Posted on by tonytomeo · 18 Comments

Herbs Add Spice To Life

80207thumbOut in deserts, where vegetation can be a scarce commodity, cacti, agaves and yuccas protect themselves from grazing animals with thorns, spines, caustic sap and distastefully textured foliage. None of these defense mechanisms is perfect. They only need to be better than what the competing specie are using. Many plants find that objectionable flavor and aroma work just fine for them.

The funny thing about the objectionable flavors and aromas that some plants use to discourage grazing animals from eating them, is that these same flavors and aromas are what make so many of them appealing to people. It is ironic that what was supposed to make them distasteful to some is what makes them tasty to others. Yet, it also gets us to perpetuate them in our home gardens.

Mint, thyme, lavender, rosemary and sage, which all happen to be in the same family, are culinary herbs that also work well in the landscape. The mints need the most watering, and containment if their innate invasiveness is a concern. Thymes need less water, and some are nicely aromatic ground cover for small areas. Lavenders and rosemaries can survive with minimal watering here.

Both rosemary and sage are popular for landscaping anyway. Rosemary is most commonly grown as a ground cover that cascades nicely over low retaining walls, but some cultivars are shrubby. Sages are extremely variable. Some are showier than they are useful in the kitchen, with elegant and colorful flower spikes. Others are too strongly aromatic to cook with, but are used as incense.

Fennel and chamomile are often grown in vegetable gardens rather than out in the more refined parts of the landscape because they can get somewhat awkward. Fennel has such nice feathery foliage at first, but if not harvested, it gets tall, and then yellows after bloom. Chamomile gets tall and open in bloom, and then no one wants to ruin it by harvesting all the flowers if it looks too good. Chives are easier to work with. They have so many leaves that no one misses a few taken for the kitchen.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Brent is still an Idiot!

 

That is irrelevant here though. These are pictures of one of my ‘gardens’ in Brookdale, for comparison to pictures from the Jungalow. The pictures are no better than those of the Jungalow. ( https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2018/01/28/brent-is-an-idiot/ ) There is nothing to show anyway. It is just a forested vacant lot on Melwin Avenue. I have no pictures of the lower vacant lot on Logan Avenue where I grow my fig trees, berries, quince tree, rhubarb and a few other odds and ends. There is no landscape there either. It is just a vacant lot where I grow a few odd plants that I do not want to plant in riskier situations, where they might be in the way of other development or gardening. The fig trees can not produce good fruit in such cool shade, but will likely make plenty of cuttings for new trees elsewhere. Perhaps someday, I will have better pictures of a home garden, or at least pictures from the farm, rather than pictures from here or gardens of clients. What the pictures show quite well is the differences between Brent’s Jungalow and my unlandscaped ‘garden’.

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This is Melwin Avenue to the south and uphill. The ‘garden’ is out of view to the right.

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This is Melwin Avenue to the north and downhill. The ‘garden’ is out of view to the left. One of the big redwoods in the middle in the distance is on the corner of Logan Avenue, which is the corner of the other ‘garden’ The fuzzy tan person to the lower left is Bill.

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These tall coastal redwoods above are why the ‘garden’ is too dark to do much with.

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This is looking west and uphill into the ‘garden’ the circle of redwoods is bigger than it looks. Some of the larger trunks are about five feet wide. There is enough timber in them to build a house.

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The redwoods on the left are next door. The single redwood on the right is just inside the ‘garden’. Not much sunlight gets through.

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These redwoods are across the street to the east. They too are bigger than they look here.

Besides showing how different my garden is from the Jungalow, these pictures should demonstrate why I do not show pictures of my own garden. There just is not much to show. My clients’ gardens are much more interesting.

Brent is still an idiot.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 20 Comments

Brent is an Idiot!

 

He might be the best landscape designer in West Hollywood, but he is an idiot nonetheless. Besides that, he takes worthless pictures. That is why I do not have any good pictures of his Mid City Los Angeles Jungalow garden to post. I will share a few of what I have, but they really do not show it off like it should be. ( https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2018/01/28/dreamscape-at-the-jungalow/ )

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Of course, the prettiest thing in the Jungalow garden is Grace, my niece. This is an old picture. She is learning to drive now! Oh my! She gets here cuteness from her mother; and she looks more like both of her grandmothers than her parents.

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She is adorable and knows how to use it.

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This ‘Charles Grimaldi’ Angel’s trumpet is the same one that provided the flowers for an illustration in Sunset – Western Garden Book, although I do not remember in which year.

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This Bismarkia palm was supposed to be sent to my garden, but like so many plants that are to be sent to my garden, Brent killed it first. Brent is an idiot!

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Brent recycled this Mexican fan palm and installed it at the curb in front of the Jungalow as a memorial tree when his brother Brian passed away a few years ago. It is quite tall now, and from the Santa Monica Freeway, it can be seen standing above the other foliage crowding the Jungalow.

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This is one of seven (!) queen palms at the Jungalow.

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This very fragrant pink jasmine climbs to the top of the hedge to the south of the Jungalow and blooms every winter. It gets cut down afterward, and starts the climb over again. Unfortunately, there is a serious problem with an objectionable aroma of a herd of feral cats next door. (That might be a topic for later.)

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Beanie is a good dog who deserves to live with someone who is not such an idiot. The lawn is artificial turf that was installed as a demo for clients. The strangler fig wall in the background is the old garage that was converted to Brent’s office, with the upper deck on the roof. That is where I sleep when I need to go to Southern California. Brent does not like me sleeping on the upper deck, but he is an idiot. I like it up there because the dogs are not so bothersome. The blue wall on the south side of the deck obscures the noise from the Santa Monica Freeway, as well as the view of the backyard and home next door. The foliage above the deck is the neighbor’s avocado tree that I wrote about earlier.

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This is a dwarf pampas grass in the parkstrip. The facade of the home is in the background.

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This is the facade of the home, barely visible behind all the foliage. I could never understand why Brent wants to obscure such a cute bungalow. He is an idiot. However, he is also the landscape designer. The door is actually a gate that was added to the arch over the porch. The front door is behind it. To the left, there is a small porch that is open above, with a low wall in front. Brent added some ornamental iron to enclose the space. It is quite nice how it all worked out, even though Brent is an idiot.

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This is the street out front, shaded by all the tipu trees that Brent planted. Brent has been planting street trees on other street in the neighborhood for twenty years. We started doing it on January 18, 1998! This is an old picture. The trees are bigger now, although some of the neighbors have cut some down. Apparently, Brent is not the only idiot.

Now, I will try to find some pictures of my garden for comparison.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 15 Comments

Dreamscape at the Jungalow

B80128The Jungalow is my colleague Brent’s bungalow home, surrounded by a jungle of a landscape, just about a block off of the Santa Monica Freeway in Mid City Los Angles.

This picture very effectively illustrates that Brent has no business taking pictures . . . and that he should have had a V-8.

The landscape really is spectacular though. You might have seen bits and pieces of it in Sunset Magazine or other horticultural magazines. Pictures of specific flowers and plants were used to illustrate the Sunset – Western Garden Book.

Brent likes his garden to be spectacular. He uses it to trial a few plants before using them at the homes of clients, and to demonstrate how effectively his home garden functions as a lush jungle oasis in the middle of the city. The dense hedging obscures views of neighboring homes, and muffles the sound of the Santa Monica Freeway and La Brea Avenue. Fountains obscure more of whatever outside noise that happens to get through. Although the situation is completely synthetic, and includes species that were imported from all over the World, to be pruned, groomed and trained to do unnatural things, Brent likes to think that it mimics nature. The straight lines, square corners and flat surface of the compact urban lot are invisible behind curvacious borders, terraces, lush foliage and sculptural trees. There is way too much material for such a compact space. It is all so completely contrary to the big city that surrounds it.

Three hundred and fifty miles to the northwest, on acreage in the forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains above Los Gatos, my garden could not have been more opposite. Despite the abundance of more space than I could possibly use, the area used for gardening was quite confined to less than an eighth of an acre. The hilly terrain was flattened as much as possible, and surrounded with straight retaining walls and walkways. Native vegetation was removed to allow more sunlight through. There was no need for hedging because there was nothing beyond the garden to obscure the view of. There was no need for fountains to obscure outside noise because the only outside noise was that of Zayante Creek at the bottom of the garden. For efficiency, plants were installed in rows and grids, and very evenly spaced. It was completely contrary to the surrounding forest.

That is why Brent is a landscape designer and I am just a horticulturist and nurseryman. Who is right? I am.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 17 Comments

Six on Saturday: Town Tree and Town Flower for the Kitty City

P80124I just can not resist; although I do not intend to make a habit of this.

I know I am sending this late, and that it is already Sunday east of India. It is still before noon on Saturday here. These pictures are not mine, but were used as illustrations for the selection of a town tree and a town flower for Los Gatos. There were more, but these are my six favorites; four trees and three flowers. I know that sounds like seven instead of six, but that is only because apricot can be either the town tree ‘or’ the town flower. Selection is limited to specie that are either native, or of cultural significance. The three trees besides apricot are native here, where the Santa Cruz Mountains meet the Santa Clara Valley, and the Los Gatos Creek forms a small alluvial plain. Apricot trees, which bloom with apricot ‘flowers’ were the main orchard crop here longer than anyone can remember, until only a few decades ago. Arroyo lupine is native on the alluvial plain of the Los Gatos Creek; and cat tails are native to the marsh surrounding Los Gatos Creek.

1 – California sycamorePLATANUSRACEMOSA

2 – valley oakQUERCUSLOBATA

3 – coast live oakQUERCUSAGRIFOLIA

4 – apricotPRUNUSARMENIACA

5 – arroyo lupineLUPINUSSUCCULENTUS

6 – cat tailTYPHALATIFOLIA

Cat tail would be my favorite choice for the town flower because this is the town of the Cats. Apricot would be my second favorite flower, only because cat tail is so appropriate, and also because apricot is my favorite for the town tree (and we can not have it do double duty). coast live oak is my second favorite for the town tree because it is native to both the Santa Clara Valley ‘and’ the Santa Cruz Mountains.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:

https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

Posted on by tonytomeo · 23 Comments

CAUTION!

P80127Halston was quite the rage when I was a little tyke.

I did not know exactly what that meant.

I can remember elegant ladies wearing Halston pill box hats. From the back seat of the new 1967 Chevelle, I could admire my Mother’s, while my younger brother on the other side of the car got tangled in our flower child Aunt’s abundant and long hair blowing in the wind.

Although I had never seen a Halston before, I could determine from hats made from them that they were soft, fuzzy and cylindrical. I knew that apricots, walnuts and oranges grew on trees, so I would sometimes look into unfamiliar trees, including the silk oaks next door, to see if I could see Halstons ripening in them.

My older sister eventually explained that Halston was they guy who made the hats. He was very busy. His hats were very popular. Apparently, he made the hats from coats formerly worn by small rodents known as minks. The minks were not really plumply cylindrical. In fact, they were so small that the coats of several of them were sewn together to make each hat. The thought of so many small rodents scurrying about naked until they got new coats was quite disturbing. It made me ponder the origin of the cuddly stole that Redd Foxx gave to Aunt Mary.

I certainly did not believe everything that my sister told me. Heck, she once tried to tell me that the dead bugs in Aunt Mary’s amber jewelry were trapped in tree sap millions of years ago. I know cheap Lego plastic when I see it. However, I do believe that fur obtained from animals lost popularity through the 1970s. The minks must have protested or something. My sister got a stylish coat with a furry collar made of imitation fur. Splendid; so now little kids will be cuddling naked teddy bears!

I have a better idea.

The pelts of all those nasty gophers that ruin lawns and gardens could be recycled into pill box hats . . . or maybe something more appropriate to modern fashion. Perhaps they could be sewn into reusable grocery bags. What an exquisitely stylish expression of environmental awareness that would be! Because gophers get killed when trapped, they could not protest the use of their pelts later.

Using gopher pelts in this manner would:

Protect our lawns, gardens, landscapes and green spaces from environmental annihilation

Recycle by-products of environmental protection

Provide stylish accessories that express our concern for environmental stewardship

Promote the use of materials that are completely organic, natural, non-toxic, biodegradable, sustainable and very renewable

Help save the Planet!

We only need to learn to be more efficient with trapping. What is the point of setting traps if gophers are warned to ‘KEEP AWAY’?

Posted on by tonytomeo · 2 Comments

Brachyscome

70125Most of the brachyscome found in nurseries nowadays are the annual Brachyscome iberidifolia. Perennial species are rare. The name is still often spelled as ‘brachycome’, without the ‘s’, as it had been spelled for decades. Although it is a warm season annual, brachyscome is also popular now because it can bloom better through the locally mild winters than the warmth of mid summer.

The blue, lavender, pink, yellow or pale white flowers are like tiny aster flowers. The finely textured foliage forms soft mounds about a foot deep, or mixes nicely with sturdier plants. Brachyscome might work better as a component to urns of mixed annuals rather than as a uniform bedding plant. It likes full sun exposure, but tolerates a bit of shade. Deadheading promotes continued bloom.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 9 Comments

Rain Is Necessary But Messy

10914Water is no more scarce in California than it has been in recorded history. The problem with it is that it is a limited resource that must be shared amongst too many people. Likewise, rainstorms are no more torrential than they have ever been. Floods, erosion and wind are only more destructive now because there is so much more infrastructure that can be damaged than ever before.

Rain and wind are perfectly natural. Furthermore, it is natural for the weather to knock down limbs or entire trees. It only seems unnatural when these limbs or trees fall on houses, cars or anything else that gets in their way. Plants actually enjoy rainy weather much more than we do. Some like to be rinsed of dust and debris left from former infestations of mites, aphid, scale or sooty mold.

What plants do not like about rain is erosion. It is bad enough that so many plants in refined gardens are deprived of their own litter to insulate the surface of the soil. It is even worse if the bare soil gets eroded away from fine feeder roots at the surface of the soil. This is something that the rest of us would agree on. We do not want gullies carved into slopes, or drains clogged with mud.

Trees, shrubs and some stout perennials with aggressive roots are useful where the potential for major erosion is a concern, but might not do much for annoying surface erosion. Sprawling and spreading plants that form dense networks of low branches and surface roots are more effective. They soften the splatter of rain, slow the flow of drainage, and catch much of any dislodged silt.

Groundcover plants like ivy, gazania and iceplant are probably the best option for controlling surface erosion. Dense and low shrubbery that spreads over the ground and holds its own debris probably work just as well. These include low junipers, trailing rosemary and dwarf coyote brush. Larger shrubbery can help if it can drag its lowest limbs on the ground, and no one rakes below it.

Mulching limits erosion while new plants grow. Although new mulch needs to be added annually as old mulch decomposes, less will be necessary as plants grow and cover more area. Mulch is also effective where no plants are desired. For large areas, especially where plants are not expected to fill in, landscape cloth below ornamental bark inhibits weeds. However, coarse bark slowly shifts downhill, so replaces one kind of erosion with another, and will eventually need to be raked back uphill.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Kitty City

P80124Los Gatos is named after bobcats. More specifically, it is named after an interchange that was named after bobcats; La Rinconada De Los Gatos. There are a few theories about how and why it was named after bobcats. The most popularly accepted theory involved the remarkably violent demise of everyone involved, leaving no one to document it as accurately is it has been repeated for generations. Don’t question it if you ever hear it. It is quite entertaining. I prefer to think that we do not need an elaborate excuse for naming our town after native wildlife. The bobcats were here. People noticed them. BINGO – La Rinconada De Los Gatos.

Regardless and contrary to what my colleague Brent would tell you, ‘Los Gatos’ does not mean ‘The Ghettos’ in Spanish.

Other towns in California have horticultural names. Some are named for horticultural commodities that were grown there. Others are named for native flora. Some are named after native flora that was harvested as a horticultural commodity!

Apple Valley, Citrus Heights, Greenfield, Lemon Grove, Orange, Orange Cove, Prunedale, Rosemead, Roseville and Wheatland might have been named after what was grown there commercially, although Orange was probably a recycled name from somewhere else. Calabasas is a Spanish name for pumpkins that were grown there. Hesperia is derived from citrus.

Del Rey Oaks, Live Oak, Oakdale, Oakland, Oakley and Thousand Oaks were probably named for the native oaks that grew there naturally. Paso Robles was named El Paso De Los Robles, and Roble is the Spanish name for the valley oak. Encino is the Spanish name for coast live oak, and a few small ones are Encinitas.

La Palma, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Palmdale and Twenty Nine Palms are obviously named for palms, both the native desert palm and exotic palms. Yucca Valley is of course named for the native specie of yucca. Cypress, Hawthorne, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Walnut, Walnut Creek, Willow Glen and Willows should be easy to figure out, although some are not as obvious as they would seem to be.

Redwood City was probably named for the mills that processed redwood lumber there, rather than the trees.; just like Mill Valley. Madera translates into wood; and Corte Madera is a place to cut wood. Palo Alto translates to something like ‘high stick’, but was really derived from a tired old redwood tree with a dead top. Fresno translates into ash tree.

Bell Gardens, Bellflowers, Cloverdale, Elk Grove, Ferndale, Garden Grove, Gardena, Grass Valley, Hawaiian Gardens, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Larkspur, Lawndale, Pacific Grove, Tulelake, Woodland, Woodlake and Woodside are open to interpretation. Then there is Weed. After all, this is California.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 16 Comments

Kumquat

80131Tet, on February 16, will be the Vietnamese New Year’s Day for the Year of the Dog! Any year associated with the dog must be pretty excellent. Anyway, potted and fruited kumquat trees are very traditional decorations for Tet. Although less popular than orange and lemon trees, they are the most compact of the citrus trees, so are therefore the most adaptable to compact home gardens.

They grow slowly and may never reach first floor eaves. The evergreen leaves are a bit thicker, smaller and darker green than those of Mandarin orange. Stems are mostly thornless. The compact growth is quite symmetrical, so might only occasionally need to be trimmed for a stray stem here and there. Clusters of small white flowers bloom about the time the last of the fruit gets harvested.

Kumquat has the distinction of being the ‘other’ citrus. Although the genus is alternatively known as Citrus, experts know it as Fortunella. Those with round fruit are Fortunella japonica. Those with oval fruit are Fortunella marginata. The abundant fruits are not much bigger than big grapes, and are eaten whole, with the seeds spit out. The tart pulp with the sweet skin is a tangy combination.