of shredded bark provide negative space to appreciate the  demure peeks at the rich terra cotta stucco home. 

A white rose planted where the porch meets the garden serves as a beacon to the entrance

 The simple iron handrail. Natural color wood doors and window frames. The spectacular subtlety. Like a well-tailored suit- this front garden transcends eras and fads. 

A couple banded barrels filled with greens to clip for the kitchen. I wonder if there are studies proving gardeners eat better, are healthier and live longer than a neighbor who does not? 

This garden has me hooked. 

I left my card. Said a writer's prayer. Let the owners be interested enough to read some of my writing. Trust me to be respectful.  May they want the story of their creation told to a larger audience.  And if I am so fortunate as to be contacted by them- let me exceed expectations. 

Until we Meet Again, Thank you for All you do to make the world more beautiful.