A decade of change
Posted on | October 7, 2010 | 3 Comments
I had the honor this week of being a guest speaker before both the California Native Plant Society and Lili Singer’s Garden Talk audience at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. The subject: A decade of gardening, during which time I took my 8,000 square foot lot near downtown Los Angeles from a conventional turf & mow model to a Mediterranean climate/native garden that runs largely on local rainfall and sees power tools only every two years during pruning season. This photo essay captures that progression. My apologies to the CNPS audience, who last Sunday endured a PowerPoint failure. Here, belatedly, are the images. My thanks to Steve Hartman of CNPS, Lili Singer of the Theodore Payne Foundation and Jill Berry, Ted Tegart and Cynthia Vargas of the Arboretum for challenging me to put together this photo diary, then helping it come together. To see the full photo essay, with captions, on Flickr, click here. Behind these photos are a decade’s worth of columns for the Los Angeles Times on gardening and water conservation. To find those articles, click here. Finally, my everlasting thanks to the LA Times editor Jon Thurber for suggesting that I write about a garden that he spotted forming early on, then editors Nancy Yoshihara, Barbara King, Michalene Busico and Craig Nakano, all of whom took a flier in the belief that publishing articles that wouldn’t syndicate because of our unique climate was still an important civic duty. And, hopefully, a good read. At the suggestion of a sharp-eyed reader (comment below), I’m adding this link to the Times article that explains the water-trapping process shown in this photo essay.
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3 Responses to “A decade of change”
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North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
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October 8th, 2010 @ 9:59 am
AWEsome transformation. Like the involvement of children — the plant signs are eye-catching.
For those of us who missed your talk, could you explain the stormwater-capture feature of your yard on the blog?
October 8th, 2010 @ 10:08 am
What a nice comment. Thank you! Here is a link to the LA Times article in which I describe the water capture. http://articles.latimes.com/2006/apr/13/home/hm-water13
October 8th, 2010 @ 10:23 am
What a nice slide show! Your yard is really one to be proud of.