Grasses are supposed to be wind pollinated, so bees should ignore them, right. Actually, no. Our local honeybees have discovered that deer grass produces lots of usable pollen. They come in numbers to gather pollen, storing on their back legs as bright yellow balls.
Another funny thing is that deer grass is native, but honeybees are not. Yet, the bees exploit a food source that native bees do not. We’ll see if the grasses produce a bounty of seeds, and if our local birds come by for a feat – but that won’t happen for a while.
Since the bees are spreading pollen, does this mean that they might be pollinating the supposedly wind pollinated grasses?
On the other hand, do honeybees reduce wind pollination by removing pollen from the plants?
That’s the thing with ecology: everything is connected and it can take years to find answers. But first someone has to look for them, after noticing something and asking questions.
Learning to sculpt beautiful things from base materials is hard. It takes a long time to learn, you play with sharp tools and can easily hurt yourself. Or worse, you might create something really boring and be stuck with it basically forever (you would never throw out your first sculpture, would you?)
Agave salmiana
These photos show off Agave salmiana, probably ‘Green Giant’. It’s green and giant, so why not? This is one of the most sculptural agaves, with recurved green leaves that are green instead of gray.
Like making sculpture, you can hurt yourself with these. To reduce the risk, I cut off the sharp terminal spines on the leaves. The other thing is that the plant is planted well back from the path, although each year it gets closer.
It’s survived some fairly heavy frosts, more than that prickly pear behind it can say (the cactus froze solid one year and has never really recovered). It’s just stuck in some clay soil on a
slight mound, nothing special was done to ensure its longevity. For one thing, it will eventually outgrow the space, and for another it sends out pups – baby plants – readily so there’s always a replacement plant around.
Agave options
There are other agaves that need less space and tolerate frost: Artichoke Agave (A. parryi), Blue Weber Agave (A. tequilana), and the ubiquitous Century Plant (A. americana). Some others, like ‘Sharkskin’ and ‘Blue Glow’ might be worth a try, although they probably tolerate frost less well and would need perfect drainage.
Agave history
Food. Agave leaves are used for pit roasting barbacoa, along with avocado leaves. Not all agaves leaves (nor avocado leaves) are edible, so check your species before doing this. Agave salmiana leaves are supposed to be good for this – one of the reasons we got this plant. You take marinated lamb, wrap it in avocado leaves, layer it in agave (maguey) leaves, cover it and braise slowly. There are lots of recipes online, and you can substitue other things for lamb to create something new and hopefully tasty.
Drink. These plants have been domesticated for thousands of years. A. salmiana’s other name is pulque agave, since when it’s ready you get some excellent pulque out of the plant by fermenting its juice when it’s ready to flower. Other agaves – magueys – are the souce of tequila (if they’re weberi grown in the approved area of Mexico) and mezcal, which allows more species from more regions. You can indeed buy Mezcal made from salmiana agaves – although I haven’t tried it yet.
Well, it’s early for Sacramento. Probably not so much for elsewhere in the country. What’s even more unusual is that the rain actually wet things, soaked them even. It ran off the roof, chased the cat indoors. Summer rains here normally drip a few drops and move on. Just enough rain to put spots on cars parked in lots, but that’s it. No actual benefits, like watering plants. Hopefully this storm was enough to end any potential dangerous fire season, too.
How do you know those marvelous promises about a plant are true? That slick-talking bloke had you barking up the wrong tree in the past, so where is the truth? At UC Davis, in the plant testing field! They test selected plants, using high, medium and low water use. The truth is out there, in that field, and it’s plain for all to see what grows and what blows.
Clipboard in hand, I joined a number of other designers, master gardeners and nursery people to evaluate selected plants. Plants were rated from 0-5, with 5 being good. The plants were presumably spread across different watering regimes so that when all was said and done, someone would apply some statistical know-how, add it to the results from last spring, and name the best plants.
I have a feeling that my favorites – except perhaps the Vitex – will be selected to move on into the horticultural spotlight of fame and fortune.
My Favorites
Coolvista Dianella
Dianella ‘Coolvista’
Before you ask, no, I don’t know why it’s not “Cool Vista” – it is two words, after all!
In the worst case scenario, these things got watered twice all summer, at 29 day intervals, qualifying them for a low water rating. Some plants got more. but all of them looked about the same. Clean foliage, good structure, and spreading slowly from the base. The blue flowers have come and gone, but the plants are looking great.
Meerlo lavender
Lavandula allardii ‘Meerlo’
At first, when I saw these at a nursery expo in pots, I kinda hated them. They looked pale, anemic and sickly. Their color wasn’t a true gray, but not a real variegated yellow and green either. Nor was it the typical lavender sagey gray. They were kind of yellowish, like something that didn’t take its iron supplements like its mother wanted.
In the field, it’s a whole different story. The plants are lush, full, round and most importantly don’t look yellow and chlorotic.
Vitex ‘Flip Side’
Vitex ‘Flip Side’
A few scruffy flowers remain, leftovers from an explosion of color earlier in the year. Still, the plants look decent for things growing on very little water in a dusty field.
I’m not sure how I’d use these – probably as a summer screen for blue color. Chaste Trees tend to flower just before crape myrtles, although this variety seems to rebloom more than the original species.
These aren’t trees; they’re large deciduous shrubs. The original variety was much more tree-like.
Apparently, dried berries are a favorite medicinal plant for witches. I’d be safe and just admire the flowers in the landscape and skip any thoughts of ingesting the stuff, be I mundane or magical. You never know if you’re allergic, nor what the potency might be.
Marvel Mahonia
Mahonia x media ‘Marvel
Was this the late Stan Lee’s favorite shrub? Maybe. When it flowers, it’s definitely suitable for a comic book, one with a character who looks like an upside-down offspring of Big Bird and a shaggy yellow octopus. I’m sure the nursery catalogs have alternate descriptions.
This plant likes shade, or partial shade. It’s evergreen, a bit spiny, full, upright and although they’re just beginning to bud, the flowers are a treat for winter eyes.
I don’t know if rabbits find this a delicacy as they do Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’, but these plants were unchewed at the test garden.
Grevillea ‘Kings Fire’
Big favorite, but… watch out below 25°!
This is Grevillea ‘Kings Fire’. It’s covered with bees, hummingbirds would probably love it, it’s evergreen, colorful, makes an awesome screen…
… but it might freeze to death below 25° F. At 20° it’s almost certainly a goner. Too bad, since our garden can drop to 20°F or even lower.
I love grevilleas, but…
These plants come from generally low-frost Australia. They don’t tolerate phosphorus, something included in about every fertilizer on the planet. They want good drainage. We tend to have none of these conditions.
Grevilleas come in all shapes and sizes, their only similarity being the uniquely shaped flowers.
My favorite grevillea is probably G. lavandulacea ‘Tanunda’. It’s a low gray mound with incredible hummingbird magnet coral flowers that combines incredibly well with Spanish lavender. I used to admire these when I worked as a student intern at the UC Santa Cruz arboretum. Alas, unless you’re growing them in phosphate free sand, they die. They don’t live long in any case, but not to worry since it seems nobody sells them any more.
I have killed a number of grevilleas, even the “sure thing” types like ‘Noellii’. They either turn black (oops! Phosphorus in the soil) or gradually inch downward into death and decay.
‘King’s Fire’ might be a close second to ‘Tanunda’, although it looks nothing like it. I used to like ‘Boongala Spinebill’ too, even though it was a huge spiny monster, even bigger than ‘Kings Fire’.
These plants are absolute bee magnets. It was almost impossible to get a photo without at least one bee in the flowers. Not that I was trying for a bee-less shot, and they were simple honeybees going about their business. It’s supposed to attract hummingbirds, too – and considering the hummingbirds at UCSC, it probably does, elsewhere.
Good rose, messy rose
Rosa ‘Brick House’
Brick House Rose
This was my favorite rose, although once I read the name I had to dance some Commodores music to get it out of my system.
It’s a good red with neat foliage, seems to tolerate low water reasonably well and has a good, compact form.
Rosa ‘White Knock Out’
White Knock Out Rose
It does have beautiful flowers. The old petals, not so much. They hang on the plant like sad, brown, used handkerchiefs instead of dropping cleanly like the petals on ‘Brick House’. So instead of a white and green compact shrub rose, I get something that looks like it needs a lot more maintenance.
Everything else
Hamelia patens ‘Sierra Red’
‘Hugster Blue’ buddleia
Distylium ‘Vintage Jade’
Muhlenbergia capillaris, unhappy
Drip irrigation system
Buddleia ‘Hugster Blue’ discovery plant – not evaluated
I suppose the most successful plant in this batch is ‘Hugster Blue’ buddleia. It also has the dumbest name. I didn’t want to hug it, and worse – it’s not even blue! It’s a nice violet, but no non-daltonien artiste would call it ‘bleu’!
Hugster also sounds like a brand of diapers. So, in the interest of literary, too-late attempts at better plant names (it’s already patented), here are my alternates, hopefully more memorable and accurate names:
purple paradise
imperial purple
After sunset (yeah, it can be purple, never blue. Too poetic?)
purple turtle (where did that come from?)
Cobalt Violet
Hamelia patens ‘Sierra Red’ discovery plant – not evaluated
The Hamelia has great flowers. The leaves would be beautiful and lush, probably if we were in Oaxaca or somewhere far south of here. I looked it up online, and although our plants’ flowers were nice, the lush leafiness just wasn’t there. Still, they were alive, compact, and flower now, when not much else is in bloom.
A bit of research on the Internet says this thing will freeze to the ground, but eventually emerge inverse sphinx-like when things get warm again. Another plant that would probably rather be in Oaxaca having some mole and shots of Mezcal, where it’s warm in the winter.
Distylium ‘Vintage Jade’ shade section
The Distylium ‘Vintage Jade’ looks like it could be a decent foundation shrub for part shade. It doesn’t seem to do much with flowers, reinforcing its use as an evergreen foundation plant to mix with more colorful nandina and perhaps sarcococca.
The great thing with low-growing, boring, evergreen plants is that they make everything else look good. They’re also neat and hopefully require little maintenance. It’s kind of like using gray in an artwork to make the colors pop around it.
Muhlenbergia capillaris not evaluated
The Pink Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris) just was not camping happily. The illustration above is the best looking plant in the place. The others looked more like twigs of imminent death. Certainly none of them boasted the cloudlike pink plumes they’re known for elsewhere.
This echoes our experience with this variety of grass, except that their plants, even moribund, look better than ours. Our plants appear completely dead. They might have three or maybe even five spindly leaves sticking up from masses of brown twigs.
Result of all this: don’t specify M. Capillaris if you’re in the Central Valley. Use Muhlenbergia rigens if you want your muhly grass to thrive (native, but looks different, or M. dubia, which looks like a smaller rigens.
A possible alternate is Muhlenbergia reverchonii, Rose Muhly (or Seep Muhly). If I can ever find it, that is. It looks like a beautiful grass, like M. Capillaris but more compact with deeper color (?)
About Irrigation
When to water?
The facility uses ET (evapotranspiration) data from a nearby weather station to determine when to water. They use their own calculations, since this is science. They can’t just turn on an internet connected irrigation controller and let it go, since nobody would know if things went wrong until it was too late and the experiment was muddied.
Water is applied when the soil water reaches 50% of its holding capacity. This is dry! This year it translated to watering three times over the summer at 29 day intervals, clay soil, drip irrigation.
They used to water at zero, but some years this meant watering but once in the summer. That’s really dry!
Three lines per bed, three watering regimes
Is that plant on the high, medium or low water use line?
Shhh! I can’t tell you! It’s a secret! You’re supposed to evaluate the plants based solely on their appearance.
I think the raphiolepis and some of the mini crape myrtles were on the low lines, since they looked like death warmed over. So I could have traced their lines and figured it out. But it is what it is, life is short and time is precious. Too precious to run around a field tracing drip lines.
We need accredited facilities like this, since California water laws allow only accredited facilities – not nurseries – to rate plants according to water use.
So, if you’re tired of contributing millions to useless politicians, write that huge check to fund plant trials at accredited universities like UC Davis and UC Irvine (great zot!).
There’s a list, called WUCOLS (yeah, someone at the State must have named it) – but it’s often woefully behind what’s currently available. For example, mat rush – Lomandra – everyone’s favorite grass-like plant, is still listed as unknown for water use in Sacramento. If it weren’t for plant trials, we could not legally use this plant, even though it’s one of the best choices for our region. (to be fair, it’s listed as “low” in Irvine).
The house had been remodeled into something wonderful, but the exterior spaces needed some love. They’ll be getting it soon. The main themes are swimming, vegetables and living spaces for people, and habitat for hummingbirds and butterflies for nature. The problems are leaking pipes from an irrigation station and possibly from the water supply to a demolished pool. But first, a concept…
The pool
The pool will nestle along the side where it’s visible from the house, without following a formal axis. A raised planter overflowing with lush grassy plants will back the pool, allowing placement of ornamental scuppers.
The gardens
Although there will be raised beds to produce abundant crops of heirloom tomatoes, peppers, squash and other produce, edible plants will weave through the design. A row of citrus trees will screen views, perennial herbs will mingle with water conserving plants.
Front yard
The driveway is wide, and as things are now it almost invites visitors to drive up to the front door: everything is gray concrete, with no sense of arrival as people reach the front door.
The new design modulates the width of the driveway, still allowing one car to be parked to the side and full access to the garage.
We added a new node and path to the front door, toned down the doors to the water heater, and added screen walls so waste receptacles will be hidden yet accessible (right now they park in front of the garage door).
Theme
The house has a kind of staggered geometric pattern, with lots of zigzags. So, let’s have fun with the landscape design and echo these progressions. We propose cutting the existing concrete slabs into four pieces each, then doing a kind of gradient between the slabs and some lawn.
Recovering the slabs is a bit experimental, since some are slippery when wet and all have some degree of reddish stain or paint. Hopefully both these issues can be mitigated by sandblasting. If all goes well, we’ll have non-slip concrete pads with an interesting finish. If not, they’ll still be ugly and we’ll have to find another solution.
The home gets a bit better every year, as old fixtures give way to modern comforts, like hot water. Outside, the mill pond glistens, the choking vegetation removed, the mill races restored, even though there’s no mill. But… maybe it could be even better…
Site concept
This concept blocks access to the pond from the street, or at least discourages it. Outdoor spaces now feature a gathering area with views to the pond and a dining area, about where it is now.
The weather in the Vosges is often rainy, making everything emerald green, but also making outdoor dining something to cherish when the weather is fine. So a gathering area with built-in seating lets everyone go out for a glass of edelzwicker or crémant d’Alsace and a bite of pâté lorrain without having to set up a formal table. If the rain arrives, it’s back to the cozy house.
The dining area gets nicer surfacing – floating treated wood pavers – and a solid safety rail to keep anyone from plunging 3 meters to the ground, or worse.
New plantings all around, a level lawn and a deck over the pond add to the fun. The pond deck also has built-in seating, making it a relaxing place to hang out, perhaps with a nice Gilg Vendange tardive Gewürztraminer, à crisp Riesling or even some rouge d’Ottrott.
Today, Annette grabbed her iPad and jumped into a design, taking notes, sketching and finally creating a schematic site plan. Mike shot measurements with a laser rangefinder, created a base plan and beamed it to Annette, who then went a bit wild. You might call it a gyre, a circling over of what she learned all those many years ago in ESAJ, her design school in Paris. During Annette’s time there, things were much more colorful, not so concerned with strict delineation and true color representation as now. Does it look a bit flourescent? Is it landscape architecture or pure art? Well, I’m not the one to ask, since I think it’s both!
The current landscape illustration practice has a computer generating everything from a 3D model. That will be fine later on, when the design is more set, major decisions made and questions move from arrangement of spaces and feature lists to choices of materials, form and style.
Although it looks more like a fauvist work of art, it does depict proposed changes to the site, in a very schematic and conceptual way that will likely never be confused with a tightly drawn, buildable site plan. But this is exactly its mission: stir up ideas, create discussion as to what exactly this place should be. How should it work? How should things relate to each other? These are things that start discussion and lead to ideas that can be implemented in a less… fantastic way.
It’s for the owner to get her own interpretation
Annette
All things considered, Annette added that indeed, this was her first “throw” at doing something like this on the iPad. The beginning of a journey.
She does like that she can go totally wild with color – as she said, maybe she had a bit too much fun with color before she traced out the design.
Who can say, when a conceptual plan could hang in a fine art museum next to something much less practical.
The drawing, after all, is not an end in itself. Something a piece of pure fine art would never admit!
The really great thing about this style of illustration is that it’s done by a human, using non-representational color to convey feeling and energy.
The really great thing about this style of illustration is that it’s done by a human, using non-representational color to convey feeling and energy.
All is well, after some stormy passages where it looked like this blog was heading for Davey Jones’ locker! This started with a simple message about old, slow PHP. Then I noticed I could use SSL and get rid of the scary browser messages about being a potential threat to humanity. Too bad clicking that button caused a bad redirect for the entire web site. Chaos!
The A record is re-pointed to the correct IP, the incompatible CDN is gone, a plug-in running amok is deactivated, SSL reinstalled, propagated, and all is well. The post images are back (make page sticky et voilà!), the site now has a static home page and dynamic journal page. And it’s all been converted to WP 5.x block formatting from classic.
After all that, I kept going. Issues with the previous theme requiring sticky posts for images (really!). So, new theme, new static landing page, new menu structure and widgets. More control over graphic design, too.
Hope everyone likes the changes!
Yes, this stuff is really for geeks!
The more you look, the more complicated everything gets, the thicker the jargon – and worse: the more bugs and UI glitches crawl out of the cyberspace woodwork!
We just completed plans for two projects: one urban front yard upgrade, the other a large estate. Both were fun to work on, and we’re waiting for them to be built and watch their owners enjoy them
Suburban landscape
A new pool, spa, sunken patio and lots of entertainment space for outdoor living at its best
Planting Plan
This is quite an avant garden: a tapestry of grasses and grass-like plants of different colors interweave with low flowering plants. Quite contemporary!
Layout Plan
This project is primarily designed for outdoor living. Other than the pool, it’s water conserving (the lawn is synthetic). It’s a view lot, so everything is low, things that move in the wind, harmony preserved with similar shapes. There are some flowers for accents – but the real plant stars of this project are the meadows. This being said, the main attraction will be the hardscape, with its numerous interlinked patios, circulation, view areas and sitting areas. Not to mention the pool and spa!
This is a modern, contemporary design: concrete is natural color with a broom finish, the option with the least amount of maintenance – with some accents of integral color concrete with the same finish. Colors are understated, like the plants: grays, light earth tones, greens, blue-greens and yellow greens. Mostly.
There are a few color accents, because having things pop out of the foliage from time to time keeps the garden interesting. For this reason, there are California fuchsias sages and aloes to attract hummingbirds.
The owner likes to cook, too. She’ll now have a raised bed for growing herbs like basil and parsley, maybe thyme. There’s a line of spice islands rosemary, a very fragrant variety with nice straight stems for skewers. There’s lots of sage, and a bay laurel hedge so she’ll never have to buy bay leaves again. That’s bay, thyme, parsley… add carrot, onion, celery and black pepper for bouquet garni, a base for French stocks (and a lot of Italian ones, too).
Urban Craftsman front yard
The Craftsman house’s main feature as you arrive is the staircase. It’s getting new handrails (the old ones were galvanized pipe!), bullnose brick and riser accent tiles for a more polished look.
Layout Plan
The urban front yard uses all California native plants, although none are strictly speaking native to Sacramento. Since it’s a shady site with limited space, the plants will be a bit of an experiment. How much shade will they tolerate, and how much water will they prefer?
Stair Detail
It looks simple, but we’re eliminating a badly placed step. The only way to do this is to redo all the steps to the porch – otherwise water would puddle at the base of the added first step!
The current stairs are cracked terrazzo, not very interesting and not very Craftsman either – flanked by brick walls with missing caps. The current bricks are all one color, too. All this will transform into more Craftsman like medium ironspot bullnose brick caps and treads to accent the existing standard brick. Matte tiles at the risers will bring another level of detail, to echo the white tiles used in the kitchen.
The dogs will be safer, protected by a new fence and wide gate. The fence will be simple steel: more transparent than classic Craftsman but also lighter and not as stocky.
It typically takes three years for things to grow in enough to look like the intended design. Some things, like slow-growing trees, take longer.
We had plans to deliver, so they went first. But in the name of mixing subjects, I’m posting the watercolors first. It breaks up the constant flow of landscape drawings with Something Different. Besides, techniques used in watercolors transfer very well into techniques for rendering landscape illustrations
The paintings were done on cold press watercolor paper using synthetic brushes of various types.
Some people use traditional sable brushes (another word for “mink”. Since these were paint brushes, I hoped that they just kept the minks in a nice warm home and shaved them for the fur from time to time. Then I thought, “not likely!”.
Apologies to all computer geeks, but an Apple Pencil cannot replace paper, a brush and the act of mixing water and pigments. The feel is lost, digital brushes don’t really simulate real brushes, and watercolors self organize into wonderful things if guided correctly. They move, they granulate, they create textures, they evolve from wet to dry.
That’s too much to ask for a couple of APIs and some subroutines! Although I use an iPad for illustration, none of the apps I’ve found really looks and feels like watercolor.
One more thing…
If you’re following our art blog, this will look familiar. Only the text was changed.
