native news fall / winter 2008

Hello friends,

With this week's refreshing rains it feels like fall has truly begun and I know I am looking forward to the cooler months ahead. Autumn in Los Angeles may not be as dramatic as it is further north, but we have our own welcome -- if subtle -- seasonal changes. 

It all seems to start with the appearance of orb-weaver spiders (pictured at left) throughout the garden. At some point the hot, dry Santa Ana winds blow through, shaking down leaves and limbs and -- if you will -- doing nature's pruning. Then there are fall colors indigenous to Southern California, like the dried flowers on buckwheats (pictured below). Their rusty red-browns may not be flashy, but they provide authentic seasonal color just the same. And as western sycamores, bigleaf maples and other winter-deciduous trees shed their leaves, I begin to hope that more storms will come soon, bringing a much-needed respite from the dusty summer dry.

While we're waiting for the rains to begin in earnest, we can use this season to plan and plant our gardens, sow wildflower seeds, and finish any pruning of summer-dormant plants that we have not yet trimmed before their new growth begins.

If you're looking for more garden inspiration and fun, check out our local garden events calendar on this blog (hopefully coming soon to the website as well), and definitely don't miss this great article on Sunset magazine's website in defense of gardening with natives. I thought it was especially inspiring to read at this time of year when some natives in our gardens and in our wildlands, dormant to survive our tough summers, look -- ahem -- a bit bedraggled.

If you'd like a little help planning and planting your garden, if you'd like a lot of help planning and planting your garden, if you need a garden "tune-up," or if you'd like help adding natives to your existing garden, we'd love to hear from you -- email info@nativespacesdesign.com or call 310.737.4740 to schedule a consultation. 

In the meantime keep your fingers crossed for more rain!

Cheers!

 -- keegan @ native spaces garden design

roger's red grapevine

Here is one plant we native gardeners can rely on to turn a satisfying crimson in the fall: Vitis californica 'Roger's Red.' Provide a structure for this rambling vine to climb, such as an arbor, a trellis, or a fence -- and be prepared for vigorous growth!  Roger's Red grapevine can be grown in sun or shade, and produces tart fruits that ripen in late summer. 

Other California natives with colorful fall foliage include Acer macrophyllum (bigleaf maple), Populus fremontii (Fremont cottonwood), Western redbud (Cercis occidentalis) and creek dogwood (Cornus sericea). Those of you who garden further inland will, in general, get more dramatic fall foliage color than those of us who garden on the coast. Roger's Red is an exception to that rule, which makes it of extra value for those who want seasonal drama in their seaside gardens.

sowing the seeds for springtime

Most wildflowers that we sow from seed are annuals. And what exactly are annuals? They are plants that complete their entire life cycle -- germinating, flowering, setting seed, and dying -- in less than a year. I like to think of annuals as commitment-free fun -- you can remove them once they've completed their life cycle, so they don't require the forethought and long-term planning that planting a shrub or a tree does. 

In addition to providing almost-instant gratification by providing a glorious display within a few short months, sowing annual wildflowers can be an effective way to fill the "holes" in a young garden. Are your baby shrubs looking sparse? Toss out some wildflower seed this fall and with a little rain your garden will be full of flowers in the spring. 

And there are more benefits of growing annuals from seed in your garden:

• Wallet-friendly: Growing plants from seed is less expensive than buying the plants from a nursery
  
• Lazy gardener-friendly: No need to dig a hole and carefully transplant your new garden additions. Mix your seeds with some soil to ensure more even distribution, and toss them around, and water them now and again if rains are infrequent or late in coming.
  
• Lazy gardener-friendly again: Many weeds are annuals that take advantage of open places in our gardens. Fill that niche with the wildflowers and they'll provide some competition for the weeds that would otherwise have free rein in that space. 

California poppies are perhaps the most instantly recognizable of California's annual wildflowers, but there are so many others to enjoy; bird's eye gilia is pictured above, and just to mention a few of the more the fancifully-named specimens, you can grow tidy tips, chinese houses, meadowfoam and baby blue eyes in your garden. Experiment and have fun!

 

native news spring / summer 2008

hello friends, 

What a lovely spring we've had -- I love seeing all those apricot-orange monkeyflowers blooming all over the Santa Monica Mountains. The exuberant colors of coastal wildflowers remind me that despite rush hour traffic and urban sprawl, Los Angeles still offers simple joy in its natural beauty. Even as some blooms begin to fade, there are still more many to gain inspiration from -- in the garden, on hikes, and even from the window of a car. Locally, I've been enjoying the bright purple lupines, fragrantly flowering sages, and dudleya in flower on rocky canyon walls. In my own garden, this year's poppies have gone to seed, but the bush sunflower, columbine, and elegant clarkia (pictured above left) are still out in full glory.

Soon rising temperatures will signal an end to the pageant of spring wildflowers. Although I'm always sorry to see the flowers disappear, it will soon be an ideal season to embrace the lazy gardener within. That's right, the delicious laziness that goes hand in hand with summer is actually a virtue if you garden with California native plants! Aside from adding a layer of mulch to keep roots cool in the heat, and some "little sips" of early morning water for the garden, many native landscapes require little attention during the summer. That makes the hottest months from June through September a perfect time to sip a cool drink, kick up your feet, and dream up your ideas for establishing new natives in the fall.

Like many native plants, Native Spaces Garden Design will be dormant during the summer months. We'll be off from mid-June through September germinating plans for fall gardens. We look forward to gardening with you in September. As always, check out our website for garden ideas and inspiration: www.nativespacesdesign.com

Thanks to all of you who stopped by during this spring's garden tours -- I had a great time meeting so many passionate garden enthusiasts.

Cheers! 

 -- keegan @ native spaces garden design

must mulch

If you haven't done so yet, now is the time to add a top layer of mulch to your garden before the summer heats up. Doing so will:

- keep roots cool
- reduce soil moisture loss due to evaporation
- prevent soil erosion
- add an attractive, finished look to your garden

When applying mulch, be sure to leave a few inches of room around the plant's base mulch-free to prevent root rot. 

Mulches come in many varieties so have fun experimenting. Bark chips slowly add nutrients to the soil as they break down, decomposed granite works well in desert-themed gardens, and river pebbles add a zen-influenced aesthetic. 

we love gypsum for our clay soil!

what it is: Calcium sulfate. Gypsum is a soil amendment, not a fertilizer.

benefits: It improves many qualities of the soil it is applied to: it increases water infiltration (and thereby decreases runoff and erosion), allows problem nutrients to be leached away, buffers soil pH, and improves the structure of clay soils. 

how it works: Calcium sulfate makes sodium soluble so it separates from soil particles. Treated soil is "loosened" so that root hairs can feed on all available nutrients and moisture.

how to use it: Follow the manufacturer's guidelines, of course. We like to apply a yearly top dressing of gypsum, and then spread mulch on top of that, and water well.

why we like it: Gypsum is an inexpensive, non-toxic soil amendment that is widely available and is approved by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).

remember: Gypsum is especially helpful for hard clay soils, but it doesn't work overnight. It can take up to three years for full effects to take hold.