Changing the equation

Posted on | April 26, 2010 | No Comments

Los Angeles garden designer Marilee Kuhlmann was one of eighty homeowners who opened their gardens last weekend for the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase. Photo: Emily Green / Chance of Rain

In so many conventional gardens with lawn and hedges, the equation is:

Water = sprinkler run-off and plant growth = Pacific pollution and mowing and pruning = noise and air pollution = green waste = more noise and air pollution.

Most of us know how destructive it is but have little idea how to change. Last week, the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase in Los Angeles set out to show the way. In what felt less like a garden tour and more like a happening, eighty West Los Angeles homeowners who have taken out turf to create gardens that trap rainwater, produce food and have well-adapted flora opened their homes to the public. Here, the new equation is:

Water = growth = fruit / vegetables / shade followed by dormancy = stasis / leaf fall = soil replenishment / habitat = new growing medium.

Organizers say that people began arriving at noon, even though the tour didn’t begin until 2pm. Click here for photos from the tour.

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