Our garden: demolition phase

After over ten years of trimming, watering, weeding and planting the garden we inherited when we moved in, we decided it was time to change. Too many plants needed too much water. The deck was rotting underneath, since they didn’t use rot-resistant materials to build it. The trellis could come down in a strong wind. There wasn’t enough hardscape, so everything needed trimming.

The new landscape will have lots of paths for easy circulation and one less thing to maintain. The redwood from the old deck will be recycled for the new one, the old, cracking concrete slab will be broken up into urbanite, stained with a soy based coloring agent and used to make paths. It will be sustainable – paving will be pervious, a rain garden will reduce runoff into the storm drain system, and the irrigation will adjust itself according to how much water is actually needed. A meadow will replace the lawn, where we can test lawn substitutes such as Carex praegracillis and other grassy plants that supposedly save water. One section of the garden will not be irrigated – instead it will be planted with annual wildflowers and bulbs. This will probably evolve over time, but there’s already an improvement: all the things that were falling over are now gone or ready for their new life.

Bugs in your garden? Let them live.

First, I’m only talking about garden pests. Not roach infestations in restaurants or food processing centers. Just the usual bugs you’ll find in the usual garden. These are the inoffensive creatures whose only crime is being bugs in the wrong place (I’m excluding nesting hornets, and other “clear and present dangers”, too).

What I’m questioning is the need for “zero bug tolerance”. Aphids happen. They don’t last very long, since eventually the predator population builds up and reduces their population. But not to zero.

What about spiders? “Spiders are hard to kill, since they have very tiny feet,” as one pest control person, of the non-sustainable variety, said. But why do we have to kill them in the first place? Most of our spiders are harmless, and it could even be argued that they’re beneficial, since they eat mosquitoes that carry diseases that are much more harmful than the spiders.

If we’re planting things that are killed by insects, we decide that the insects are at fault – not the choice of the plant nor the environment into which its placed. So, we attack the insects, instead of just deciding to change the plant, modify the watering schedule or heaven forbid, just letting them live.

I’ve never seen an ornamental landscape plant killed outright by insects. I’ve seen them defoliated, but they recovered. Some plants have died, and insects have been contributing factors – but usually the plant was in a weakened state for another reason. However, I’ve seen many more plants killed by human error. Overwatering, frost tender plant frozen to black mush, wrong plant for the climate, acid loving plants in alkaline soil…

So why pick on the poor garden insects, spray a bunch of things that are strong enough to kill them around our homes?

Aphids, thrips, harlequin bugs, orb spiders, caterpillars… They all live in a well balanced garden, and some of them can even be kind of fun to look at as they stroll around the plants.

All things considered, most of the “bug” problems are in our heads, not in our gardens.

A small patch of wildflowers

This annual wildflower does very well in the Sacramento area.
This annual wildflower does very well in the Sacramento area.

We have a small strip of unirrigated land, where until last fall, we just let the weeds grow, then mowed them down when they started to dry out. We decided that wildflowers would be more interesting than weeds, or at least these weeds.

We selected a California native mix, with a good range of species. There should be baby blue eyes, California poppy, farewell to Spring, and a number of other species. They should flower from sometime in March until probably sometime in May.

Soil preparation was mimimal – water the area, wait a week or so for weeds to sprout, then cultivate them out. Chemical herbicides were out of the question, since this is supposed to be a sustainable, non-toxic landscape. Due to a late start, we only got through one watering / cultivation cycle before the season’s first rains were due. Just before the first storm, the seeds were mixed with some compost to thin them out, then broadcast over their new home.

Within a bit over a week, the first sprouts were growing. The only things we could identify were the poppies and some lupines. As the cotyledons grew into real leaves, we were able to add the farewell to Spring to the list of successful sprouts, along with a number of unknowns that could either be more weeds or our new wildflowers.

Now that several months have passed, we found that a good number of our potential wildflowers were in fact weeds. Foxtail, cranesbill, and several others. Despite the passage of a lawn mower piloted by an overzealous neighbor over part of the bed, most of the plants are developing nicely.

The first thing we learned is that it’s hard to remove weeds when you don’t know what’s a weed and what’s a wildflower. Luckily, some species of weeds bloomed early and thus proved their true nature.

The second thing we learned is that there is a lot of weeding involved, even for a strip that is barely three feet by ten feet. Better planting area preparation probably would have helped out a lot here.

Now, it’s wait and see for the bloom season.

The Governator

The latest news is that the Governator wants to end (or curtail, or reduce) licensure for landscape architects. This might save the state of California a bit of money, although we pay enough licensure fees to make up a good portion of whatever it costs to run the program. It’s not like we all get free trips to Rome with our fees or anything. We don’t even get lottery tickets.

Time will tell if not being a licensed professional makes any difference at all. Maybe the pols in Sacramento will change their minds and keep us around after all. Maybe they’ll group us with some other profession (like cheesemakers) so that one agency can oversee two professions. There was some talk about lumping us with architects, but we really are a separate profession, so I would prefer to hang out with California’s new breed of artisan cheesemeisters. They’re probably a lot more fun at the annual dinner (something we don’t even have, but maybe if they put us together…?)

Du hast diese gelesen, Herr Governator? Landschaft + Kasemeisters! Ja!

Some thoughts on golf courses

I was at a seminar the other day at a golf course, and was looking at all the energy consuming, toxic lawn. The lawn could probably made less toxic by applying organic growing techniques, it could consume less water if alternate species were used, or if the water applied were captured for reuse. However, it would still need mowing in order to be playable, and right now mowers use gas that could really be put to better uses.

So, here are some ideas about mowing, just because this subject came up at lunch…

Have the golfers mow the course with push mowers in exchange for play credit.

Put a counter on the wheel of the course (tamper proof, of course), and give out free play, lessons, etc. according to distance mowed.

Tow reel type mowers behind golf carts

Golf carts are electric, so they pollute less than lawn mowers. So, find a way of having them tow a reel type mower. Might have to widen the wheels or something, though.

Goats or sheep

For the real Scottish look, let animals do the job. No grazing during play, since beaning a sheep is not nice.

Hire lots of people to push reel type mowers

Have a big line of people mow the course using only human energy

That’s all we could think of before our food arrived.

Sierra fall color

Normally, every year I go and photograph the aspens in fall color, generally around Hope Valley. This year, the photographers’ posts are exceptionally varied. They basically say that it snowed already, the trees are confused and it looks like some of them might skip the color altogether and just fade to brown. It looks like the natural world is just as confused as the financial world. I think I’ll just go watch the cranes at the Cosumnes River Preserve – they have arrived and seem ready for whatever will happen.

So, will it be an early winter? An early winter for cold but not rain? A dry year or a deluge? Will the stock market recover in time for the holiday season, or will we all get lumps of coal? Only time will tell.

First thing is the program

A good program smoothes the construction process
A good program smoothes the construction process

Although many people seem to think the first step in designing something is a plan, it should actually be the program from which the plan is generated. I don’t mean the CAD program that will be used to draw the plan, but rather the set of “rules” that the new design should follow. For example, the intended uses (including “visual”) should be laid out. How public/private should the new spaces be? How large should the entertainment zones be? How many people will be using them at once and how often?

All these things form the basis for a design that responds to the client’s needs – before a plan is even started.

Where should the outdoor kitchen go, anyway?

There seem to be two schools of thought for outdoor kitchens: they should either supplement the indoor kitchen, or they should duplicate it.

In the supplement option, the kitchen moves smoky or messy functions outside. This obviously applies to grills and barbecues, but can also work with wok rings, wood fired ovens, and other equipment that can generate smoke or spattering oil. They don’t need sinks, refrigerators, or other features that are already present in the house, although these can be present.

For the duplicate option, the entertainment center can be located at a far end of the design away from the house, so that nobody has to go to the kitchen. Since it’s essentially replacing the kitchen for people enjoying a dining patio nestled out in the landscape, it tends to have everything, including the kitchen sink. Refrigerators, storage, dishwasher, sink, grill, gas burners are fairly typical. Pizza oven, wok ring, tandoor…. the sky’s the limit. This option can get pricey, especially considering that the sink should be plumbed into the sewer, and that all this equipment tends to need both electrical and gas lines.

Then, there’s the hybrid – put the pizza oven out in the landscape where it can double as an outdoor fireplace (codes permitting), and keep the grill near the house for easy access.

Lawn substitutes

Recently, people have been looking into using alternate varieties of naturally low-growing, evergreen plants. Some are listed as low growing, since their leaves don’t grow very tall, but some of these get flowers that rise well above the leaves, requiring more maintenance. Most have to be planted as plugs (tiny plants) instead of sod or seed, so there is a longer establishment period. These species have been discussed for the Sacramento Valley:

  • Carex praegracilis (also known as Carex pansa). Evergreen sedge, naturally low growing, no tall flowers. Native to California.
  • Tufted Hair Grass (Deschampsia caespitosa). Leaves are low, but flowers rise high enough to turn your “lawn” into a meadow. Native to California.
  • Berkeley sedge, Carex divulsa (formerly known as Carex tumulicola). Higher growing, but grows well here. Would need occasional high mowing. Native to Central Europe.
  • Buffalo grass, Buchloe dactyloides. Naturally low growing grass. Turns brown in winter.